Smoking & AcupunctureSmoking not only costs money, it is anti-social and affects yourhealth seriously. A smoker is easily prone to catching sore throats, skin rashes,chest infection, asthma, stress, migraine and many more illnesses. When you arepregnant and you risk smoking it can easily harm your baby and there is a higherrisk that your baby will be born premature or underweight.Every day 300 people die as a directresult of smoking - the equivalent of ajumbo jet crashing every twenty-fourhours. As an average smoker your habit maycostyou over £800 a year, but nowadays moreand more of Britain’s fourteen millionsmokers want to give up the habit – yet givingup is not going to be easy.Even if you are really determined tostop youmay have found that willpower aloneis not enough. All over the world people havetried different methods to stop smoking.Nicotine Patches, Hypnosis, sometimes theywork, very often they don’t.Acupuncture is a tried and tested,proven way of providing help to stopsmoking. Acupuncture is a system ofmedicine which restores and maintains healthby the insertion of fine needles into specificpoints on the surface of the body to rebalanceand strengthen self-healing power.It can treat many conditions especiallyaddictions, such as tobacco, alcohol, drugs,etc. Over the last seven years I have treatedin the UK over 1000 patients with tobaccoaddiction whose smoking histories varyfrom 2 years to 40 years. Among thesepatients about 700 of them stop smokingcompletely after one session, about 200 ofthem reduce the amount of cigarettes greatlyafter the first session and stop smokingcompletely after two or three sessions. Therest of them needed a few more sessions orregular treatment such as once every 3months to help control the craving forNicotine which depends on theirlifestyle andhow stressed they are.Usually if other family members arestill smoking it may affect the desire ofwanting to stop smoking. It is far better if afriend or colleague is trying to stop: thereason being that you can have treatmenttogether and encourage one another day byday. Sometimes one may find it difficult tomake a decision to seek for help/guidance.Quite often a husband will make anappointment for his wife to haveAcupuncture treatment to stop smoking as aBirthday Present, or a couple may come tostop smoking for Christmas. Life isinteresting isn’t it?Acupuncture treatment,besidesstopping smoking, helps the sufferer feelcalmer, relaxed and happier, even releasingsymptoms of Sinus, Asthma, Migraine, Stress,insomnia, etc. This is because Acupuncturere-balances the vital energy of the body - theQi (pronounced “Chee” in Chinese) whichflows continuously around the meridiansystem. An energetic network ofchannels that not only connects theacupuncture points to each other butalso directly influences the functioningof the internal organs and othercontrolling systems of the body.There are14 channels and361 points in thebody, with eachpoint havingd i f f e r e n tfunctions to treatd i f f e r e n tproblemsIn thetreatment ofs t o p p i n gsmoking weusually choose6-7 points whichconnect to thelungs to rebalanceit’sfunctions tostop the craving for nicotine. Thecommon points used are Quchi (LI 11), Hegu(LI 4), Liequ (LI 7), and Yingxiang (LI 20).Add points Neiguan (P 6) and Shenmen (H7) for stress, nervous, or insomnia. Addpoints Taixi (K 3) and Sanyinjiao (Sp 6) forgeneral fatigue, tiredness. Add points Baihui(Du 20) and Zusanli (S 36) for Qi deficiency.Add point Taichong (Liv 3) for depressionof liver energy.Liequ (LI 7) is the 7th point of theHand Tai Yin Lung Channel. It’s a “Lu”(collaterals) point. ”Lu” points connectinternal to external, allowing the free flow ofthe energy.Hegu (LI 4) is the 4th point of theHand Yang Ming Large Intestine Channel.It is a ”Yuan” (root)point. The body’s energygathers at ” Yuan” points. Disease in theinternal organs is usually shown at ”Yuan”points. By stimulating a ”Yuan”’ point, thenormal function of internal organs can berecovered. Hegu (LI 4) should be avoided,however, for pregnant woman as its use cancause miscarriage.Quchi (LI 11) is the 11thpoint of the Large Intestine Channel.It is a ”He”(meeting) point.Both Hegu (LI 4) and Quchi(LI 11) are points of the LargeIntestine Channel. In terms ofTCM theory, the lung and the largeintestine are co-ordinating togetherthe body’s internal and externalfunctions. This is why these pointsare chosen for lung relatedimbalance.Some people imagine thatacupuncture is a very long needle,sometimes even with a machineinvolved. It sounds painful andtherefore very frightening. This ismaybe why many people will not goto see an acupuncturist. In fact,people who have been treated byacupuncture don’t feel this way.They think it is a very relaxed wayto help them stop smoking, it worksfast and there is no pain or side affects. Butbefore they go to see an acupuncturist youshould make sure that the person is fullyqualified and affiliated to one of theprofessional bodies, such as BritishAcupuncture Council, etc, and that they haverelevant experience, also make sure that theneedles used are pre-sterile disposable ones.As I have said, sometimes willpoweralone isn’t enough. Why don’t you seek helpand guidance. Make a decision now and tryto stick with it. Just take one day at a timeand think of all the money you could save, itmay lead to a new lifeby Dr.ShulanTangFor furtherinformation contact; - Dr. Shulan Tang,50 SandyLane, Chorlton, Manchester. M21 STN.Tel: – 0161 881 8576Qi Magazine 39
YearsofPractiseThe Japanese were invading Chinaand it was very common for themto abuse and insulte the Chinese,you could see it all around. Theiractions and attitude made YangMeijun very angry towards them. One dayshe hoped she would have her revenge. Butthis sadness and anger brought out a positiveenthusiasm to practise her family’s <strong>Qigong</strong>skills. This made her more emotionallybalanced and she calmed down. Now sheunderstand the instruction she had receivedfiom her grandfather: “Anger will damage theliver”, “Overjoy will damage the heart”,“Sadness will damage the lungs”, “Fear willdamage the kidneys”.One day she remembered her auntwas living in the Kam Shuk Province. So sheleft Beijing to find her aunt hoping a changein situation would change her fortunes. Onarriving at Kam Shuk she received the badnews that her aunt no longer lived there. Shedidn’t know where to go, or who she couldrely on. She lost her direction and now shefelt lonelier than ever.In the Kam Shuk province the mostpopular business was salt trading. She said toherself “I have to find a way to survive”. Soshe disguised herself as a young boy andjoined the salt traders.In China, society was in a state ofdisarray. There were many gangstersespecially within the salt trade who controlledthe salt and made a lot of money. Yang Meijunfound that with her years of practisingQi Magazine 40
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