While I was in acupuncture school, I received training to help people calm cravings. I used this protocol to help people to stop smoking, to lose weight, and generally to feel more relaxed. I simply believe in ear acupuncture for calming cravings because I have seen it work.

I am creating an acupuncture stop smoking support group that will provide low-cost ear acupuncture in a group setting to help with nicotine cravings. The premise is simple: Turn off the fight or flight mode and nourish the adrenal glands so that the person feels filled from within. Also, there are points that help to harness the willpower, so that a person will have the inner strength to follow through on their commitment to stop smoking (or stop the twinkies, or booze, or caffeine, or whatever it is that they crave.)

Today, I experienced a skeptic. She doesn’t understand how auricular needling could possibly work to calm cravings. She basically dared me to prove to her that this type of service is valid. I have my own anecdotal evidence from my experience in the clinic, but that wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted hard evidence…. proven research. And so I did what any self-respecting acupuncture physician would do…. I googled it. And I found a multitude of evidence that ear needling is effective in stopping cravings of all types. I am posting a few of these links below:

http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/The%20Treatment%20of%20Obesity%20By%20Acupuncture.pdf

http://www.easternhealingcenter.com/En/acupuncture_weightloss.htm

http://www.acufinder.com/Acupuncture+News/Study+Shows+Acupuncture+Effective+for+Weight+Loss

The bottom line: I can talk all day about how well acupuncture works to calm cravings…  I can  ”blah blah blah” ad nauseum about technical details like cortisol levels, seritonin, and adrenal exhaustion. But you won’t know if acupuncture works for you unless you try it out. And these groups are designed to be a very cheap way to find out if acupuncture could work for you.

If you’re interested in calming your cravings for cigarettes, coffee, or cupcakes, give me a call at 386-676-0307.  Our group sessions will be held Wednesday nights at 6:00 at my Daytona Beach office. The group fee  ($20)  is less than one third of what a personal acupuncture session would be, and it’s a great way to try acupuncture out. I invite you to come on over and check it out!