Category: Addictions

“Since quitting is not easy, any failure should be taken as a learning experience. And keep trying till you succeed.”

Many of India’s estimated 120 million smokers—a figure that has been growing steadily—would want to kick the habit. And, according to a recent study, the largest ever done for India and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 9.3 lakh Indians die due to smoking-related illnesses every year.

Led by Dr Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Global Health Research, in Canada, the study maintains that smoking more than doubled the risk of dying from cancer for both sexes. It also tripled the odds of dying from tuberculosis or other respiratory diseases for women, and more than doubled the risk for men. Moreover, cardiovascular risks were 60 to 70 percent higher among men and women who smoked as compared to non-smokers, Dr Jha’s team found.

So why smoke when it’s killing you? What’s important is to have the will to quit and to persevere. “Stick to the decision to quit,” says Dr Umesh Durga Naik, who was until recently senior research officer at the Goa-based National Organization for Tobacco Eradication. “Since quitting is not easy, any failure should be taken as a learning experience. And keep trying till you succeed.” Smokers can try these different methods to kick the deadly habit:

Acupuncture

As a student, Ronit Ghosh* used to smoke occasionally. But once he started working and moved up the corporate ladder, the New Delhi-based senior manager at a multinational corporation needed about three dozen cigarettes a day. “For me, smoking reduced the stress and any relationship issues at the workplace,” says Ronit—all this even though he was aware that smoking would damage his health. Ronit tried therapy based on acupuncture, a healing system popularized by the Chinese.

By inserting tiny needles into the flow of energy at various points around Ronit’s body, Dr Anjali Sharma, acupuncture specialist at Ethos Healthcare & Education, Delhi, explains that she can help lessen the withdrawal symptoms.

After the first ten daily hour-long sessions, Ronit felt some mental calmness and a slightly reduced urge to smoke, and he cut down to some 25 cigarettes a day. After another ten sessions, he went on a fortnight’s business tour. On his return, he told Dr Sharma that he was able to manage on just ten to 12 cigarettes a day. Yet another ten sessions were planned, this time every other day. On the day of the seventh session, Ronit revealed that he’d decided to quit and would like to postpone further sessions. Dr Sharma agreed. Another month passed when the doctor got a call.

“I haven’t been smoking at all!”Ronit beamed.

Research studies have established the effectiveness of acupuncture in de-addicting smokers. “It works by reducing irritability and restlessness and induces mental calmness and relaxation,” says Dr Sharma. “At the physical level it detoxifies and im-proves body functions by releasing natural endorphins. At the neuro-chemical level it helps by preventing any decrease in extra-cellular dopamine levels.” Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or brain chemical, and its regulation plays a crucial role in our mental and physical health. As for Ronit, he hasn’t smoked a single cigarette in almost a year.

Acupuncture helps people recover from drugs and alcohol problems. It is used in clinics through the United States. Acupuncture can decrease cravings for drugs and alcohol, reduce withdrawal symptoms, relieve tension, and help people relax. Acupuncture treatments, taken enough times, clear the mind, build energy, and give a sense of well being.

According to Chinese tradition, placing acupuncture needles in the ear affect specific organs such as the liver and kidneys. Western science has confirmed that acupuncture treatments change levels of chemicals in the body and act on the nervous system. Acupuncture itself is not a substitute for therapy but is used in addition to counseling and self-help programs.

How it all began

One day in the early 1970’s, H.L. Wen, MD., then the only neurosurgeon in all of South China and Hong Kong, was preparing to use electro-acupuncture as surgical analgesia and the patient, who happened to be experiencing withdrawal symptoms from opium at the time, reported his symptoms had disappeared. Wen canceled the surgery and scouted the hospital for other patients in withdrawal. He gave his pre-op procedure to them and their symptoms also ceased. Acupuncture for substance abuse was born.

Why Acupuncture for Detox?

• Reduces the physical symptoms of withdrawal.
• Relieves depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
• Profoundly relieves withdrawal symptoms including cravings, body aches, headache, nausea, sweating, muscle cramping, etc.

The acupuncture detoxification program is an ideal partner with other programs. It alleviates withdrawal symptoms so mental and physical stability are quickly achieved. This gives a new level of comfort allowing for more effective counseling. Twelve Step program participation, or participation in any other treatment program is considered important to sobriety.

In addition, acupuncture…

• Can be used safely with any other health condition.
• Does not utilize other abusable, addictive drugs for treatment
• Can be effectively done on an outpatient basis.
• Is successfully used as a drug detoxification method at over 100 different drug treatment clinics in the United States and is also successfully used for this purpose in at least 25 other countries.

Acupuncture Treatment

Five tiny needles are placed in each ear, and then the clients rest quietly for 45 minutes. This is a good time to relax, meditate or think about changes to be made in your life. In detoxification treatment, points in the ear correspond to specific organs including the lungs, liver, kidneys and nervous system. One of the points is for relaxation. The treatment triggers the release of natural body chemicals, including endorphins, which help reduce cravings for drugs, ease withdrawal symptoms, and increase relaxation.

How Will I feel During the Treatment?

Once the needles have been placed, your ears may tingle or feel warm. Some people even fall asleep. These are normal responses. Some people say they feel very relaxed when they are having a treatment, other’s don’t feel much at all. Even if you don’t feel much you are getting benefit from treatment. Acupuncture is most effective after a series of treatments over a period of time.

The Detoxification Process

During detoxification, your body filters out the toxins that you have been storing up. Blood circulation begins to improve. Sometimes during the detoxification period you may feel achy, not sleep well, be cranky, or even have drug dreams. Please let the acupuncturist know if you have any of these symptoms so that additional acupuncture points can be added to your treatment.

How to Receive Maximum Benefit From Treatment

• Treatment time should be used to sit quietly, relax and reflect or meditate.
• Do not smoke cigarettes or drink coffee in the half hour before and after treatment.
• Let the acupuncturist know if you have any health problems.

Get daily acupuncture treatments for the first two weeks, then three treatments a week for several weeks, then two treatments per week for several additional weeks. Final treatments should be once a week. If relapse occurs or something stressful happens in your life, then additional treatments are recommended.

If you take a good look at our society, it’s easy to see that the majority of the population is at least slightly overweight. And it’s also easy to see why-too much time sitting at computers, grabbing take-out from restaurants that have ridiculous portions…but the real reason why most people gain weight is because they are fighting a battle with their subconscious, and losing.

Think about this: how do you feel when you are in the process of eating? If you’re trying to be healthy and eating a giant bowl of raw spinach, do you get the same feeling you have when eating an ice cream sundae? Probably not, unless you have some sort of spinach fetish. There are places in the world where this bowl of spinach would look like the nectar of the Gods..after all, if you are struggling just to consume enough calories to stay alive, anything looks good.

Here, that is not the problem. We have such complete and total access to any type of food we want that our meals are based on pleasure, not necessity. Sure, we may get hungry during the day if we’re having a late dinner, but I don’t think any of us know what REAL hunger is, the type of hunger that dictates your entire life.

Since we don’t have the problem of figuring out how to get fed, our only problem is deciding WHAT to get fed…and generally, we’re going to pick something we like. Because, for us, food is so intricately entwined with emotion and mood, that it is almost inseparable. Food stimulates us at our core, sending those endorphins and happy chemicals zipping through our bodies.

Food effects our spirits, sometimes so strongly it can be considered an addiction. Unlike most addictions, however, there is no going cold turkey with food. Imagine telling a heroin addict: “You need to end this addiction…but you’re going to have to take in just a little heroin everyday, to survive. And you are going to have to watch while your friends do it, and see commercials on TV of people doing it, and spend most of your day surrounded by heroin. But you can only take a little heroin everyday, and then stop, no matter how much you want more.”

How successful do you think an addict would be in this situation? Now think about the last time you tried to diet. You still need to eat. And you still need to watch other people eat, and see commercials for all sorts of restaurants…all that stimuli is coming at you, while you are trying to change your behaviors. You don’t just want food-if that was the case, you would be perfectly happy eating nothing but vegetables and grains. What you really want is food that makes you happy, and those foods are usually full of fat and sugar.

So where does acupuncture come into the equation? You know those chemicals I mentioned, the endorphins that make you feel so good, the ones we chase through food and sex and drugs? Well, those same endorphins are released during acupuncture. How many times have you come home after a miserable, stressful day and eaten something full of carbs or fat just to make yourself feel better? I’ll bet it was more often than you came home to down a pint of ice cream after getting a raise, or having a great date. We are in constant pursuit of feeling good…and if we are already loaded up with endorphins, the need to find something to stimulate that feeling is gone.

In short, if you are consider yourself a “stress eater”, or if you are one of those people who tend to binge according to their moods, acupuncture is an excellent option for changing your behaviors…and starting you on the road to taking off weight.

Acupuncture has proven to be helpful in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. Acupuncture can assist in the detoxification process by easing the pain of detox as well as help repair physiological damage due to long term drug and alcohol abuse. Chronic abuse of drugs and alcohol can deplete the body of its natural endorphins. Endorphins are the body’s feel-good hormone and help the body to manage daily pain and stress. Auricular Acupuncture, the manipulation of the outer ear via needling, cauterizing, massaging or electrical stimulation has proven to increase the body’s natural production of endorphins and aid in the alcohol addiction recovery process.

There is historical documentation that auricular treatments were used to treat health conditions in ancient China and Egypt. Medical documentation from 17th century and 18th century Europe lists cauterizing the ear as a viable treatment for sciatica and sexual dysfunctions. While there is historical evidence that auricular acupuncture was used to treat various conditions the techniques were not systematized until a French physician by the name of Dr. Paul Nogier in the early 1950s made an interesting observation. Dr. Paul Nogier noticed a number of his patients had a portion of their ear cauterized by a local healer to treat sciatic pain. This treatment had proven effective and this curiosity fueled the beginnings of Dr Nogier’s empirical research into the field of Auriculomedicine.

Dr. Nogier developed his theories and published a book entitled, “The Man in the Ear” where he described the somatotropic relationship between the shape of the ear and the body. Dr. Nogier’s somatopic mappings of the homunculus, the man in the ear, an inverted representation of a fetus found in the shape of the outer ear which correlates perfectly with the human body.

Nogier brought his discoveries to his medical colleagues. In February of 1956 Nogier attended the Mediterranean Society of Acupuncture and his work was republished, translated and spread across continents. Nogier’s reflex system was spread throughout the Japanese acupuncturist community and was recognized by the Chinese medical authorities. Nogier’s work was so respected in China that the Chinese Government awarded him the formal title of “Father of Modern Auricular Therapy”. Years later an American doctor, TD Oleson, tested Nogier’s work in a clinical experiment. Patients were draped with a sheet, attending physicians had no prior knowledge of patient’s medical condition and in 75.2% of these cases the patient was accurately diagnosis by an examination of the ear alone.

Today Auricular Acupuncture has been known to significantly relieve the symptoms of withdrawal from opiates, alcohol and tobacco. Auricular Acupuncture has proven an effective auxiliary treatment for other addictions such as gambling, sex and food addictions. Auricular Acupuncture is reported to increase the production of the body’snatural opioid and hormones. Treatment with auricular acupuncture can be used to alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal as well as manage pain and discomfort in order to heal the body and maintain recovery.