Acupuncture for Quitting Smoking

How Chinese medicine understands quitting smoking

Chinese medicine does not have an old category for nicotine withdrawal, but it reads the symptoms the same way as any other pattern. Cravings, irritability, poor sleep and a big appetite each point somewhere.

The common patterns are:

• Liver Qi stagnation. Irritability, frustration, tight shoulders and sighing. Smoking was often a way to release tension, and without it the tension builds up. This pattern overlaps with stress and anxiety.
• Heat in the Lung and Stomach. Years of smoke are seen as drying and heating. After quitting there may be a dry throat, thirst, a red tongue and a strong appetite.
• Phlegm in the Lung. A productive cough, a heavy chest and a thick tongue coating as the lungs clear.
• Heart and Kidney not communicating. A restless mind at night, trouble falling asleep and vivid dreams in the first weeks.

The pattern matters because two people quitting on the same day can struggle in very different ways. One needs calming, another needs help with cough and heat, another with sleep.

What treatment involves

Your first visit includes a lot of questions: how much you smoke, when, what sets off your cravings, earlier attempts to quit, and your general health. I look at your tongue and take your pulse. We also talk through your quit date and your plan for the hardest parts of the day.

Acupuncture commonly combines points on the outer ear with body points for your pattern: calming for irritability, settling for sleep, clearing for cough. Treatment aims to take the edge off cravings and withdrawal so the other parts of your plan are easier to stick to. When sleep, cough or digestion are a problem, Chinese herbal medicine can add a formula written for you and dispensed at the clinic in Keswick.

Treatment works best as part of a full quit plan. Your doctor or pharmacist can talk to you about nicotine replacement and quit medicines, and counselling adds a lot too. Plan on 5–10 treatments to judge progress. Research on acupuncture for quitting smoking is still developing.

Between visits

• Change your routines. Take a different route to work, and have your coffee somewhere you did not smoke.
• Plan for cravings. Most pass in a few minutes. Drink water, walk, or chew something crunchy until it passes.
• Clear out cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays at home and in the car.
• Cut back on alcohol for the first weeks. It is a strong trigger.
• Move every day. A short walk helps with cravings, mood and weight.

When to see your doctor first

Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before and while you quit if:

• You take medicines such as clozapine, olanzapine, theophylline or warfarin. Quitting can change how your body handles them, and doses may need checking.
• You are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• You have heart disease, lung disease or diabetes.
• You have a history of depression or other mental health conditions, or your mood drops a lot while quitting.

Get medical help promptly for coughing up blood, a cough that lasts more than three weeks, weight loss you cannot explain, or shortness of breath that is getting worse. Call 911 for chest pain or severe shortness of breath. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada, or 911.