Quit Smoking with Acupuncture

 The High Cost of Smoking

In the excellent book The Price of Smoking, the authors Frank A. Sloan, Jan Ostermann, et al. provide a very convincing, longitudinal study on the private and social costs of smoking (including second-hand smoke and the tobacco-related costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security). They conclude that, over the lifetime of an average smoker, the cost of each pack of cigarettes they smoke is almost $40.00. The costs to the individual smokers, their families and society as a whole are staggering.

But it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to prove the high cost of smoking. Simply consider this. If you are a 24 year old smoker who averages one and one half packs of cigarettes per day over a 30 year period at an average cost of $3.00 per pack, your out-of-pocket costs alone will be $49,275.00.

But there is much more to smoking than money. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death throughout the world according to the World Health Organization. According to their figures, smoking is responsible for approximately five million deaths worldwide every single year. Tobacco smoking is a known or probable cause of approximately 25 diseases. Numerous studies have shown that smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers.

If you smoke for a lifetime, you have a 50% chance that your eventual death will be smoking-related. And half of all these deaths will be in middle age. Studies have shown that men who smoke increase their chances of dying from lung cancer by more than 22 times. Another health problem associated with tobacco is emphysema. The lung damage which causes emphysema is irreversible and makes it extremely difficult to breathe.

There is good news, however. Although the health risks of smoking are cumulative, giving up smoking can yield health benefits regardless of the age of the patient, or the length of time they have been smoking.

The first thing you need to do is be serious about quitting and be highly motivated to take action to stop

Quit Smoking with Acupuncture

For those who want to quit smoking, acupuncture directed to selected points of the body may help curb the desire to smoke according to a report in the journal Preventive Medicine (Vol. 33; pages 364-372).

This report came out of a study which followed 46 participants over a five year period. 26 participants in the study were given acupuncture treatments at points selected to affect smoking-related organs such as the lungs, airways, and mouth. The remaining 20 served as the control group and also received acupuncture but not at points related to smoking.

None of the subjects were aware of which group they were in. Blood tests were administered over the five year period to ensure integrity of the study. The participants in the treatment group (those who were treated at the strategic points) reported quitting or smoking less, and had a decreased desire to smoke. The control group received no lasting effect from the treatments they were given in terms of reducing their smoking or desire to smoke.

The National Institutes of Health has recently endorsed acupuncture as an alternative or complement to standard medical practices to help patients stop smoking. In an article by Rick Chillot, in the November 1998 issue of Prevention magazine, he discussed a study from Norway which revealed that a combination of acupuncture techniques may hold real hope for those trying to quit smoking.

My Program

I have studied the relationship between acupuncture and its positive effects on smoking, alcohol abuse and other addictions in considerable depth. I am convinced that an acupuncture program, administered properly, can help people stop smoking if they seriously want to quit.

The program will consist of 2 - 5 treatments over a three week period. The treatments will be specifically targeted to those areas of the body that are related to smoking. The total cost of the program will be $125.00 - $625.00, and will include an in-depth analysis of your health, smoking history and your commitment to quit your addiction. For some people, they only need to take one acupuncture treatment to quit smoking, and the cost for them is only $125.00. For other people, they may need to have 2 - 5 acupuncture treatments, and the maximum charge is $625.00.

There will be no additional charge after 5 treatments if it is determined that you require additional treatment in order to stop smoking. In addition, if you are successful in quitting but find that you want to go back at a future date, there will be 50% discount for those future treatments.

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