Acupuncture for stop smoking

Published: 06/23/2010 - Updated: 11/17/2018

If you are a smoker, surely you have tried to quit the harmful habit for your health more than once. Perhaps all is not lost and you should try some technique of Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and more

Smoking = disease

Smoking is now considered one of the major health problems and greater impact on the health of society, both as regards the active and the passive smoker.

When the smoker is proposed to quit smoking, faces different levels of dependence (physical, psychological and behavioral). Because of physical dependence smoking or nicotine syndrome arises, one of the toughest tests that a smoker who wants to leave the snuff will suffer. The most common symptoms are compulsive desire to smoke, irritability, nervousness, headache, poor concentration, sleep disturbance, mood declined, fatigue, anxiety, yawning, watery, tasteless mouth, throat discomfort, chest tightness, nausea, tremors muscle delayed reaction, etc.. This syndrome occurs after cessation or reduction of the amount of nicotine consumed.

The smoker must overcome psychological and behavioral dependence to snuff, but in terms of physical dependence, there are several methods to overcome it. One of them is the Traditional Chinese Medicine. Over the past 20 years, there have been several clinical studies showing that traditional Chinese medicine is an effective therapy to treat smoking quit syndrome. The techniques employed in this task are the Ear with setting seeds in the earlobe, the cranepunture which is the painless insertion of very fine needles into certain points of the scalp, acupressure, etc.

The mechanism of acupuncture in the treatment of smoking withdrawal symptoms has been also studied and one of the most striking results is the change in taste of the patients, who on returning to try a cigarette suffer headaches and nausea, which avoids own temptations and behavioral dependence.

References

  1. Ma, E., Chan, T., Zhang, O., Yang, J., Wang, Y., Li, Y., … Lam, P. (2015). Effectiveness of acupuncture for smoking cessation in a Chinese population. Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, 27(2), NP2610-22.
  2. White, A. R., Rampes, H., Liu, J. P., Stead, L. F., & Campbell, J. (2014). Acupuncture and related interventions for smoking cessation. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (1), CD000009.
  3. White, A., & Taylor, A. (2014, August). Acupuncture for smoking cessation: where now? Acupuncture in Medicine : Journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society. England.
  4. Di, Y. M., May, B. H., Zhang, A. L., Zhou, I. W., Worsnop, C., & Xue, C. C. L. (2014). A meta-analysis of ear-acupuncture, ear-acupressure and auriculotherapy for cigarette smoking cessation. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 142, 14–23.
  5. McFadden, D. D., Chon, T. Y., Croghan, I. T., Schroeder, D. R., Mallory, M. J., Ebbert, J. O., & Hays, J. T. (2015). Trial of intensive acupuncture for smoking cessation: a pilot study. Acupuncture in Medicine : Journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 33(5), 375–380.
  6. Wang, Y., Liu, Z., Zhang, O., Chen, M., Huang, L., Wu, Y., … Yang, J. (2016). Effect of acupuncture treatment on smoking cessation in smokers from Hong Kong. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine = Chung i Tsa Chih Ying Wen Pan, 36(5), 634–639.

Source: MTC College
www.mtc.es

About the author
  • FEMTC

    The European Foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine is an international institution created in 1989. As a private foundation, its main objectives are the promotion, dissemination, teaching, research and defense of the practice of Chinese medicine in Spain, Europe and the world, under the criteria of quality and scientific rigor. Linkedin profile. Twitter.