By Doctor Alain Butnaru
A PROTOCOL FOR QUITTING SMOKING FOR GOOD
How to quit smoking is a challenge for both smokers and specialists! A new approach based on neuroscience allows us to neutralise the desire to smoke in just one session, backed up by a support programme. This innovative protocol is available in the shape of individual appointments for smokers and training modules for doctors.
Tricking the brain
Several years of trials and research were required to put together the STN protocol. The guiding principle was that patients quit smoking for good after just one two-hour session, and that they go home with a support programme based on various complementary tools to keep them on the right path for the long term. My aim today is to guide patients through this approach and to pass on this protocol to any practitioners who wish to use it.
The method is based on three disciplines that cover the various cycles of pleasure and, in extenso, dependence. I analysed failures and successes and, above all, looked at why people so often relapse. To understand this, I focused on neuroscience, and particularly the brain’s chemical mechanisms.
Ever since we discovered how the dopamine circuit works, i.e. the pleasure circuit, we have understood why it is so difficult to give up smoking. The strategy involves “tricking” the brain, which is what this method does by employing practical applications of neuroscience: acupuncture, auriculotherapy and hypnosis.
Prior to our appointment, I ask my patients to answer seven questionnaires about the different aspects of dependence, their fears and why they want to stop smoking, in order to evaluate their likelihood of succeeding.
Breaking the cycle of tobacco dependence
This method involves combining the three techniques in one day. Since each one acts upon a specific point, by combining them we can tackle the different causes of tobacco dependence, as though we were pressing the switches responsible for this addiction. In parallel, the STN method detoxifies the body because, by removing the cravings, the patient feels no withdrawal symptoms – short temper, obsession, compensating with food or alcohol – which takes away any of the downsides to quitting, especially weight gain.
The three cornerstones of the STN method… and a bonus one
- Acupuncture can put a stop to cravings: six needles are inserted in the face and head, and they are left in place during the hypnosis session dedicated to “erasing” cravings. Finally, to prolong the effects of the session, semi-permanent needles are implanted in the auricle of the ear.
- Next, the patient learns cardiac coherence, which they must practise for 21 days.
- They are then prescribed micro-nutrients to compensate for their neuromodulator deficiencies: tryptophan to stimulate serotonin production, tyrosine to stimulate dopamine production, magnesium, kudzu (an anti-addiction plant from Southeast Asia) and probiotics to rebalance the intestinal flora that has been damaged by tobacco and its additives.
- As a bonus, the patient goes home with a meditation, which focuses on a smoke-free life, which they should listen to for 21 days.
Today, I can affirm that, with this method, 100% of patients who are truly motivated to stop smoking succeed in giving up for good! I would like to invite any practitioners who want to train in the STN method to contact me.
Doctor Alain Butnaru
Graduate of the Paris Medical Faculty. Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Medicine since 1985.Permanent member of the French Society of Aesthetic Medicine. Degrees in Morphological and Anti-Aging Medicine, Micronutrition, Auriculotherapy and Hypnosis.
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