A friend came round for dinner last night.She was talking about her latest attempt to give up smoking. This time she was assisted by a proffessional treatment clinic.
She mentioned she was on some sort of detox program that was removing the nicotine from her system. The clininc had told her that they can remove her physical cravings for nicotine but only she could break the habit. That she should learn for herself the difference between wanting a cigarette out of habit and wanting one because of nicotine withdrawal. That sounded to me like a reasonable phsychological trick to help break the addiction. However it was the detox part of the treatment I was interested in. How does removing nicotine from the system at an accelerated rate reduce withdrawal symtoms? I was prepared for talk of breakdown products and some Allen Carr style opinions on how nicotine actually has the reverse effect to the one which you crave. Being curious I asked for a few details. Apparently her and a work collegue has tried something called bioresonance therapy. I'd never ehard of this before. She had been asked to stick to her preferred brand of cigarette for 3 days prior to the treatment as the treatment is specific to each brand. She was then connected to electrodes which through the bioresonance process detected a signal from the nicotine in her body. This signal was isolated and reversed and sent back through her body. This was an intirguing idea - how to reverse a resonance signal? By now I was strongly suspecting quackery. However she went on to explain that she was instructed to drink plenty of water and to take detox tablets. I realised that if the process had any detoxifying effect it came from drinking plenty of water (which would do the trick on it's own) assisted by whatever detox formula was in the tablets. She showed me the tablets with a warning not the handle them (insert an embarrassed self concious laugh) because they were full of "vibrations". Apparently the pills had been charged with vibrations by being in the same machine that cancelled out the effect of nicotine in her body. The label said it all "Non-medical Lactose/Sucrose tablets" a sugar pill.
As far as I know, of no help in any medically validated detox regime. And "vibrations?" I needed to hear no more to convince me that this was mumbo jumbo.
On the other hand drinking plenty of water might explain the symptoms they were told to expect of being able to smell the nicotine coming out through their skin.
Also paying someone £250 as part of a procedure to give up smoking represents a strong commitment and improves allows cognitive dissonace to iad with the quitting process. A strong placebo effect that helps people give up smoking isn't necessarily a bad thing. So I said nothing about my doubts. hwoever my sceptical nature is well known to my friends and she went on to explain that she did check into it on the internet before going and found the telegraph and the bbc to say good things about it. Indeed when I subsequently checked on google there wasn't a hint of healthy scepticism as to the valididty of this treatment until I issued google the semi mystical pass phrase that unlocked a wealth of skeptical information: "double blind clinical study" Searching for information in medical journals or on wikipedia gave the balanced view that it's all just a bunch of woo.
She went on to say that she'd asker her doctor about it. The doctor had heard of the treatment and said that if she could afford it she should give it a go. Now this is the bit that suprised me. This was before I'd done my own research so perhaps even with no basis in science there was some clinical evidence that this procedure is worth the money. Then of course perhaps the doctor was simply approving of any attempt to give up smoking. Did the doctor keep silent as to the invalidity of this treatment for the some of the same reasons that I did? (With the obvious exception that one of my reasons was that she had already spent the money by the time I could offer advice) Perhaps the parts of the process that don't involve pseudo science - making an effort to give up, setting a date, investing time and money into the process - are effective and more so with the added belief from the placebo effect of this woo science. Perhaps some effort at detoxifying by drinking plenty of water is of assistance in the quitting process. However I feel that you seek the help of an educated professional to protect you against con artists. In this instace her doctor failed her in this regard.
This is obviously a less serious issue then parents who take their child out of radiotherapy in favour of bioresonance therapy to cure cancer. You don't require medical intervention to quit smoking. If this attempt fails my friend can always try again.
My friend had gone 24 hours without smoking - presumably more by now. Would this have still been the case if her doctor had suggested an alternative treatment. I can't tell.
What do you folks think - did the doctor do wrong?
She mentioned she was on some sort of detox program that was removing the nicotine from her system. The clininc had told her that they can remove her physical cravings for nicotine but only she could break the habit. That she should learn for herself the difference between wanting a cigarette out of habit and wanting one because of nicotine withdrawal. That sounded to me like a reasonable phsychological trick to help break the addiction. However it was the detox part of the treatment I was interested in. How does removing nicotine from the system at an accelerated rate reduce withdrawal symtoms? I was prepared for talk of breakdown products and some Allen Carr style opinions on how nicotine actually has the reverse effect to the one which you crave. Being curious I asked for a few details. Apparently her and a work collegue has tried something called bioresonance therapy. I'd never ehard of this before. She had been asked to stick to her preferred brand of cigarette for 3 days prior to the treatment as the treatment is specific to each brand. She was then connected to electrodes which through the bioresonance process detected a signal from the nicotine in her body. This signal was isolated and reversed and sent back through her body. This was an intirguing idea - how to reverse a resonance signal? By now I was strongly suspecting quackery. However she went on to explain that she was instructed to drink plenty of water and to take detox tablets. I realised that if the process had any detoxifying effect it came from drinking plenty of water (which would do the trick on it's own) assisted by whatever detox formula was in the tablets. She showed me the tablets with a warning not the handle them (insert an embarrassed self concious laugh) because they were full of "vibrations". Apparently the pills had been charged with vibrations by being in the same machine that cancelled out the effect of nicotine in her body. The label said it all "Non-medical Lactose/Sucrose tablets" a sugar pill.
As far as I know, of no help in any medically validated detox regime. And "vibrations?" I needed to hear no more to convince me that this was mumbo jumbo.
On the other hand drinking plenty of water might explain the symptoms they were told to expect of being able to smell the nicotine coming out through their skin.
Also paying someone £250 as part of a procedure to give up smoking represents a strong commitment and improves allows cognitive dissonace to iad with the quitting process. A strong placebo effect that helps people give up smoking isn't necessarily a bad thing. So I said nothing about my doubts. hwoever my sceptical nature is well known to my friends and she went on to explain that she did check into it on the internet before going and found the telegraph and the bbc to say good things about it. Indeed when I subsequently checked on google there wasn't a hint of healthy scepticism as to the valididty of this treatment until I issued google the semi mystical pass phrase that unlocked a wealth of skeptical information: "double blind clinical study" Searching for information in medical journals or on wikipedia gave the balanced view that it's all just a bunch of woo.
She went on to say that she'd asker her doctor about it. The doctor had heard of the treatment and said that if she could afford it she should give it a go. Now this is the bit that suprised me. This was before I'd done my own research so perhaps even with no basis in science there was some clinical evidence that this procedure is worth the money. Then of course perhaps the doctor was simply approving of any attempt to give up smoking. Did the doctor keep silent as to the invalidity of this treatment for the some of the same reasons that I did? (With the obvious exception that one of my reasons was that she had already spent the money by the time I could offer advice) Perhaps the parts of the process that don't involve pseudo science - making an effort to give up, setting a date, investing time and money into the process - are effective and more so with the added belief from the placebo effect of this woo science. Perhaps some effort at detoxifying by drinking plenty of water is of assistance in the quitting process. However I feel that you seek the help of an educated professional to protect you against con artists. In this instace her doctor failed her in this regard.
This is obviously a less serious issue then parents who take their child out of radiotherapy in favour of bioresonance therapy to cure cancer. You don't require medical intervention to quit smoking. If this attempt fails my friend can always try again.
My friend had gone 24 hours without smoking - presumably more by now. Would this have still been the case if her doctor had suggested an alternative treatment. I can't tell.
What do you folks think - did the doctor do wrong?
