With so many options on the market for programs, pills and treatments to help you kick the habit, how can you tell which is the best method to use? TIME asked Dr. Michael Fiore, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and founder of the school’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
When lost or disoriented, people really do walk in circles
By tracking humans as they wandered in the forest, desert and blindfolded through a giant field, scientists determined that there is some truth to the popular belief—when people are lost, we actually do walk in circles.
It has long been common perception that people tend to meander in orbits when disoriented, and in fact, scientists
…
Can you really worry yourself sick?
A study published this week in the Journal of Research in Personality finds that personality traits that cause people to worry too much and endure chronic stress may actually increase their risk for illness and premature death. A handful of studies have shown that neuroticism—broadly, the tendency to worry too much—can actually be
…
Prevention: How much can doctors and nurses really change your lifestyle choices?
A couple weeks ago I wrote about whether prevention can really cut health-care costs. Given America’s troubling chronic-disease rates, however, a more pertinent question might be this: Can health-care workers actually implement prevention on behalf of their patients? Sure, there’s cancer screening and annual check-ups. But that’s not …
Is there a maximum age to which humans can live?
It’s one of humanity’s longest-standing questions: How long can we live? Even the Bible weighs in. But people, on the whole, seem to be natural pessimists when it comes to the answer. Time after time, experts have estimated a maximum possible life expectancy that any human population could achieve. Time after time, we’ve exceeded it. …