Smoking Cessation: Which are the consequences of smoking on our Health? 

Smoking is a crucial detrimental habit that infests Public Health of the contemporary society, it is connected with various diseases and can be fatal for the smoker himself/herself and have negative impacts on the passive smokers’ health. The best way to avoid the harmful effects of smoking is to not start smoking whereas smoking cessation is the best decision for a smoker in order to reduce their health risk.

The risk of developing diseases does not disappear immediately, but decreases overtime, and the more cigarettes one has smoked, the greater the risks which require the immediate smoking cessation with initial improvement in coughing and breathing difficulties.

Dry and processed tobacco leaves burned in incomplete combustion produce carbon monoxide (CO) above the 400 C°, while the nicotine is released in the 247 C°, without being burned.  Additionally, a complex mixture of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Chemicals (HPHCs) that includes more than 6.000 chemical substances that make up tobacco, such as the aldehydes (formaldehyde and acetaldehyde) as well as the oncogenic ketones reduce the mobility of airway sinus mechanism, causing respiratory diseases.

Smoking Cessation: Alternative Smoking Products

 Alternative smoking products (e-cigarettes and tobacco heating products) reduce the level of hazardous substances released during tobacco combustion, especially for those who wish to keep using tobacco and nicotine products, seeking a similar taste, the procedure and the intake of nicotine such as that of a cigarette.

The last few years, many smokers replace the common cigarette with Modified Risk Products of nicotine release which cause less damage compared with the burned (common) cigarettes.

Smoking Cessation: Smoking and its effects on Public Health

The extended use of tobacco and the 100 caused diseases as well as the 5 million death cases which are going to reach the 10 million by 2030 have provoked a serious problem in Public Health with a burden on the health system for the 1,14 billion smokers globally.

From 1999 to 2019, smoking is responsible for the 20,2% of deaths in men and the 5,8% in women. However, the percentage of smoking cessation is still between 3-12% while the percentage of relapse is about 75-80% in the first six months and 30-40% even after a one-year withdrawal.

Smoking Cessation and Medical Acupuncture: How it works and its positive effects

Medical Acupuncture fixes the balance of energy which flows the body through 32 meridians, both major and minor, with disposable needles inserted painlessly and without any side-effects in over 400 bioenergetic points along the meridians, based on personalized treatment protocols, tailored to each patient’s condition and body. 

Medical Acupuncture constitutes a complementary therapeutic method of Classic Medicine, validated by the W.H.O. and the Central Board of Health, which is applied at pain centers of 23 hospitals, though always with the consent of the attending Physician and implemented exclusively by specialized Doctors-Acupuncturists.

Medical Acupuncture: Its effect on various diseases

Medical Acupuncture improves vision in hard-to-treat ophthalmological cases, such as the Macular Degeneration, Stargardt’s disease, Glaucoma, Retinitis Pigmentosa, Refractive Dysfunctions and Dry Eye Syndrome (Xerophthalmia), while it further helps many patients who suffer from chronic pain such as Nape Pain, Back Pain, Kidney Colic, Dysmenorrhea, Arthritis, Migraines, Post-surgical Pain and Neurophytic Disorders. 

Smoking Cessation: Medical Acupuncture as an Effective Method

Not only can Medical Acupuncture inhibit the withdrawal symptoms emerged by the lack of nicotine, but it also creates a sense of euphoria and vitality, assisting the smoker in effectively controlling their desire to smoke.

In the first 24 hours after the application of Acupuncture, the smoker has already a mild and controlled desire for smoking, a gradual aversion to tobacco and the taste of the cigarette as well as a reduction of withdrawal symptoms.

Smoking Cessation: Preventive measures against Smoking.

The European plan against cancer should include smoking reduction and cessation policies in order to enhance the limitation of its consequences, as a harm reduction strategy that should comprise the third pillar for smoking control in combination with prevention, while in Greece there is the assistance of both the anti-smoking law and the law 4517/20 which consolidates the right of smokers’ controlled awareness of the potential harm.

Professor Konstantinos Kouskoukis
Professor of Dermatology – Lawyer
President of the World Academy of Chinese and Complementary Medicine, President of the Hippocratic Academy of Thermal Medicine, V. President of the Global Hippocratic Doctors’ Institute, f. General Secretary Ministry of Education, V. Rector of  Democritus University of Thrace.