Millions of dollars each year are spent on smoking cessation programs. However, many smokers have given up trying to quit because they simply find it too difficult to fight their addiction.

Acupuncture may provide just the additional leverage that a smoker needs to finally quit for good. A recent article in the Preventive Medicine journal highlights a study done on acupuncture and its effectiveness on assisting patients to stop smoking.

Acupuncture uses small needles of different lengths and sizes in order to stimulate the skin in a particular area. The area chosen for stimulation is thought to correspond to the meridian, or pathway, that provides energy to the affected body system or area.

For example, for smoking, the needles are inserted in areas that will affect energy flow to the mouth, lungs and respiratory system, as well as parts of the brain that will affect cravings for nicotine.

In the study described in Preventive Medicine, participants were all long time smokers who wanted to quit smoking. They were randomly assigned into one of two groups.

The control group was given acupuncture treatments that had nothing to do with the areas that affect smoking. The experimental group was given acupuncture treatments meant to assist in smoking cessation.

Interestingly, the experimental subjects reported having less desire to smoke and also actually decreased their amount of smoking than the control group.

But the experimenters didn't rely on the word of the participants alone. They also tested the blood of each group for chemicals that are left in the body when a person smokes, and those tests also confirmed that the experimental subjects had smoked less.

In fact, over time, twice as many of the experimental subjects were able to quit smoking altogether in comparison to the control group.

The experimenters stress the importance of several factors when reproducing these results. They say that it is important for the patient to receive acupuncture treatments for smoking cessation a minimum of twice per week for three weeks in order of the treatment to be fully effective. The participants were also taught how to perform self-acupressure on their ears in order to reinforce the treatment and to help cravings to pass.

Because not all people will be able to quit entirely using this method, it is recommended that patients use acupuncture in addition to other methods such as nicotine replacement or support groups.

It seems that in the worse case, even if a person doesn't quit smoking by using acupuncture, it can help a person to greatly reduce the amount they smoke. But any efforts that are made to quit smoking can only improve a person's health in the long run.