The Compass/ October 2005 PaeeA
Tips
Continued from page 6
Establish a place to
study. Your place should have a
desk, comfortable chair, good
lighting, and all the supplies you
need, and of course, should be
as free of distractions as possible.
It should not be a place where
you routinely do other things. It
should your study place. A great
suggestion would be the library.
Do as much of your studying in
the daytime as you can. What
takes you an hour to do during
the day may take you an hour and
a half at night. Schedule breaks.
Take a ten-minute break after
every hour of study. If possible,
avoid long blocks of time for
studjring. Spread out several
short study sessions during the
day.
Another helpful tip includes
finding at least one or two
students in each class to study
with. Studies show that students
who study with someone
routinely make better grades.
You will probably find yourself
more motivated if you know
someone else cares about what
you are doing in the class.
Teaching a concept or new idea
to someone else is a sure way for
you to understand it. Studying in
a group or with a partner can
sometimes become too social. It
is important to stay focused.
Study the hardest subject first.
Work on your hardest subjects at
a time when you are fresh.
Putting them off until you’re
tired compounds the problem.
Be good to yourself. Studying on
four hours of sleep and an empty
stomach or junk food diet is a
waste of time. Also avoid foods
and drinks containing caffeine
just before or just after studying.
Remember the hours you put
into study time, will show when
its test time. I believe every
F.rSlI student has the potential
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Battle Continued
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of someone who has never
smoked, says Michael Thun,
head of epidemiological research
at the American Cancer Society.
“Cancers require bits of
genetic damage in a single cell
to become malignant and
permanent,” he says. “What
continued smoking does is
increases the chances that a
genetically damaged cell will
continue to accumulate more
genetic damaged and be
transformed into a life-
threatening cancer.”
Risk diminishes with
time, ex-smokers can go a few
steps further toward reducing
their cancer risk by maintaining
a healthy body weight, getting
regular physical activity,
drinking alcohol only in cancers
that have screenings.
When a person quits
smoking the body begins to have
many changes that continues for
years. Twenty minutes after
quitting, a smoker’s heart rate
decreases.
Twelve hours after
quitting, the carbon monoxide
level in the blood drops to
normal. Two weeks to three
months after quitting ,heart
attack risk begins to drop and
lung function begins to improve.
One to nine months after
quitting, coughing and
shortness of breathe decreases.
One year after
quitting, the added risk of heart
disease is half that of a
smoker’s. Five years after
quitting, the risk of a stroke is
reduced to that of a non-
smoker’s. Ten years after
quitting, lung cancer and death
rate is half that of a smoker’s
and the risk of cancer of the
mouth, throat, esophagus,
bladder, kidney, and pancreas
decreases.
An interesting finding,
says Margju’et Spitz, chair of
epidemiology at M.D. Anderson,
is that a fewer than 20% of long
term smokers develop cancer.
Still she says, 85% of all lung
cancers occur in former or
current smokers, which is why
her research is to identify the sub
- group of smokers at highest
risk to develop lung cancer.
There is currently no
reliable way to screen for lung
cancer But a $200 million
National Lung Screening Trial is
underway with 50,000 patients;
its goal is to determine whether
early screening with X-rays or
spiral computed CT scans would
prevent deaths from the disease.
The trial, by the
National Cancer Institution, will
take several years, says Eva
Szabo of the Institute’s division
of cancer prevention. But Thun
says screening for lung cancer is
a dilemma because finding and
removing growths identified
from early screenings might
actually do more harm than
good.
Former student
of ECSU and resident of
Elizabeth City, Syreeta Barrett,
says, “Smoking is a very bad
habit. People may say they
smoke because they need it after
eating, sex, while talking on the
phone, or to calm them down,
but it isn’t something needed.”
She continued saying, “I want
to quit and 1 feel really bad about
the new discoveries of smoking,
but 1 knew about most of them
before I started and it’s a chance
1 was willing to take.”