Meditation Is A Great Tool To Help Quit Smoking

Recently, many experts point to the fact that the amount of smokers in the world has reached really threatening number, putting health of the smokers at very serious risks and making the problem of smoking one of the top social health problems of modern times. Millions of people around the world are suffering and putting themselves to huge stresses due to their inability to quit smoking and find an effective quit smoking help. Plenty of studies are being carried out and reported suggesting great tips and help to quite smoking. You can read about the findings of one interesting related study in this report. Also, there are plenty of suggestions as to using specific foods to quit smoking. These days, the findings of a group of American specialists on how meditation can work as a great help for those who want to give us this terrible habit were published and reprinted by many world’s media.

Scientists from Texas Tech University are convinced that using certain types of meditation as a great stress management technique and quit smoking help can be a very smart idea. During their research, they studied the effectiveness of Integrative Body-Mind Training (IBMT), a known meditation technology which has previously shown its being a very good solution for various types of addictions. This type of meditation technique includes mind training, body relaxation and a special image therapy led by a professional meditation coach. It is very popular in China and has been practiced for many centuries. For the experiment, the scientists recruited 27 participants, male and female American citizens, all of them were avid smokers aged 21 on average. It was estimated that the participants smoked about 10 cigarettes a day. A group of the participants, namely 11 male participants, was assigned for receiving 5-hour daily IBMT training, when other participants were not receiving only sort of relaxation training as a quit smoking help.

According to the study leader Dr. Yi-Yuan Tang, the Director of Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute, Presidential Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and Professor at Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, Texas Tech University, further analysis has shown that those participants who went through just two weeks of daily IBMT support reported experiencing considerably less cravings for tobacco. The effectiveness of meditation as a great help to quit smoking was proven also by asking the participants to pass objective tests which could help them understand that their tobacco cravings have reduced significantly.  “Because mindfulness meditation promotes personal control and has been shown to positively affect attention and an openness to internal and external experiences, we believe that meditation may be helpful for coping with symptoms of addiction,” the study leader underlined when presenting the findings of the study to the media.

Yi-Yuan Tang said that those participants who were exposed to IBMT support were estimated to smoke 60 per cent less tobacco comparing to those participants who were only doing relaxation exercises. It was also found out that most of the participants had carbon monoxide levels in their lungs considerably reduced after the experiment. Moreover, it is also reported that 4-5 of the participants reported their tobacco cravings reducing for 2-4 weeks after the experiment was over. The scientists are convinced that IBMT can work very effectively as quit smoking help even for those smokers who do not intend to quit smoking. Besides, this technique can be successfully used for treating any other kind of addiction similar to tobacco smoking. Those of you who are looking for more information and want to learn details about the study can go to here in order to read the official report published earlier this summer in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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