Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘American Cancer Society’

Wellness Coaching Helps Cancer Survivers

Posted in Fitness, Health and Wellness, tagged , , , , , on March 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Fresh fruit and vegetables
Image by Mundoo via Flickr

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensd Massage Therapists, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Today an article about Wellness Coaching caught my eye.  There’s been a new study that shows that using wellness coaching has had a positive effect on people maintaining their health after completing their cancer treatments.

Read the excerpt below from the press release from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, “Wellness Coaching Study Finds Long Term Benefits for Cancer Survivors,” by Tim Kelly of the Office of Public Relations of Galloway Township, NJ to find out more.

New research published in the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and conducted by The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, showed that wellness coaching, a relatively new type of health intervention, had significant, immediate, and lasting impact in reducing anxiety and depression, while simultaneously improving quality of life and increasing other healthy lifestyle behaviors.

The American Cancer Society recommends survivors maintain a healthy weight and engage in healthy lifestyle habits to reduce risk of recurrence, mortality, and other chronic diseases, yet the majority do not, according to recent research. This study looked at the initial and longitudinal benefits that wellness coaching might have with cancer survivors.

The Study

Principle Investigator, Dr. Mary Lou Galantino, PT, PhD, MSCE, professor at Stockton College and Adjunct Research Scholar at University of Pennsylvania, said that it is the first research published utilizing this methodology as a single intervention, which has promising results and potential application in other areas.

The idea to apply this methodology to cancer survivorship came in 2004, when wellness coach and fitness professional, Pam Schmid was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was a leader in the new field of wellness coaching and recognized the wide reaching benefits coaching might offer survivors, after struggling personally with the challenges treatment brought her way.

Pam Schmid said, “Being a professional, I knew what I needed to do to be healthy and feel my best, yet so many obstacles came my way. I watched others struggle and saw no real support for them. Some health behaviors can reduce risk of recurrence or dying of their cancer as much as 50 percent. It’s critical to support survivors to do the things they can do to not only improve their risks but to improve their quality of life.”

Read Pam’s blog, Priorities Simplified, here.

In this observational cohort study of 30 breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer survivors, participants received six coaching sessions over a three month period. They were followed for a year after the intervention to evaluate the sustainability of changes through the wellness coaching. Wellness coaches are credentialed professionals who are trained and certified as coaches.

How Wellness Coaching Helps Patients

In this study, a fitness professional certified as an ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) Health Fitness Instructor and Wellness Coach (through Wellcoaches Corporation – in partnership with ACSM) served as the coach.

Wellness coaching moves people from point A to B says Schmid, “Instead of being stuck, they have a partner to start moving ahead to be their best. As one survivor told me, ‘This is not like anything I’ve experienced. It’s given me a pathway out … I need to move forward to do the things I know I need to do to be my best’.”

To read the entire press release, click here.

And, according to the actual study reported in the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Wellness Coaching helped study patients improve their lifestyle habits using goal setting, increased food choice awareness and exercise.  Working with a personal coach helped subjects by providing  motivation and feedback. Patients reports that their consumption of fruits and vegetables increased, and their BMI and weight was reduced with the help of Wellness Coaching.

Link to the actual study abstract in the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences here.

What is Wellness Coaching?
Coaching focuses on building self-efficacy and autonomy from a strength-based approach that encourages the individual to think about what is going well, where they have been successful in the past, and what will support success in the future and is delivered using a number of tools from evidence based domains/theories such as positive psychology, motivational interviewing, and appreciative inquiry.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Read Full Post »

Coping With Nicotine Withdrawal When Quitting Smoking

Posted in Health and Wellness, Stress Management, Workplace Wellness, tagged , , , , , on February 28, 2010| 4 Comments »

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Deep breathing from Anxiety Therapy Online

Non smokers don’t get it. I’ve heard nonsmokers say, “Why don’t you just quit?” Or “How can any intelligent person smoke?” (Knowing what we know about smoking and health.) Smoking addiction isn’t a rational decision. People don’t get up in the morning and say, “Gee, I think I will fill my lungs with carcinogens.” Like any addiction, smoking is a habit and a physical dependence on a powerful chemical substance. The addiction to nicotine can override people’s intellectual beliefs about health. If you’ve ever had the stomach flu or persistent diarrhea, you know what it’s like to have an overwhelming urge you can’t control. Being addicted to smoking is a similar situation. It gives people strong urges that are very difficult to deny or control.

Read more from the American Cancer Society about nicotine withdrawal:

Nicotine withdrawal symptoms can lead quitters back to smoking

When smokers try to cut back or quit, the lack of nicotine leads to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, the body reacts to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, the smoker is faced with giving up a habit, which calls for a major change in behavior. Both the physical and mental factors must be addressed for the quitting process to work.

Those who have smoked regularly for a few weeks or longer, and suddenly stop using tobacco or greatly reduce the amount smoked, will have withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms usually start within a few hours of the last cigarette and peak about 2 to 3 days later when most of the nicotine and its by-products are out of the body. Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days to up to several weeks. They will get better every day that you stay smoke-free.

Withdrawal symptoms can include any of the following:

  • dizziness (which may only last 1 to 2 days after quitting)
  • depression
  • feelings of frustration, impatience, and anger
  • anxiety
  • irritability
  • sleep disturbances, including having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, and having bad dreams or even nightmares
  • trouble concentrating
  • restlessness or boredom
  • headaches
  • tiredness
  • increased appetite
  • weight gain
  • constipation and gas
  • cough, dry mouth, sore throat, and nasal drip
  • chest tightness

These symptoms can lead the smoker to start smoking cigarettes again to boost blood levels of nicotine back to a level where there are no symptoms. (For information on coping with withdrawal, see the section, “How to quit.”)

Smoking also makes your body get rid of some drugs faster than usual. When you quit smoking, it may change the way your body handles medicines. Ask your doctor if any medicines you take regularly need to be checked or changed after you quit.

Dealing with withdrawal

Withdrawal from nicotine has 2 parts — the physical and the mental. The physical symptoms, while annoying, are not life-threatening. Nicotine replacement and other medicines can help reduce many of these physical symptoms. Most smokers find that the bigger challenge is the mental part of quitting.

If you have been smoking for any length of time, smoking has become linked with nearly everything you do — waking up in the morning, eating, reading, watching TV, and drinking coffee, for example. It will take time to “un-link” smoking from these activities. This is why, even if you are using a nicotine replacement, you may still have strong urges to smoke.

Rationalizations are sneaky

One way to overcome these urges or cravings is to notice and identify rationalizations as they come up. A rationalization is a mistaken thought that seems to make sense to you at the time, but the thought is not based on reality. If you choose to believe in such a thought, it can serve as a way to justify smoking. If you have tried to quit before, you will probably recognize many of these common rationalizations:

  • I’ll just have one to get through this rough spot.
  • Today is not a good day. I’ll quit tomorrow.
  • It’s my only vice.
  • How bad is smoking, really? Uncle Harry smoked all his life and he lived to be over 90.
  • Air pollution is probably just as bad.
  • You’ve got to die of something.
  • Life is no fun without smoking.

You probably can add more to the list. As you go through the first few days without smoking, write down any rationalizations as they come up and recognize them for what they are: messages that can trick you into going back to smoking. Look out for them, because they always show up when you’re trying to quit. After you write down the idea, let it go from your mind. Be ready with a distraction, a plan of action, and other ways to re-direct your thoughts to something else.

Use the ideas below to help you stay committed to quitting.

Avoid temptation: Stay away from people and places where you are tempted to smoke. Later on you will be able to handle these with more confidence.

Change your habits: Switch to juices or water instead of alcohol or coffee. Take a different route to work. Take a brisk walk instead of a coffee break.

Alternatives: Use substitutes you can put in your mouth such as sugarless gum or hard candy, raw vegetables such as carrot sticks, or sunflower seeds. Some people chew on a coffee stirrer or a straw.

Activities: Do something to reduce your stress. Exercise or do hobbies that keep your hands busy, such as needlework or woodworking, which can help distract you from the urge to smoke. Take a hot bath, exercise, or read a book.

Deep breathing: When you were smoking, you breathed deeply as you inhaled the smoke. When the urge strikes now, breathe deeply and picture your lungs filling with fresh, clean air. Remind yourself of your reasons for quitting and the benefits you’ll gain as an ex-smoker.

Delay: If you feel that you are about to light up, delay. Tell yourself you must wait at least 10 minutes. Often this simple trick will allow you to move beyond the strong urge to smoke.

Reward yourself

What you’re doing is not easy, so you deserve a reward. Put the money you would have spent on tobacco in a jar every day and then buy yourself a weekly treat. Buy a magazine or book, go out to eat, develop a new hobby, or take a yoga class. Or save the money for a major purchase. You can also reward yourself in ways that don’t cost money: visit a park, go to the library, and check local news listings for museums, community centers, and colleges that have free classes, exhibits, films, and other things to do.

Read more at the American Cancer Society’s website here.

Notice that many of the strategies for handing nicotine withdrawal are the same strategies people use for stress management!

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Read Full Post »

What Makes It So Difficult to Quit Smoking?

Posted in Health and Wellness, Workplace Wellness, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2010| 4 Comments »

Unlit filtered cigarettes
Image via Wikipedia

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

Coping with stress can be tough. Some people turn to cigarettes as a way to cope with stress. In the long run, smoking doesn’t help your body ward off stress…it creates new health and social problems that lead to more stress. Quitting smoking is also tough but the rewards are numerous.  I was once a heavy smoker myself and quitting was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. Quitting smoking also freed me from a crippling dependence not only on nicotine but on the habit of ingesting smoke with the result of having my clothes and hair smell like smoke and having yellow fingers and skin that was aging more rapidly than normal.

The American Cancer Society has great information on smoking cessation. In the next few posts we will share some tips o quitting smoking with you.

Why is it so hard to quit smoking?

Mark Twain said, “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.” Maybe you’ve tried to quit, too. Why is quitting and staying quit hard for so many people? The answer is nicotine.

Nicotine

Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a person becomes physically and emotionally addicted to (dependent on) nicotine. Studies have shown that smokers must deal with both the physical and psychological (mental) dependence to quit and stay quit.

How nicotine gets in, where it goes, and how long it stays

When you inhale smoke, nicotine is carried deep into your lungs. There it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and carried throughout your body. Nicotine affects many parts of the body, including your heart and blood vessels, your hormones, the way your body uses food (your metabolism), and your brain. Nicotine can be found in breast milk and even in mucus from the cervix of a female smoker. During pregnancy, nicotine freely crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.

Different factors affect how long it takes the body to remove nicotine and its by-products. In most cases, regular smokers will still have nicotine or its by-products, such as cotinine, in their bodies for about 3 to 4 days after stopping.

How nicotine hooks smokers

Nicotine causes pleasant feelings that make the smoker want to smoke more. It also acts as a kind of depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells. Smokers tend to increase the number of cigarettes they smoke as the nervous system adapts to nicotine. This, in turn, increases the amount of nicotine in the smoker’s blood. In fact, nicotine inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body through a vein (intravenously or IV).

After a while, the smoker develops a tolerance to the drug. Tolerance means that it takes more nicotine to get the same effect that the smoker used to get from smaller amounts. This leads to an increase in smoking over time. The smoker reaches a certain nicotine level and then keeps smoking to maintain this level of nicotine.

Read more at the American Cancer Society website here.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Read Full Post »