A traditional medicine research team at Taipei Medical University Hospital yesterday said its clinical research showed that ear acupuncture therapy could help people quit smoking.
The team, referring to the theory of channels and collaterals, said they discovered that performing acupuncture or sticking acupuncture patches on a point on the top part of the ear and another point at the bottom part of the ear, causes a person’s brain cells to stop desiring nicotine.
The team said that when the therapy was performed on long-term smokers, it made them reject the smell of cigarette smoke, adding that more than 50 percent of them quit smoking.
“It makes them feel slightly uncomfortable when they smell cigarette smoke, so they no longer want to smoke,” said Tang You-Jen (唐佑任), a traditional Chinese medicine doctor at the hospital, adding that stimulating the acupuncture points can send signals to the brain that helps long-term smokers who rely on nicotine everyday.
He said long-term smokers sometimes suffer nicotine withdrawal symptoms, such as hand tremors, when they quit smoking, but ear acupuncture therapy can help relieve such symptoms.
However, Lo Su-ying (羅素英), head of the Health Promotion Administration Health Education and Tobacco Control Division, said more scientific tests are needed before the therapy can be listed as a recommended treatment in the administration’s Second Generation Tobacco Cessation Program.
“There are about 330,000 smokers in Taiwan, and about 90,000 people have successfully quit smoking [through the program], translating to a success rate of nearly 30 percent,” she said.
Lo said studies have shown that the success rate of quitting by using willpower is only about 3 percent, so the administration suggests people who want to quit smoking seek specialist advice through the program.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard