Acupuncture as a Physiologic Approach to Smoking Cessation
By William Weinstein, M.S., L.Ac.
©2009 Mid-Hudson Acupuncture, William Weinstein, M.S., L.Ac.
This supplement to HV Biz is aimed at people who smoke and the people who love them. As nicotine is no less addicting than heroin or cocaine, and the pleasurable promises of the nicotine-addiction industry not easily ignored, climbing out of the nicotine trap can feel like scaling Everest more than stepping up from the street to the curb.
You will have read in other articles the many beneficial outcomes derived from kicking the habit. It is clear that there are both short-term and long-term positive health effects, social benefits derived from being kinder and more responsible to the people who live and work with the smoker, a sense of taking control of one's life in the best sense of the word, and of course economic benefits from cash in the pocket rather than on the plus-side of balance sheets of the nicotine-addition industry.
A one-size-fits-all approach to life, its joys and its problems does not fit the modern view of the world we live in. For smoking cessation, one person will benefit from a self-help group, another from nicotine replacement therapy, another from drugs that interfere with nicotine receptors in the brain. Some benefit from acupuncture.
There is controversy about the use of acupuncture for smoking cessation. Clinical studies have shown mixed results. But just as there are many ways of living in the world, it should come as no surprise that there are many kinds of acupuncture and many "flavors" of acupuncturists. The key for the consumer is to locate a practitioner whose approach makes sense to you. And it's clear, incidentally, that some people will not easily benefit from acupuncture; yet many will, and do.
Most acupuncture treatment for smoking cessation involves the use of auricular, or ear acupuncture, points, most often with gentle electrical stimulation. This perspective sees the ear as a microcosm of the entire body, and thus a lens for bringing a whole-body treatment into focus. Many acupuncturists will include acupuncture points on the trunk or limbs as a way of integrating the session and bringing the whole body into the treatment.
The acupuncture perspective that makes the most sense to me is a biomedical approach whose foundations are currently being laid down by Boulder-based acupuncturists Dr. Yun-tao Ma and his wife Mila Ma. While their construct is not concerned with smoking cessation per se, it provides a commonsense and thoughtful window into how acupuncture works physiologically. According to the Ma's, "Acupuncture normalizes physiological activities of the nervous, endocrine, immune, and cardiovascular systems to balance pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory processes."
"Acupuncture, write Ma and Ma, "does not treat any particular pathological symptom but normalizes physiological homeostasis to promote self-healing." Homeostasis is the body's great and miraculous balancing act, the reason we continue to live moment to moment and the source of healing and repair when we are ill. Normalizing the four survival systems mentioned above is how acupuncture achieves its outcomes, both symptomatically and from the perspective of whole-body homeostasis. Addiction, whether from nicotine or other substances, involves all of these survival systems, testing the limits of our homeostatic capacities and determining our behavior toward these substances. For the smoker, the urge to smoke and the pain of withdrawal are the obvious behavioral manifestations of homeostatic imbalance.
The physiologic effects of acupuncture are only now being brought to light. What is clear that is the physiological changes are first mediated through the microlesions created through the insertion of thin, sterile acupuncture needles. These lesions do not fully heal for at least 72 hours; hence, the direct effect of treatment creates physiologic changes over the course of several days. This is why people seeking to quit smoking initially need several treatments to support the choice they are making.
For the smoker, the dilemma is how to break out of the vicious cycle of addiction. For some people addicted to nicotine, an acupuncture construct that uses both ear and whole-body needling, with an eye to normalizing homeostasis during withdrawal, is a method that makes sense. It may not be the answer for all people who seek to quit smoking, but for some it may prove to be the path to a smoke-free and healthier life.
