At a glance
Decades of heavy smoking, coughing and mucus — gradually reduced and finally quit, with the lungs cleared along the way.
Presentation
A 53-year-old patient came to the clinic wanting to quit smoking. She had smoked heavily since her teenage years and was coughing constantly, with a lot of mucus in her lungs and a strong smell of cigarettes about her. The coughing and mucus had begun to affect both her work and her social life, and she was ready to stop for good.
Diagnosis
The pattern was Lung Qi deficiency with inflammation in the lungs and phlegm-dampness — the predictable toll of decades of smoking on the respiratory system. Helping her quit meant both supporting the craving and cleaning out the lungs, so the treatment combined several tools alongside a personalised plan.
Treatment
Treatment brought together acupuncture, ear seeds, herbs, and structured home support:
- Tonifying Lung Qi with Dr. Haixia Ni’s Five Element Theory — an approach originating from the classic TCM text Huang Di Nei Jing (the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic), using [metal points, earth points, wood points]. Metal represents the lungs, earth represents the stomach and spleen, and wood represents the liver and gallbladder.
- Metal points: LU-1 (Zhongfu) and LU-10 (Yuji) — LU-1 is the front-mu point of the Lung meridian, which can regulate the lung organ and the Lung meridian, and LU-10 is the xing point of the Lung meridian, which is good at clearing Lung heat and so clearing inflammation in the lungs
- Earth points: [SP-9 (Yinlingquan), SP-8 (Diji), SP-6 (Sanyinjiao)] and ST-36 (Zusanli) — can strengthen the body’s ability to transform and drain phlegm
- Wood point: LR-3 (Taichong) — can improve the body’s Qi flow and ease constriction in the chest
- LI-6 (Pianli) — needled for two reasons: 1) LI-6 can clear phlegm from the upper jiao, including the lungs; 2) the Large Intestine, Lung, Spleen and Stomach points together form Dr. Tan’s [Taiyin, Yangming] pattern, which can improve immunity and circulation
Ear seeds followed Dr. Lichun Huang’s combination for quitting smoking. A herbal mixture from Dr. Haixia Ni helped her quit, cleared junk from the respiratory system, removed the smoke colour and odour from the mouth, and regulated appetite. All of it was wrapped in a personalised quit-smoking plan to follow at home.
Result
She gradually reduced her smoking, coughed less, and produced less mucus. Along the way she changed both her lifestyle and her attitude toward smoking — and finally quit completely.
This reflects an individual patient experience, not clinical trial data.
Results vary from person to person depending on the condition, its severity, and how an individual responds to treatment. TCM and acupuncture are not a substitute for care from your physician or another regulated health professional. If you’re dealing with a serious or urgent symptom, please see a doctor first.