News and Information for Chinese Medicine

ACUPUNCTURE & SMOKING Thursday, 14 March, 2002

Some recent reports have suggested that there is no evidence for the beneficial effect of acupuncture on smoking reduction and cessation. A new Norwegian study however has shown otherwise, demonstrating that :

1. different acupuncture points have different effects on smoking reduction,
2. appropriate acupuncture treatment can help smokers reduce their cigarette consumption or quit entirely, and that the effects last at least five years, and
3. that acupuncture alters the subjective taste of smoking.

The study, designed to determine the long-term benefits of acupuncture on smoking cessation, randomly assigned 46 smokers (smoking around 20 cigarettes a day) to a treatment group or to a control group.

The treatment group received 2 treatments a week for 3 weeks at known effective anti-smoking points whilst the control group received similar treatment but at presumed ineffective points. Both groups were asked to simulate ear points four times daily during the treatment period.

During the study period, cigarette consumption fell on average by 14 groups per day for the treatment group, and 7 cigarettes per day in the control group.

For both groups, reported cigarette consumption rose on average by 5-7 cigarettes during the following 8 months, and there was no systematic change thereafter.

Thus the treatment group showed a maintained reduction in overall smoking with no change in the control group.

The treatment group reported that cigarettes tasted worse than before the treatments, and also the desire to smoke fell. For the treatment group the serum concentration of cotinine fell, confirming the reports of reduced smoking.

After the final treatment, 32% of the smokers in the treatment group had quit smoking.

Eight months after the end of the treatment, 23% still did not smoke, a figure which fell to 18% after 5 years. None of the smokers in the control group had quit smoking at either of those follow-up periods. (JCM Feb 2002: report from Preventive Medicine 2001;33:364-372)

ENHC
At the Edinburgh Natural Health Centre, if someone asks for acupuncture to stop smoking, we take his or her individual health history and diagnose the condition according to Chinese Medicine. We not only do the appropriate smoking treatment but we also treat any underlying condition, (like pain, stress, respiratory illness, asthma etc) because in our experience, if we don't do that, people find it harder to stop and are more likely to start smoking again.

If you are feeling much better, you will feel less stressed and more able to stop smoking completely. Over the last 18 years we have treated many thousands of people to stop smoking and we frequently hear from people who have never had another cigarette and continue to recommend their friends to us.