Do you know why smokers quit smoking?

Prof. Know Why answers for your general knowledge and awareness on why smokers quit smoking:

If you are a smoker, you may know that the urge to smoke is contagious, but did you know that quitting the puff is, too? Well, a team of researchers, recently, has found that contagious pattern with smoking cessation. They observed that a smoker is more likely to kick the habit of smoking if a spouse, friend, co-worker or sibling does so.

Moreover, the research showed that smokers tend to quit smoking in groups as those who don't stop puffing, increasingly find themselves pushed to the edge of their social circles.

"Your smoking behavior depends upon not just the smoking behavior of the people you know, but also the people who they know" and so on, said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the new report.

This latest study, by Christakis and his colleague James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, which appeared in New England Journal of Medicine and was funded by the National Institute on Aging, focused on people's smoking habits in the social network.

The findings back up previous studies showing that peer influence plays a key role in smoker's decision to stop smoking and provide evidence that the "buddy system" used by smoking cessation, weight loss and alcoholism programs to change addictive behavior, works.

The researchers examined the social lives of 12,067 people in the Framingham Heart Study, which has been tracking the health of residents of that Boston suburb from 1971 to 2003. They were able to reconstruct people's ties to one another since participants had to list contact information for their family, friends, co-workers and neighbors so researchers would not lose track of them over the years. The prevalence of smokers in the Framingham study over the years mirrored national trends.

Not surprisingly, the greatest influence was seen in close relationships. When a spouse stops smoking, the other partner is 67 percent less likely to smoke. Similarly, when a friend quits smoking, the chance of the other, continuing to smoke, drops by 36 percent. The odds are similar among co-workers and siblings, also.

People who were connected to others by up to three degrees of separation were also influenced. If one person quits smoking, the chance of a person two degrees apart, stopping the smoking habit is 29 percent. In a three-degree separation, the chances are 11 percent.

"One person in the group gets the motivation to quit and it starts to cascade and ripple through the group," said Fowler.

Jill Palmer, 28, was a one-pack-a-day smoker until she checked into a cessation program last year at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she works. She took nicotine gum and worked with a counselor to set a “quit date”. Several days after Palmer went smoke-free, her husband also threw away his last pack. "It was spurred by my timing. He didn't want to be a smoker anymore," said Palmer, who credits her nonsmoking co-workers with persuading her to enroll in the cessation program.

The researchers found, by analyzing random samples of smoking clusters, that whole groups became nonsmokers over time because people who remained smokers found themselves moving to the fringe of their social circles.

So, that says it all, why smokers quit smoking? –They are actually forced to!

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Do you know why yawning is infectious?

Prof. Know Why answers:

Why is yawning infectious? First let’s see how we define a yawn. Yawning can be defined as a sudden, deep inhalation of air accompanied by an open mouth, tightened cheek muscles, eye closure, and tearing. Everybody yawns -from unborn babies to the oldest human being. Animals do it, too. And before you finish reading this, it's likely that you will end up yawning at least once, if not more. Why? I will come to that later.

But, why exactly do people and animals yawn? Science and researches haven’t yet reached a conclusion. But there are several theories or ideas about why people yawn. Here are the few most common theories. One theory says that our bodies induce yawning to draw in more oxygen or remove a build-up of carbon dioxide. According to another theory, which is also the most popular one, yawning is said to be caused by boredom, fatigue or drowsiness. Again there’s a theory which believes, yawning is a protective reflex to redistribute the oil-like substance called surfactant that helps in keeping lungs lubricated inside, saving them from collapsing. According to the evolution theory - yawning is something that began with our ancestors, who used yawning to show their teeth to intimidate others. An offshoot of this theory is the idea that yawning developed from early man, was a signal for others to change their activities.

But there is one idea about yawning that everyone knows to be true -yawning is contagious by nature. If you yawn in a meeting, you'll probably notice a few other people have started yawning, too. Even thinking about yawning can get you yawning. Scientists explain the "contagious" nature of yawning as, the power of suggestion, that is, when one person's yawn triggers another nearby to yawn.

How many times have you yawned while reading this article? Have I provoked a yawn out of you yet? If I have, it’s by the power of suggestion! Just as seeing or hearing someone else yawn makes you yawn, reading about yawning may also make you yawn. Honestly, even I have yawned a few times while writing this –such is the infectious nature of yawn!

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