Be Better at Everything: How to quit smoking with acupuncture
After nine years of smoking, Tina Volz, 29, was finally able to hang up the cigarettes by using acupuncture. Volz went through a three- to four-week process in which little metal discs were bandaged behind her ear twice a week. The discs, about a centimeter in diameter, were left there for the whole process. The first week of treatment, she smoked one pack. During the second week, she only smoked two or three cigarettes. By week three she had zero cigarettes.
“I felt some cravings, but nothing too out of control. It felt like a weight was lifted from my chest. I could taste and smell things more. I never realized how much I was lacking those senses,” Volz said.
Dr. William Terrell uses acupuncture to treat smoking at the Iowa Acupuncture Clinic in Clive, but with a slightly different method. He puts acupuncture needles in the ear’s auricle (the outer portion of the ear). The cost is around $58 a treatment, but Terrell offers a sliding scale. “The ear is basically the control panel for the whole body,” Terrell said. “Smoking calms you down, and that’s what acupuncture does. It’s tuning up your central nervous system and getting more blood flowing to the brain. It’s the same reason you feel so good after exercising.” Exercise releases endorphins, which leads to the feeling known as a “runner’s high.”
Bobbie Jo Sheridan with the American Lung Association said the organization doesn’t endorse acupuncture or hypnotism as a treatment tool, but doesn’t discourage them either.
“If a person is ready to quit, whatever method they use will probably work for them,” Sheridan said. “While we as an organization don’t endorse it, if someone wants to quit, we encourage them to use whatever will work for them.”
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