If you’ve been at it, at least once, then you know how hard it is to quit smoking. With about 48.2 million active smokers and God knows how many passive smokers in United States alone, putting an end to tobacco addiction is vital.  But treatments are various and not all have successful results. Scientists are now proposing two alternative treatments to get over your craving for a cigarette. So, will acupuncture and hypnosis get you to quit smoking?

Reading books, detox, chewing gum, sticking nicotine patches and now acupuncture and hypnosis. Do any of these actually work? The people that successfully managed to quit smoking following any of the treatments enlisted here are ready to swear by their choice. But scientifically talking, which of these treatments is more likely to be successful?

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, think they might have succeeded in selecting two drug-free treatments to quit smoking. More unconventional than imagined, acupuncture and hypnosis are therapies that have helped some of the people for whom standard therapies were not successful.

Their study looked at the data and conclusions from 14 other international researchers. Obviously, researchers haven’t found answers to all of their questions, but they seem to have reached the conclusion that acupuncture and hypnosis are great options.

Standard therapies such as medications, nicotine therapy or behavioural counseling, for that matter, might work for some, but others are having a really hard time breaking the habit. According to researchers’ data, smokers that underwent acupuncture sessions three times or more are expected to break the habit within six to 12 months.

For instance, needle therapy in the smoker’s ear was successful in nine per cent of cases. Laser acupuncture was seen 55 per cent successful in a 2008 study. So the results aren’t still easy to confirm and measure. And same goes for hypnosis.

Out of the 14 studies, two of them showed that hypnosis-based-treatment to stop smoking was effective in 20 to 45 per cent of cases. Patients undergoing such treatments were able to break the habit within 6 to 12 months.

So, if you are a smoker trying hard to quit smoking, are you determined enough to put yourself through an acupuncture or hypnosis session?