Less smoking, better self-control
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Researchers say a form of Chinese meditation can help smokers reduce their craving and their cigarette use even if they hadn’t intended to.
At Texas Tech University, Yi-Yuan Tang looked at data on 27 smokers, of whom 15 got five hours over two weeks in Integrative Body-Mind Training, which includes relaxation, mindfulness and mental imagery.
Tang says the trained people wound up smoking less:
"We find a significant reduction in smoking – around 60 percent, in daily cigarette uses."
And he says there was increased activity in parts of the brain associated with self-control.
The study in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.