It is possible to quit smoking through acupuncture, which is based on two methods, acupressure and acupuncture, to help achieve this goal by relieving anxiety problems during smoking cessation.
About Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medical practice in which fine needles are usually inserted into the skin at specific areas of the body. The needles may be applied by hand or stimulated with an electric current (electro-acupuncture).
Related treatments are defined as acupoint stimulation without the use of needles, which include acupressure, laser therapy, and electrical stimulation.
Acupuncture and acupressure may be used only for the duration of the treatment, either through the use of indwelling needles or by applying small beads or seeds to the acupuncture points to provide continuous stimulation.
The goal of these treatments is to reduce the withdrawal symptoms that smokers experience when they quit.
Acupuncture is very versatile; it can be used to relieve back pain and even to help with weight loss.
What the study says
This study on acupuncture to help quit smoking included 38 trials, which were published before October 2013.
The trials involved a variety of different interventions and controls.
The study showed no clear evidence of effectiveness for long-term smoking cessation.
Acupuncture treatment had some short-term but no long-term benefits compared to pseudo-acupuncture treatment, although the evidence level was low.
Acupuncture is less effective than nicotine therapy (NRT) and no better than consultation. Limited evidence suggests that acupressure is superior to pseudo-acupressure in the short term, but there is no evidence of long-term effects.
For the analysis of subgroups with continuous stimulation, those with continuous acupressure to the ear points had the greatest short-term effects.
Evidence from two trials on the use of laser acupoint stimulation was inconsistent. The results of seven trials of electrical acupoint stimulation did not show that electrical acupoint stimulation was superior to pseudo-electrical acupoint stimulation.
What Chinese medicine say
According to a Chinese medicine research, acupuncture may be effective for smoking cessation:
Acupuncture can release smokers’ dependence on exogenous addictive substances; make chronic smokers’ bitter taste sensation threshold higher and their sensitivity to bitter taste sensation poorer; change patients’ taste for tobacco, moreover, it can lower the PH value of oral saliva of some smokers and change the internal environment of the mouth, esophagus and stomach, so that smokers’ internal environment can be restored to normal level.
The feeling of euphoria, relaxation and excitement when smoking is replaced by dryness, bitterness, astringency, nausea and coughing and choking in the mouth, thus blocking the smoker’s dependence on cigarettes and achieving the goal of quitting smoking.
In addition to acupuncture body points, the application of auricular points is also a major highlight of acupuncture to quit smoking. The ear is the gathering point of the clan, and the ear point is not only the point of response to disease, but also the point of treatment of disease.
Therefore, auricular acupuncture point is a kind of acupuncture treatment method, which has good effect on quitting smoking.
Bottom Line
Administering certain measures is better than doing nothing, at least in the short term, and there is not enough evidence to rule out the possibility that acupuncture works better than placebo.
They may not be as effective as current interventions supported by the evidence. Used correctly, they would be safe.
