Breaking a bad habit can be tough, but acupuncture for quitting smoking can be helpful in getting you to say goodbye to nicotine once and for all. However, it’s important to remember that acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) modalities are not a cure or a surefire way for you to stop smoking. They can help you withstand cravings and deal with withdrawal symptoms, but at the end of the day, it is still up to you to make the necessary lifestyle changes.
Quitting smoking
Smoking is addictive and is the result of habit, so quitting can be difficult. Some people can quit with little to no issues, but if you’re having a tough time, it’s important to not be too hard on yourself. You may experience cravings and nicotine withdrawal symptoms, but there are things you can do to help yourself through the worst of these cravings and symptoms.
One thing you can do is undergo acupuncture for quitting smoking. It may take a few acupuncture sessions for it to be effective, but it’s a time-honored and all-natural way to take back control of your health.
How smoking affects you
Is quitting smoking worth going through the lifestyle changes and withdrawal symptoms? That’s an unequivocal yes. Smoking can harm just about any organ in your body, and it can cause various diseases, including cancer.
In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the US. Smoking causes more deaths than those caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, and firearm-related incidents combined.
Smoking can greatly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, lung diseases, and cancer in the lungs, esophagus, cervix, liver, stomach, pancreas, and many other organs. It can also affect fertility in both men and women, cause birthing complications, reduce bone health, and many more.
What it’s like to quit smoking
Quitting smoking won’t necessarily reverse the damage that smoking has done to your body, but quitting can still greatly improve your health. Just a year after quitting, your risks of developing cardiovascular disease drops significantly. Within 5 years, your risks of developing mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder cancer is reduced by half. Within 10 years, lung cancer risk is cut by half as well.
However, quitting smoking can be easier said than done. After all, it nicotine doesn’t just affect the lungs and other organs, it can affect the brain, too. Nicotine can help reduce feelings of depression, enhance focus, and improve your mood. Of course, there are much healthier ways to achieve these effects as well. However, these effects may make it difficult for some to simply throw out their cigarettes and retire their lighters.
When you quit, you may still experience cravings for nicotine. You may also experience sweating, insomnia, irritability, headaches, depression, weight gain, and other symptoms. The silver lining here is that these symptoms often go away in a couple of weeks — as long as you don’t give in to them, of course. Fortunately, the Santa Barbara Herb Clinic can help you deal with these symptoms in a healthy, all-natural way. We can also help you reduce cravings and finally quit smoking once and for all.
Acupuncture for quitting smoking
There are nicotine gum and patches that can help you through the worst of these withdrawal symptoms, and your doctor can also give you a prescription for nasal sprays and inhalers that act as nicotine replacements. However, there’s a chance that these won’t be 100% effective, and they also have possible side effects.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you still shouldn’t try these remedies. However, you can also enhance their effects with acupuncture. One of the upsides of acupuncture is that it doesn’t just help you with the specific problem you came into the clinic with. It can also help boost your general well-being as well.
Acupuncture in a nutshell
According to the principles of TCM, an individual’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being is governed by a life force called qi (pronounced “chee”). Our qi flows through a body along markers called “meridians.” When the flow of this life force is disrupted, thrown out of balance, or gets concentrated around certain meridians, an ailment may occur.
Acupuncture is a treatment that seeks to restore the proper flow of qi. It entails the insertion of very fine needles into spots on the body that are considered to be acupuncture points. When these acupuncture points are stimulated by the needles, the qi will begin returning to its normal flow.
The Santa Barbara Herb Clinic provides acupuncture treatments and more. Our owner and Licensed Acupuncturist, Tram Pham, has a Master’s Degree in Chinese Medicine from Los Angeles’s Yo San University. She also has years of experience in treating people with acupuncture and other TCM practices.
How acupuncture for quitting smoking can help you
Acupuncture isn’t a magic cure that will get rid of your cravings and nicotine withdrawal symptoms just like that. The treatment focuses on helping treat the specific symptoms that the specific individual patient experiences. Thus, it will be able to help you deal with the physical, emotional, and mental effects of quitting smoking.
However, you will still carry much of the burden of disciplining yourself and making the necessary lifestyle changes that will help you quit your bad habits. Still, acupuncture can help ease that burden somewhat by helping ease symptoms like nicotine cravings, irritability, anxiety, and restlessness.
Acupuncture at the Santa Barbara Herb Clinic
The Santa Barbara Herb Clinic has been serving the people of Santa Barbara since Dr. Jean Yu opened it in 1986. In 2016, Tram took the reins of the clinic and continued its tradition of providing all-natural and holistic healthcare to those who seek it. Tram can provide you with acupuncture for quitting smoking as well as for other issues.
Get it touch with us to schedule a consultation or make an appointment. You can reach us at 805-563-0222 or email us at info@santabarbaraherbclinic.com. It’s also possible to have consultations with Tram over the phone or via video call. Contact us today and begin your journey to good health!
References
https://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/nicotine-withdrawal#treatment
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm
https://www.pacificcollege.edu/news/blog/2014/06/10/quit-smoking-acupuncture
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/want-to-quit-smoking-acupuncture-can-help-you-with-cravings/
