‘Chinese No-Smoke Patches May Help’

A RETIRED North-East scientist believes Chinese herbal medicine patches could help the millions of smokers who are expected to try to quit this year.With a smoking ban in all enclosed public places to come into force on July 1, experts believe large numbers of people will try to give up.Dr Philip Cheung, former director of Durham University’s Centre for Comparative Public Health, believes UK officials need to investigate claims that herbal patches have helped more than a million Chinese smokers quit.Four years ago, Dr Cheung supervised research in China by a Durham University postgraduate that showed Chinese herbal medicine patches have a far greater success rate than conventional nicotine replacement patches used in the UK.Dr Cheung’s findings, exclusively revealed in The Northern Echo, showed that after a course of treatment lasting nine days and costing 18 per person, 25 out of 49 smokers – nearly 52 per cent – gave up smoking.Another 17 managed to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked.The fact that 84 per cent of those who gave up were still not smoking after three months means that the success rate of Chinese herbal patches compares well with the 30 per cent success rate of nicotine replacement patches.But instead of taking six weeks to work, the Chinese version takes days, but only seems to work with younger smokers.”If we conducted a larger study and if the results came up with the same pattern, the evidence would be difficult to ignore, ” said Dr Cheung, now a volunteer research fellow attached to the Marie Curie Hospice, in Newcastle. “The role of these patches should really be explored. It could help a lot of people.”

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