Alternative approaches to diet, quitting smoking and pain

To lose weight, quit smoking and ease pain, some people look beyond the obvious methods. Would  hypnosis, acupuncture, meditation and traditional Eastern methods help you budge the pounds, give up cigarettes and relieve pain?

Perhaps. But if you want to ditch traditional methods altogether, think again.

Weight loss

“The bottom line is to be more active and consume less calories,” says dietician Elisabetta Politi. “There is no magic bullet for solving your weight loss problem."

So the basics will always be eating healthily and exercising.

However, there is a "third part, the mind-body aspect, you need to make sure you're not missing out on", says Dr Wendy Kohatsu, an integrative medicine specialist.

Most complementary approaches don't have much research showing how well they work for weight loss. Some are tricky to test by Western standards, and not enough studies have been done to determine effectiveness. 

Here's what you need to know before you consider trying these methods.

Acupuncture

One of the best-known branches of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, aims to remove blockages in the flow of your qi - or life force.

Practitioners do this by sticking very thin metal needles into strategic points on the skin. Qi is thought to circulate throughout the body and balance out spiritual, emotional, mental and physical health. 

The NHS says there is reasonably good evidence that acupuncture is an effective treatment for:

• chronic back pain
• dental pain
• pain and discomfort during gastrointestinal endoscopy
• headache
• nausea and vomiting after an operation
• pain and discomfort during oocyte retrieval ( IVF)
• osteoarthritis of the knee

However, it says there is some evidence that acupuncture does not work for rheumatoid arthritis, stopping smoking and losing weight.

Weight loss isn't a traditional acupuncture goal, says Dr Victor Sierpina, an acupuncturist, holistic medicine expert and family doctor. He disagrees that acupuncture doesn’t help with weight loss and says some aspects of acupuncture seem particularly useful in losing weight.

Acupuncture may help you relax. That's useful if you eat because you're stressed or depressed

Acupuncture is generally safe when done by a competent practitioner. The use of acupuncture on the NHS is limited - although The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) does recommend it for lower back pain. Treatment usually has to be done privately, with a typical cost of between £25 and £60 per session.

The British Acupuncture Council also disputes that the treatment doesn’t help people quit smoking.

On its website it says: “Acupuncture is a popular treatment for smoking cessation and is believed to reduce associated withdrawal symptoms.”

It points to problems with research on the effectiveness of acupuncture on smokers: “Many of the studies on smoking cessation are not comparable. Protocols vary as to the location and number of needles, the frequency and duration of treatments, the method used ... and the definition of placebo - which may itself produce treatment effects.”