Quitting Smoking With Complementary Health Approaches: What You Need To Know

More than two-thirds of adult smokers want to quit, and more than half tried to quit during the previous year, according to a U.S. national survey. Smokers who use proven smoking cessation therapies—behavioral counseling, medication, or both—are more likely to succeed in stopping smoking than those who don’t use them. However, only about one-third of people who are trying to quit smoking use these methods.

Some people try complementary health approaches to help them kick the smoking habit. There isn’t as much evidence to support the use of these approaches as there is for counseling and medication, but research suggests that some may be helpful as options or additions to proven quit-smoking therapies.

• A 2018 study evaluated yoga as part of a quit-smoking program. In the study, which was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), smokers were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of either yoga classes or general wellness classes in addition to conventional counseling. At the end of treatment, the people in the yoga group were more likely to have stopped smoking. However, there was no difference between the groups in the percentage of people who were still not smoking 3 and 6 months after the program ended.

• Several studies have compared mindfulness meditation-based quit-smoking programs with conventional counseling programs. In some studies, the mindfulness-based programs produced better results; in others, results with the two types of programs were similar.

• Current evidence suggests that relaxation techniques (guided imagery or progressive muscle relaxation)—may help people quit smoking.

• Although it’s possible that acupuncture might help people stop smoking for short periods of time, there’s no consistent evidence that it helps people quit permanently.

• There isn’t enough evidence to show whether hypnosis is more effective for smoking cessation than other types of support or quitting on your own.

• There is no current evidence that the dietary supplements S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), lobeline (from the herb Lobelia inflata), or St. John’s wort can help people quit smoking.

• The natural product cytisine (also known as cytisinicline) is used as a smoking cessation aid in some central and eastern European countries. Several studies have indicated that it can help people quit smoking. NCCIH is involved in a public/private partnership with a company that seeks to bring cytisine to market in the United States and is supporting a series of nonclinical studies on cytisine as part of its development as a smoking cessation treatment. In August 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the Investigational New Drug application for cytisine, authorizing the company to proceed with clinical development of the product. If the FDA approves cytisine after further clinical testing, it will provide a new option for smoking cessation treatment in the United States.