A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that when a celebrity is diagnosed with a smoking-related cancer, the smoking public starts to gain interest on quitting.
The team, headed by Seth M. Noar, a health communication professor at the university, examined Google news archives to analyze the trend of internet searchers in the weeks following the announcement of Brazil President Lula da Silva having laryngeal cancer. The 
researchers found that news coverage about quitting smoking increased by 500 percent right after the announcement, and remained by 163 percent higher the week after. What’s more intriguing is that the rate of quit smoking searchers have also remained higher than normal one month after the date of announcement, even after the media coverage on quitting smoking has already waned.
“Just as celebrity diagnoses promote cancer screening, they may also promote primary prevention,” the researchers wrote. “Discovery of this dynamic suggests the public should be further encouraged to consider primary (in addition to the usual secondary) cancer prevention around celebrity diagnoses, though more cases, cancers, and prevention behaviors must be explored.”
Their findings were published in the journal Preventive Medicine.
Famous Celebrities who Successfully Quit
Jennifer Aniston
Her revelation about quitting came after the rumors about her having a baby. “Well, I recently quit smoking, and you do put on some extra pounds,” she told QG. “It makes a difference, especially if you’re not 20. I think people maybe want me to have a kid now.”
Kelly Ripa
Kelly used to be a ‘closet smoker’. “I only did it when I was out with friends or sometimes in my dressing room,” she told Shape Magazine in an interview. She managed to quit after having children but then fell back into smoking. But when Hope and Faith co-star Faith Ford encouraged her to quit, she tried once more and replaced cigarettes with exercise (she worked out five times a week). “It was a matter of replacing one ritual with another,”
Gisele Bundchen
“When I quit smoking I gained 15 pounds,” the actress, who is pregnant with her second baby, told People magazine in 2006. “So? I prefer myself this way. Nothing is worth your health.”
Barack Obama
Everyone knows that Obama had a long, difficult battle against nicotine addiction. When he first ran for presidency, he said one of his wife’s conditions is that he quit smoking. His journey towards a smoke-free life was not easy and it was not until 2011 that his wife announced that President Obama has not been smoking for a year. Last year, Obama’s doctor has confirmed that he has successfully ditched the habit.
Ben Affleck
Ben finally decided to quit after taping his movie “Smokin’ Aces”. “The whole week that I shot, I smoked, like, five packs a day. By the time the movie was over, I was so sick of smoking, I just didn’t want to do it anymore, and I quit. I have this celluloid record of the last time I smoked.” he told People magazine in 2007.
Charlize Theron
Charlize confessed to Vogue in 2011 that she was highly addicted to cigarettes. “I thought, I don’t smoke like normal people. I smoke to die.” While she didn’t tell what exactly she did to quit, there are rumors that Charlize used yoga and hypnosis.
Kristen Stewart
In 2012, the Twilight star told MTV that she had quit smoking. She said she didn’t want to talk too much about her health-conscious move for fear of jinxing herself. “You can’t acknowledge it or else suddenly … you can’t think about it,”
If these people did make it, why can’t you? Maybe you can get some inspiration from these celebrities when it comes to quitting smoking.
