What alternative medicines and methods can help me stop smoking?

What alternative medicines and methods can help me stop smoking?

Linda Hyder Ferry (Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: How can alternative medicine help me to quit smoking?; What alternative medicines and methods can help me stop smoking?; How can acupuncture help me to stop smoking? and more...

Nicotine chemistry in the brain is the real reason that people have stimulus and then withdrawal. None of the alternative therapies change that, only nicotine replacement therapy actually does that. Alternative therapies such as acupuncture change by stimulating through skin receptors sensations in your brain, hopefully to divert you from paying attention to withdrawal, but it doesn't change the chemistry. Hypnosis, similarly, changes the way you perceive input, but not everyone is able to be hypnotized. So herbal treatments, hypnosis, and acupuncture or acupressure are all alternative therapies that someone can look at if they're helpful to them. Just remember the cost of those therapies shouldn't be used instead of using effective, proven therapies such as pharmacy therapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration that we know have effectiveness in large populations of smokers. So make sure you talk it over with your coach, your stop smoking instructor or health care provider as to which is best for you.