3. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE FOLLOWING METHODS
Acupuncture and Laser Therapy
These are bogus wastes of money and time (don't ever accuse us of mincing words). The idea is that they are supposed to calm you down, by targeting special pressure points with either needles or lasers, so that you don't feel bad about not smoking. There is no evidence that they provide anything apart from a placebo effect, and we just ruined that by telling you they're bogus. We don't think that acupuncture doesn't work at all; we just don't believe it works to help you quit smoking. Dr. Dean Edell, M.D., describes an experiment in which researchers provided two groups of quitting smokers with either real acupuncture therapy, where they placed needles in the accepted pressure points, or fake acupuncture, where they placed needles in random places. There was no difference in quitting success between the two groups. You can draw your own conclusions, but we're sticking with our "it's a load of crap" assertion.
Hypnosis
We are extremely skeptical about the efficacy of hypnosis for quitting smoking or anything at all. There is no evidence to suggest that hypnosis has provided anything but a placebo effect in a smoking cessation program. It might be nice just to have a friendly hypnotist to talk to and from whom to receive encouragement and support. We don't believe, however, that hypnotists have the ability to plant subconscious suggestions which reduce your desire to smoke. We tried hard to find some research on the issue, but the hypnotists only offer lame-o "personal testimonials" and no medical researchers seem to have taken it seriously enough to study its effects. We highly recommend this method for the rich and gullible.
