Almost everyone of us knows that smoking causes cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. Excessive tobacco use can actually shorten a person’s life by 10 years or more. Based on records, this pernicious habit can cost a smoker thousands of dollars every year. So how come a lot of people find it difficult to quit smoking? The answer, in a word, is addiction. Once a person starts smoking, it’s going to be a very hard habit to break. Nicotine addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to beat.
Smoking kills half a million Americans each year. It surpasses combined deaths from AIDS, car wrecks, homicides, suicides, drug overdoses, and fires. Even a non-smoker is placed at high risk when he or she is exposed to second-hand smoke. Each year, about four million children fall ill from second-hand smoke.
Studies link smoking to miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Pregnant smokers increase their child’s risk for attention deficit disorder (ADD), conduct disorders, depression, substance abuse, and lower intellectual achievement.
Research shows that every time a smoker tries to quit smoking, it boosts the chances of quitting for good. Chances are higher if it is combined with methods such as nicotine replacement, counseling, or an alternative method such as Acupuncture.
Acupuncture is a technique that involves the use of very thin needles of varying lengths which are then inserted through the skin to treat a variety of conditions. Acupuncture originated in China and has been practiced for more than 2,000 years.
The fundamental treatment of Acupuncture for quitting smoking is to stimulate “accu-points” which are capable of transmitting messages down nerve pathways to the brain, and instituting change in the chemistry of appetite. If a smoker takes in a substance for long enough which is addictive, the encephalins or “brain chemical messengers” make room for it and allow it to become necessary to the chemical balance. If the smoker then remove the substance like nicotine, and do not balance the chemistry, the brain is thrown into shock which causes withdrawal symptoms. The Acupuncture technique basically re-balances the chemistry, thus avoiding withdrawal symptoms. In effect, acupuncture balances and restores conditions to that which applied when a person was still a non-smoker. Acupuncture can effectively help with withdrawal symptoms, however, this method should only be done by an acupuncture specialist.
Acupuncture treatment is a very powerful tool for removing smoking addiction. This treatment is not very popular among the people who are planning to quit. However it is a very effective and reliable method for quitting smoking which has no side effects at all.
It has been proven in numerous studies that smokers who are given Acupuncture treatment have less desire to smoke and their smoking actually decreases after the treatment. It has also been proved over and over again that people who receive Acupuncture treatment are twice as likely to quit smoking than people who smoke.
The basic principle as with all anti-addiction treatment is that the person should be willing to receive the help to give up and should not be done against their will.