Health
'I'm a psychologist — here's how to finally break your bad habits’
More than a third of Americans report making New Year’s resolutions, statistics show, many of which are focused on kicking bad habits.
Whether it’s smoking, overeating, drinking excessive alcohol or “doom-scrolling” on social media instead of sleeping, 72% of U.S. adults report having at least one unhealthy behavior, according to data from the United Health Foundation.
Dr. Adi Jaffe, a California-based psychologist, knows firsthand the dangers of unhealthy habits, as he once struggled with drug addiction himself.
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“I got trapped in the world of drugs and alcohol, from the middle of high school until a few years after college,” he shared with Fox News Digital during an on-camera interview.
Dr. Adi Jaffe, a California-based psychologist, struggled with drug addiction in his youth and now helps others overcome unhealthy habits. (Adi Jaffe, PhD)
“Addiction doesn’t separate by gender or age or race or income — people from all walks of life are impacted.”
Jaffe ultimately spent time in jail before getting clean and returning to school, earning two master’s degrees and a PhD in psychology.
“I wanted to understand what happened to me — and then what I’ve done over the last 15 years, hopefully, is bring those lessons to others who are struggling.”
“Addiction doesn’t separate by gender or age or race or income — people of all walks of life are impacted.”
Today, Jaffe focuses on helping people beat addiction and improve their mental health. In his upcoming book — “Unhooked: Free Yourself from Addiction Forever” — he shares a step-by-step program to help people free themselves from harmful habits.
Jaffe shared with Fox News Digital some of his tips and insights.
Recognizing the behavior
While many people think of addiction as involving drugs or alcohol, Jaffe noted that it can take many forms.
Many people assume that the behavior itself is the problem, the psychologist said — but there is almost always an underlying reason for those unhealthy or harmful choices. (iStock)
“If you engage in a behavior of any sort over long periods of time that robs you of your ability to be fully present in your life — and it bothers you, but you can’t find yourself stopping it, even though you’ve tried over and over — to me, that qualifies,” he said.
In addiction to substance abuse, addictive behaviors might include “doom-scrolling” on your phone for hours a day, binge-eating, gambling or indulging in other unhealthy activities.
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People can be addicted to work and success, too, Jaffe noted.
“When things get hard and get tough, they want to go to work,” he said. “They believe success or performance will make them feel better, but it can cause damage just like other addictions.”
“Doom-scrolling” on social media is a potentially addictive behavior, the psychologist noted. (iStock)
Social media is another form of addiction, the expert said.
“When your phone buzzes or pings, you don’t know what’s there, so it’s a novelty that’s interesting, and it releases dopamine,” he said. “You almost literally cannot help yourself.”
Identifying the ‘hooks’
Many people assume that the behavior itself is the problem, Jaffe said — but there is almost always an underlying reason for those unhealthy or harmful choices.
“The behavior was actually a medicine of sorts for a problematic undercurrent.”
“The reason you do it is that at some point earlier in your life, there was pain or struggle or emotional discomfort,” he said.
“And you discovered that when you engaged in the behavior, that discomfort went away. So the behavior was actually a medicine of sorts for a problematic undercurrent.”
More than a third of Americans report making New Year’s resolutions, statistics show, many of which are focused on kicking bad habits. (iStock)
For Jaffe, when he was 14 or 15 years old, his “hook” was social anxiety.
“And when somebody handed me a bottle of vodka at some sleepaway camp, I drank it because I didn’t want to look awkward,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Once I started drinking, I had no anxiety and felt like I belonged. I felt like I could talk to people. And so I realized that alcohol had ‘solved’ this problem.”
“Once I started drinking, I had no anxiety and felt like I belonged. I felt like I could talk to people. And so I realized that alcohol had ‘solved’ this problem.” (iStock)
Everyone has different hooks, Jaffe said, but there are similarities and patterns.
“We start living our lives trying to escape the discomfort of the hooks.”
Replacing the habit
Once people have identified an unhealthy behavior, one of the biggest mistakes they make is just trying to stop it without a plan, according to Jaffe.
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“We try to stop ourselves from doing what we don’t like,” he noted. “Especially around New Year’s, people might say, ‘I’m going to stop eating bad foods or I’m going to stop being lazy,’” he said.
Research has shown, however, that the most important aspect of kicking a bad habit is to replace the negative behavior with a positive one, the psychologist noted.
The most important aspect of kicking a bad habit is to replace the negative behavior with a positive one. (iStock)
“We have to stop trying to just eliminate bad habits — it doesn’t work,” Jaffe said. “We have to replace them with something else.”
For example, if someone wants to quit smoking, they might keep gum or sunflower seeds in their pocket, he said.
“You just have to keep going.”
Or, if someone is too focused on work, that might mean letting go of some tasks and delegating them to other people.
Jaffe also emphasized that the process of kicking a bad habit isn’t always perfect or seamless, and that slipping up from time to time doesn’t equate to failure.
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“It’s okay to fall flat on your face a number of times while you’re working on changing this,” he said.
“You just have to keep going.”
Jaffe’s book, “Unhooked: Free Yourself from Addiction Forever,” will be available on Jan. 7.
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A new injectable therapy is showing positive results in reducing melanoma throughout a five-year period.
The personalized mRNA cancer therapy, called intismeran autogene, combined with the cancer immunotherapy drug KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), is a collaboration between Merck and Moderna.
The results from the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 study were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 27.
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After about a five-year follow-up, the combo drug was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone.
The researchers analyzed data from 157 patients with high-risk stage 3 and 4 melanoma whose cancer had been removed via surgery. The participants were split into two groups — one received the combo therapy and the other only received pembrolizumab, according to a press release.
The therapy was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone after a five-year follow-up. (iStock)
The findings revealed that the combination group saw benefits that were “sustained and durable over time.”
Intismeran autogene is designed using mutations identified in a patient’s own tumor, with the intention of teaching the immune system what the cancer looks like so that it can recognize and attack it.
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According to the researchers, intismeran is “well-tolerated” with a “manageable” safety profile.
The most commonly cited side effects of the personalized mRNA vaccine plus KEYTRUDA were fatigue, injection-site pain, chills, fever and headache. The researchers reported no new long-term safety concerns and no severe vaccine-related adverse events.
The combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study — the final confirmation stage.
Patients with late-stage melanoma have a “significant risk” of cancer recurrence, according to an expert. (iStock)
In a Merck press release from January, Kyle Holen, MD, Moderna’s senior vice president and head of development, oncology and therapeutics, noted that this data highlights the “potential of a prolonged benefit … in patients with resected high-risk melanoma.”
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“We continue to invest in our platform in oncology because of encouraging outcomes like these, which illustrate mRNA’s potential in cancer care,” he said.
Dr. Marjorie Green, senior vice president and head of oncology, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, also commented that for many patients with stage 3 or 4 melanoma, there is a “significant risk of recurrence following surgery.”
Researchers confirmed that the combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study. (iStock)
“As such, demonstrating the longer-term potential of intismeran autogene and KEYTRUDA to reduce the risk of recurrence for certain patients with melanoma is a meaningful milestone,” she said.
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The company cited encouraging five-year follow-up data and pointed to upcoming late-stage INTerpath trial results with Moderna in several hard-to-treat cancers.
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
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After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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