Helix Clinic blog

Regular readers of our blog will have noticed a ’stop smoking’ theme over the past couple of weeks. We’ve given advice on how shorter, more frequent acupuncture treatments can help beat cigarette cravings, and how important it is to get into the right mindset before giving up smoking. We’ve looked at the benefits that can be gained within minutes of stopping smoking. And yesterday we speculated on the role that a good posture could play in helping to anchor good feelings to your future non-smoking self.

Next week is national no-smoking day so if you are a smoker, this is a great time of year to think about quitting for good. We appreciate how hard it can be to give up, so we’ve decided to run a competition with a prize of 3 weeks acupuncture treatment and support targeted to help someone start a healthier lifestyle without tobacco.

To enter our competition, simply fill in our short smoking survey. We’ll be picking a winner at random on national no smoking day so your treatment can start straight away. Good luck!

Tags: competition, no smoking day, smoking

Following on from  yesterday’s post about the connection between childhood asthma and watching TV, we thought of an interesting way to use posture to help someone who is trying to stop smoking.

Many smokers have a similar posture where the upper spine is collapsed (like the children mentioned yesterday). Smoking is inherently unpleasant to the lungs, so part of this contraction happens over time as a defensive postural reaction to the smoke.

If you are a smoker, take a brief moment to assess your own posture to see if this holds for you. If it does, and if you are currently trying to give up smoking, you can use the following exercise as a way to condition yourself away from cigarettes.

Take a few minutes to close your eyes and imagine yourself as a healthy non-smoker sometime in the future, standing in a beautiful natural environment where the air is clean and clear. Picture yourself with a naturally straight upper spine, so that your lungs are fully open to the clean air and you are able to breathe deeply and well. Physically allow your posture to adjust at this point so that your spine is straight and you are breathing deeply. Continue to imagine yourself immersed in this scene, and become aware of how good you feel about the fact that you are no longer a smoker. Stay aware of your good posture, and allow yourself to feel free of all past cravings for cigarettes. Notice how good you feel confident in the knowledge that you are now healthy and smoke-free.

Enjoy this visualisation for a few minutes and then slowly come back to yourself. With this exercise, you will have effectively anchored a postural state to a state where cravings don’t bother you any more. This means that the next time you experience a cigarette craving, simply adjust your posture, make your upper spine straight so that your chest and lungs feel open, and imagine yourself back in that natural scene, enjoying the clean air with no more cravings. If you visualised the scene well enough, you should find your cravings reduce and eventually disappear by using the power of your posture and the power of your mind!

Tags: cravings, posture, smoking, visualisation

It’s worth remembering that when you give up smoking, your health starts to improve straight away, and the longer you stay nicotine-free the better it gets. Did you know that when you stub out that last cigarette:

• After 20 minutes, your blood pressure and pulse rate will go back to normal.
• After 8 hours, the nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood will have reduced by a half and oxygen levels will have returned to normal.
• After 24 hours, carbon monoxide will have been eliminated from the body, and your lungs will start to clear out mucus and other debris accumulated from smoking.
• After 48 hours, there is no more nicotine in the body. You will find your ability to taste and smell improve.
• After 72 hours, the bronchial tubes in the lungs can start to relax and work more efficiently. This means your energy levels will increase.
• After 2 weeks your circulation will start to improve.
• After 3 months, any lung problems you previously had, such as coughing or wheezing will start to improve. Lung function improves by up to 10%.
• After 5 years, the risk of getting a heart attack falls to roughly a half of that of a smoker.
• After 10 years, the risk of lung cancer halves compared to someone who is still smoking, and the risk of heart attack returns to the level it would be if you had never smoked!

And another benefit… after 10 years you would have saved over £15000 by not smoking. So the only question remaining is… what are you waiting for? If you really want to stop, but the physical cravings are still too much, then maybe we can help. Why not ask us how acupuncture could help you to stop smoking for good.

Tags: heart attack, lung cancer, smoking

In yesterday’s post on how acupuncture can help you to stop smoking, we talked about how 2 or 3 shorter acupuncture treatments per week were more effective than 1 longer treatment per week during those first 3 weeks when the cravings are at their worst.

Before someone gets to that stage though, it is important for them to think about their mindset and whether they really do want to give up smoking. When patients first come in, one of the first things we ask is whether they really do want to give up. It sounds silly to ask this question seeing as that is why they said they have come in, but it is important to check this commitment to change.

Sometimes people feel that they ought to give up smoking, or maybe their partner is always on at them to quit, but when it comes down to it they still really enjoy having that cigarette after meals, or having a smoke when they drink, or sharing a smoking break with colleagues from the office…

If this is the case, it is unlikely that the treatment will be successful, and indeed it is unlikely that any treatment would be successful (e.g. hypnosis, patches etc). Acupuncture cannot make someone change their mind if mentally they are not ready to quit.

On the other hand, if someone is really ready to quit smoking but is just having trouble breaking the physical cravings then acupuncture can be a very powerful agent for change. Acupuncture (and especially ear acupuncture) causes a release of endorphins in the brain. These are the body’s pleasure chemicals and help to suppress the craving for cigarettes. They are also the reason why many people feel so relaxed after an acupuncture treatment. So, if someone is mentally ready to quit cigarettes for good but can’t quite beat those physical cravings then acupuncture could be just the thing.

Tags: mental state, smoking

We get many calls and emails from prospective patients asking us how effective acupuncture is to help stop smoking. There is certainly lots of anecdotal evidence that acupuncture can help someone to stop smoking, and at the clinic we have helped lots of people to quit smoking for good, but sometimes people still have trouble giving up.

From our experience, we have found that the most effective application of acupuncture to help stop smoking is through shorter, more frequent sessions.  The physical cravings are generally the worst during those first three weeks after quitting, and during that time people need support more than once a week to help with persistent cravings.

For those first three weeks, we would recommend coming in for at least two and preferably three short ear acupuncture treatments (15-20 minutes) evenly spaced throughout the week. In addition, it is best to start the whole process with a couple of body acupuncture sessions to help the detox process get started. After that initial 3 week period, weekly body acupuncture sessions are recommended for a further month to help consolidate and prevent relapse.

One of our blocks of 5 acupuncture treatments (at a cost of £200) would cover an initial consultation and body acupuncture treatment, 3 weeks of 2-3 ear acupuncture sessions a week, and a final week’s body acupuncture treatment to help get you through that tricky initial period, and off the cigarettes for good.

Tags: cravings, ear acupuncture, smoking