Tobacco Addiction

After treating tobacco addiction for many years, I have noticed that  acupuncture works best for patients that smoked a lot (2 packs a day or more). This is due to tobacco’s dose dependent effects. When you smoke only a little, it gives you get a lift, but when you smoke a lot, you get a calming effect.  Many smokers use tobacco to regulate their mood. Since acupuncture is good at calming the nervous system (thus helping to calm feelings of stress), it’s no surprise that it would work best for people that smoke a lot. For others, it’s typical to reduce their smoking, but those last few cigarettes are the hardest to get past.  That’s where the will to quit is real important. Or using the gum or patch can be helpful. I use both ear and body points in the treatment. The ear points are important because they both help with calming the patient down but also give them a way to treat themselves. There is a point near the nose that makes the smell of cigarette smoke  smell bad. There’s also a correlation between your acid-alkaline balance and the balance of your autonomic nervous system, (thus affecting your stress level) which is dealt with by dietary advice and taking antacids such as tums.