HEALTH/WELLNESS
Wednesday, June 25, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Cold germs avoid people on the go
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Not only is variety the spice of life, but it could protect you from the common cold.
People involved in activities such as work, church, family, barber shop quartets and sports get fewer colds than those exposed to the same number of people but have only a few activities to occupy them, according to a study.
The findings, published in today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, bolster the notion mental well-being affects physical health.
"Someone who works, has a family and goes bowling with a group has an edge on a person whose whole life is work," said Sheldon Cohen, the lead author and a psychologist with Carnegie Mellon University.
The finding is something of a medical paradox. After all, coming into contact with various people exposes a person to more germs.
But one of the researchers, David Skoner, a physician at the University of Pittsburgh, speculated that being happy and involved keeps a person's immune system strong.
Cohen suggested that involved people took better care of themselves because they believed
their lives had meaning.
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Virginia gave 276 healthy volunteers cold viruses. They found that people with few social outlets were four times as likely to get sick as people busy with six or more activities.
"With each added relationship you have, the less likely you are to become ill." Cohen said.
Researchers tested participants and ruled out the theory that more involved people had developed immunity by exposure to many germs from different people, Cohen said.
It is time for doctors to realize that social factors affect a person's health, said Jessie Gruman, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Health, a health policy institute.
"They kind of dismiss that psychological and social factors make any difference in health outcomes," she said.
The study does not address whether single-minded people should try to diversify their lives.
"Before you recommend people go out and develop all kinds of social networks, you want more experimental research to be done," said Arthur Stone, a psychologist at the medical school at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Tobacco companies look at alternatives to nicotine, smoke
'Safer' cigarettes may be sold
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The peace deal signed with anti-smoking forces may spur tobacco companies to finally sell versions of the "safer cigarettes" they've known how to make for decades.
A Virginia company is poised to beat Big Tobacco to the market by removing one cancer-causing chemical from cigarettes. Tennesseeans are testing smokeless cigarettes that may send fewer toxins into the lungs. And Duke University researchers are creating tobacco-free "cigarettes" that offer the nicotine kick of a regular smoke without the cancer.
But just when does a cigarette become safer? And does last week's tobacco settlement merely ensure cigarette makers won't lure back would-be quitters with false safety promises?
"Say you've got 16 known carcinogens and you take one out — you'll get killed by the other 15," warned Greg Connolly.
"There is no such thingnor will there ever be such a thing as a safe cigarette."
head of Massachusetts' tobacco control program.
Much of the debate surrounding last week's landmark $368 billion settlement with the tobacco industry centers on whether the Food and Drug Administration could lower cigarette's addictiveness by phasing out the nicotine. But the FDA would have to pass serious hurdles to do that.
R. J. Reynolds is test marketing its new smokeless Eclipse cigarette. As a way to avoid secondhand smoke, it heats the tobacco through a piece of carbon at the cigarette's tip instead of burning it. That lack of combustion also means Eclipse
produces far less tar and benzopyrene, a potent chemical that causes genetic mutations that lead to lung cancer. And the deal may allow RJR to advertise Eclipse as safer.
Much of smoking's danger arises when tobacco is burned and the resulting volatile chemicals attack tender lung cells. So Philip Morris and RJR are exploring ways to heat rather than burn tobacco.
Cancer isn't the only fear. Nicotine can contribute to heart disease. Philip Morris and RJR also have quietly researched nicotine-like drugs that don't seem to affect the heart, said Jed Rose, Duke University nicotine chief.
Rose himself, more concerned about other toxins, is testing a tobacco-free, cigarette-like tube full of nicotine salt. Almost a fake cigarette, it would let smokers suck in the quick nicotine boost of a cigarette without causing any other harm.
Still, tobacco foes have big worries. They question who would determine that a cigarette is safer. And, scientists don't even know how much nicotine it takes to addict someone — so lowering nicotine in cigarettes might merely make smokers puff more to get a fix. Rose said.
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