The scientific basis of quitting smoking with acupuncture is that stimulation in selected acupuncture points makes your body produce natural medicines such as endorphins. These agents can block your “pleasure response” to tobacco products.
Alarmed by the cruel fact that tens of thousands of smokers die prematurely and unnecessarily each year, many people wish to quit smoking for good. Our bodies are not made to take the over 4000 chemicals contained in each cigarette. These chemicals are extremely harmful to our health and many of them are cancer causing agents. Maybe you have thought about quitting smoking many times. Stop pondering. Make a plan and start to do something now. With the help of acupuncture therapy performed by a highly skilled practitioners, you could throw your cigarettes away in one month.
Take control
You are the one to quit smoking. You are trying to regain control of your life and health over the nicotine addiction and bad habits you possess. You do not want to become one of the victims of tobacco induced cancer and countless other diseases. Here are the facts:
Every year, more than 16,000 Canadians die from cancer, 16,000 from cardiovascular disease and more than 8,000 from respiratory disease all caused by smoking.
Every year, second-hand smoke kills more than 4,000 Canadians, 300 by lung cancer.
Smoking causes seven to eight times the number of early deaths as murder, traffic accidents, suicide, AIDS and drug abuse combined.
Your determination and commitment are more powerful than our acupuncture needles or magnets. Those who do not really want to quit never quit. Those who do not have strong will power may quit at one time but may start again later. Always focus on your reasons for quitting smoking.
Collect information
Before you can become truly determined, you must be extremely well informed about the issue of smoking and the ways to quit it. You can find information in flyers and pamphlets in health centres. Sometimes, there are good articles about quitting smoking in newspapers and magazines. Self-help books, cassettes and videos are available through bookstores and your local public libraries. Here at TCMWORKS, we have collected a set of good articles for you to read during your visit. Please ask us while waiting for your session.
Acupuncture, nicotine replacement therapy, hypnosis and group support are the most common methods of helping people to quit smoking. Nicotine is one of the addictive chemicals contained in tobacco. Nicotine replacement therapy uses the same substance in the form of a gum or patch, etc. to stop your craving for cigarettes. The problem is that these replacements may also be addictive. The therapeutic value of the medically discarded 19th century technique — hypnosis is doubtful. With regard to changing an unhealthy habit, the awakened mind is more susceptible to persuasion than the hypnotised mind. Once your physical craving for cigarettes is under control, group meetings would provide you with the much needed psychological and social support.
Why acupuncture and related techniques
Performed by a qualified practitioner, acupuncture is surely the best method for stopping smoking, not just because acupuncture takes away the craving (therefore you will feel easy and relaxed) but also because the acupuncturist gives you persuasive information and emotional support. The scientific basis of quitting smoke with acupuncture is that stimulation in selected acupuncture points makes your body produce natural medicines such as endorphins. These agents can block your “pleasure response” to tobacco products. Since acupuncture stimulates your natural healing power, you will not gain weight as a result of not smoking, and the damage caused by smoking may be reversed after you quit.
We will give you body and/or ear acupuncture and place tiny magnetic balls on selected ear points to maintain the stimulation. At TCMWORKS, we take TCM holistic approach seriously. We will have a full consultation with you and we will take into account all your health conditions. Therefore our treatment plan is highly individualized for each of our clients. We might also apply other techniques within the TCM realm if necessary. At the same time as we help you quit smoke, we also intend to adjust any of your unbalanced and disharmonized conditions to prevent problems in the future.
Make a plan
The majority (82.4%) of our clients who come to quit smoking quit within one month. It is possible for someone who smokes two cigarettes per day to cut down to zero in one day, but it is not a good idea for someone who smokes two packs a day to reduce to none at the beginning. We work together to make a plan, set your objective dates, and then, we use a graphic form to record your progress. Do not store a lot of cigarettes at home. Buy one pack only and switch brands each time. Attach a note sheet to the box to record the time, the place that each cigarette is used. You also record what you were doing and the name of anyone you were with. Make a rule that you smoke only outside the house in standing position and doing nothing else. Just about the time you are going to crave a cigarette, you should stimulate the magnets on your ears in the way that we told you. Then try to do something else: take a walk, breathe deeply, do some relaxation exercises, drink special tea or chew the herbal root we give to you (but not a nicotine chewing gum), etc. Once you quit smoking completely, you should make the announcement to people around you, especially, to those with whom you used to smoke and you should get rid of all ashtrays, lighters, matches and of course, cigarettes.
Reward yourself
Set an attainable short term goal and reward yourself after you achieve it. Say, reduce your daily consuming of cigarettes from 20 to 10 within one week and reward yourself with a movie you have always wanted to watch, or a book you would like to read. You may buy yourself a gift or plan a weekend away with your loved one. As mentioned in many articles, the best way to reward yourself for short term success, is treating yourself to a massage at the end of the week. We are offering a service of 45 minute complete body “tuina”– the Chinese style massage combined with acupressure (no needles at all). Tuina, therapeutic in nature, can relax you deep into your muscles and bones and adjust your internal organ functioning to an excellent condition of harmony and balance. For example, if you are scheduled three times of acupuncture per week, it is possible to have acupuncture twice and to have a tuina session on Saturday. Some of our clients who quit smoke years ago still come for monthly tuina for relaxation and prevention of problems. They call it “a regular tune-up.” You will stay smoke free forever, find yourself breathing easier, be more energetic and have more money too. You will have reduced your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and many other problems, and you will certainly live more healthily and longer.