Quit Smoking Guide

Addiction is now the biggest preventable killer in Britain, causing 150,000 deaths a year (120,000 tobacco related, 33,000 alcohol related and 1,700 drugs related).
How can Chinese medicine help with addiction?

Chinese medicine has beneficial effects on addiction to various substances. The most commonly treated addictions at AcuMedic clinics are smoking and alcoholism.

Smoking has a detrimental impact on all major systems of the human body, in particular, the circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems. In Chinese medical theory, smoking weakens the Lung’s function of commanding the overall movement of Qi, Blood and Meridians, by creating Heat in the Lung and Stomach, which in turn will cause Fire in the Heart and/or stagnation of Liver Qi, hence withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, palpitations, mood swings and restlessness occur.

Chinese medicine can reduce the craving for cigarettes. Studies show that patients after treatment often report a dislike for the smell of tobacco and that the craving stops when they press ear points with herbal seeds on (This is called ear acupuncture where either herbal seeds or metal studs are plastered on to certain points on the ears).

Alcoholism, like smoking, can cause irreversible damage to all major organs in the human body, although a moderate amount of alcohol under certain circumstances can be beneficial for health. Chinese medicine treats any withdrawal symptoms and reduces the craving. It has no side effects.

Acupuncture stimulates detoxification, promotes a heightened sense of relaxation, and encourages endorphin production, which makes it an excellent tool for overcoming addiction. Herbal medicine helps the body to cope with stress, improves circulation and promotes mental and physical alertness.

Treatment for addiction can be effective only if the patient is determined to change. The length of treatment depends on the patient’s response and on the severity and duration of the addiction. Drug addiction can also benefit from Chinese medical treatment.

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The Author ‘Acumedic’ has over 30 years of experience developing and enhancing all aspects of Chinese medicine, Acupuncture and traditional herbal treatments. With an extensive range of Products and Services Acumedic is one of the most comprehensive suppliers in Europe. For more Information please visit http://www.acumedic.com.

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To the millions of smokers throughout the world, the prospect of quitting brings about conflicting emotions. On one hand the daunting prospect, the fear of the withdrawal symptoms and the feeling of ‘what will I do if I don’t smoke?’ and on the other hand there is what I have labeled the ‘counter arguments’ which state; ‘why should I give up if I don’t want to?’ or ‘I’m too old to stop now’ or ‘no need to quit completely… If I cut down to 3 or 4 a day then that will be OK’.

These ‘counter-arguments’ are obvious signs that there is no real intention to stop smoking for good. If there were then these counter-arguments would not be present and the person would already have given up smoking for good.

There are many milestones in the process of giving up smoking;
The First hour without a cigarette
The first day,
the first week,
the first month,
The three month mark is an important one,
Nine months on and the nicotine is still tricking us…

After having stopped smoking for 18 months or so, most people think that the ‘giving up’ process has ended and there is no longer addiction. This is incorrect. This is one of the most dangerous times in stopping smoking. People at this stage think that they can control it now and that the odd cigarette once in a while won’t do any harm and that they will not become addicted again. Well that’s all that it takes… one cigarette, because that opens the way to repeat the experience another day, and then another day and then again and again until the person quickly finds themselves smoking several cigarettes a day and then the same amount of cigarettes as before they gave up. I have seen this happen to so many people, myself included. I actually gave up twice for periods of 18 months only to find myself smoking again. The maid problem was that I hadn’t really committed to giving up ‘for ever’. I never realized that giving up smoking was an ongoing matter and that years later I would still be tempted to smoke again.

The addiction is still very present even years after having given up. Giving up smoking is a lifetime effort. The act of giving up takes literally for ever. You have to continually say no every time you are tempted to smoke again. I have an elderly relative who gave up smoking 45 years ago… when she smells a cigarette she inhales deeply and says… mmm… I’d love to smoke a cigarette now. And that’s 45 years on.

Unless you are prepared to really remove the all possibility of ever smoking again from your life then don’t even bother trying to give up because you are not ready and you will most probably start smoking again sooner or later and this will attack your self esteem making it more difficult to give up again.

Once you have decided that you are ready and that you really want to give up for good then you must set yourself some reasons for giving up to counteract the foolish ‘counter arguments’ that your nicotine addiction will throw up continually over the next few years.

Get clear on your reasons for giving up… these reasons are perfectly logical and will make sense to us all (most of the time).

Primarily health reasons.. none of us want to kill ourselves by smoking, (yet a smoker will convince themselves that it will not happen to them)
Think of the benefits.. clean breath, better lung power and easier breathing, able to go into no smoking areas and enjoy them without feeling the craving to smoke.

You should have very strong and clear visions or desires to stop smoking because later when the addiction starts to play tricks on your mind then you have to be strong enough to see that and having clear reasons to fall back on will help you fight the addiction in the few key moments that will arise in which you might fall back into becoming a smoker again.

When I feel tempted to smoke a cigarette again I tell myself that I really do want to give up

To stop smoking you have to resign yourself to the fact that it must be for ever. This sounds obvious now but it is common to start smoking again after many years of not smoking, normally triggered by something that can be used as an ‘excuse’ such as… ‘it was an extremely stressful time at work’. Or a divorce or relationship split etc.

So before you give up smoking, ask yourself if it will really be for good, get clear on your reasons for giving up… I mean extremely clear, you may even want to write them down, and then use those reasons daily for years to come to attack any silly little ‘counter arguments’ your nicotine addiction might thrust into your logical thinking.

At the To Stop Smoking website you can sign up for the free 5 day email course designed to help you stop smoking with ease.
There are also many resources and tips on how to stop smoking for good.

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Smoking can and does kill many people every year. Why do people still smoke? Besides being the cause of lung cancer - a killer disease, smoking is also becoming more and more cost prohibitive! At $4.00 + per pack, a two pack a day habit amounts to 4 x 2 x 365 = $2,920.00 per year! Yet, the money is really secondary, the real cost is the ill effect on one’s health, and by the way, it’s not only the issue of longevity; it is also the state of your present health and well being. Smoking saps your energy and robs you of a much greater sense of well-being that could be yours if only you could quit smoking (and get some exercise).

The plan I have for kicking the smoking habit is the method that I used myself almost a decade ago - I’ve been smoke free ever since! It does not involve any drug, nicotine patch or pill and is cost free. Furthermore, I quit on the first attempt, never picked up a cigarette again, and did not gain substantial extra weight - other than two or three pounds max!

Let me state straightforwardly that I am not a doctor nor do I pretend to be one. Furthermore, the plan I will present to you is neither new nor revolutionary. Again this is simple but effective way to quit smoking forever. Other approaches, I am sure, work as well as this one. Some of them may work faster. But, the main selling point I have for my approach is this: QUIT SMOKING THE EASY WAY is the EASIEST method to quit smoking PERMANENTLY!

The basic idea behind this approach is to gradually withdraw from the smoking habit over time, thus substantially weakening the addiction to the point that it loses its stronghold over the smoker’s body and mind. It is damn hard to abruptly stop a habit of say two packs a day cold turkey. It is so difficult that many smokers who try such an approach will likely fail, and many thereupon give up, resigning themselves to the long-term dangers and ill effects of tobacco addition for the remainder of their lives.

It is a lot easier, on the other hand, to cut back gradually over time and thereby reduce habit down to 5 or 6 cigarettes a day and then to stop completely. It is the difference of quitting a two packs a day habit vs. quitting a 5 cigarette a day habit. The addiction substantially loses its stronghold over the smoker. It still remains but has become a lot weaker and therefore easier to gain control over.

THE PROGRAM

1. The first step is the easiest: simply take note of how much you are smoking and especially note the frequency of your cigarettes. Keep a record of the time of each lite up. The basics of this method are to reduce the frequency of cigarettes by gradually increasing the time intervals between lite ups.

2. Now take the record you’ve created and average the time between lite ups. Of course, use common sense in doing this! You are not going to add the six + hours of sleep into the average. We want an average time interval between smokes during your waking hours when you are free to lite up. This last point is important because the average will be skewed if you average in hours when you are not allowed to lite up, as for example during work. Again, the average should be during the day and evening when there are no constraints upon your smoking.

3. Next, simply watch the clock! Keep yourself to the time interval that you have established. Do this for three days to accustom yourself to the program. Easy so far! In fact you have made a great start and have yet to reduce your smoking by a single cigarette! As easy as this is, please don’t cheat the system! If you have set the interval at 30 minutes and had to wait 2 hours to your work break to lite up, you are not allowed to smoke 4 in a row! If your interval is 30 minutes that means that from the time you put out your first cigarette to the time you lite up the next, AT LEAST 30 minutes MUST elapse!

4. Now the hard part: withdrawing! Whatever your time interval is; increase by 20%. This may sound like a lot, but it’s really nothing! If your interval was at 30 minutes; a 20% increase puts your interval at 36 minutes. So all you have to do is hold on for another 6 minutes! Come on! How hard is that! For an interval at 1 hour the 20% increase puts you at 1 hour 12 minutes! You see the reason why many people fail in their attempts to quit smoking is that they give up. This is not rocket science, since the only time you can possible fail in this is by giving in and lighting up again. I think most people who try to quit cold turkey feel overwhelmed by it. Psychologically they think to themselves that they can NEVER have another in their lives, and that thought seems overwhelming. They gradually develop defeatist attitudes thinking that it is just to hard for them or that they are not equal to the task. My system is so much easier. You don’t have to feel overwhelmed! All you have to do at this early stage is to wait an extra 6 or 12 minutes. It’s not a lifetime! Hence, you don’t feel overwhelmed! The downside of this program is that it does take longer than quitting cold turkey, but the great advantage is that it is for easier! Once you have increased your interval stay for 10 days.

5. By now you get the idea! Increase the interval again, by another 20%. You may find this a bit harder than the first interval increase, but essentially it s the same deal. If you interval started at 30 minutes it went to 36 minutes at the first increase. This increase brings it to 43.2 minutes. Round up to 44 minutes. Consider this: after this step you would have decreased you habit by 40%! Going from 36 minutes to lite up to 44 minutes is simply waiting an additional 8 minutes. If you are craving a cigarette by then just convince yourself to hold on just a few more minutes. Develop strategies for taking your mind off of it for that brief time. Eat a snack. As you cut back to lower levels of smoking though the method of increasing time intervals you may find it getting a bit tougher. If you do, just increase the number of days before the next interval increase. The basic method is really the important lesson; the specific timing between stages can vary. Most importantly: NEVER GIVE UP! The remainder of the program is fairly predictable: increase intervals by 20% steps - or less if you begin to find it tough going - until you are down to 5 or 6 cigarettes a day. Once you have hit that point; stay there for at least ten to 15 days. You should then be able to stop smoking completely and forever!!!

The following is an illustration of how it may work for a 2 pack a day smoker. While the key is focusing on increasing the interval between cigarettes, each % of increase in time interval should = a corresponding decrease in the amount of cigarettes smoked daily.

40 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 32

32 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 25.6 (round down) 25

25 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 20

20 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 16

16 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 12

12 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 9

9 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 7

7 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 5

Final step is to quit all together! The final step is the hardest because it is at this point that you finally commit to not smoking not just for the next interval but for the rest of your life! Yet, it ought to be a lot easier at this point than it would have been at the outset if you were to quit cold turkey. Still this is definitely the toughest point. Personally, they way I handled this is though physical exercise. This helped me a great deal to take away the last bit of craving in that crucial period. Another substitute is food or munchies. If you just eat then naturally you will gain a few pounds. Personally, I think a few extra pounds aren’t a bad trade off for what could be a killer addiction. Actually, if you eat a little more and you exercise the calories may balance out more or less.

If you spend 10 days for each step, you would be able to quit in 90 days. If you find this tough along the way you may stretch the time-line. If you stayed on each step 20 days that is still only about 180 days or so; 6 months. That still isn’t bad for the goal of staying smoke free for the rest of your life!!!! Again, this is not meant to be the fastest way to quit smoking. However, this is probably the easiest way to stop and stay stopped. I would recommend this method to anybody, but this is especially helpful for those who have already tried and failed at other methods.

written by Roger LeBlanc, all rights reserved

you are free to redistribute this article provided you do not alter the article in any way.

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