A new study has warned that a third of all men currently under the age of 20 in China will eventually die prematurely if they do not give up smoking. 
More alarmingly, the study projects that to two million people – mostly men – will be dying due to smoking every year by 2030, making it a ‘growing epidemic of premature death’.
More than 300 million Chinese – about a quarter of the population – smoke, with the average smoker consuming 22 cigarettes a day.
The research, published in The Lancet medical journal, says two-thirds of men in China now start to smoke before 20, says the BBC. And the study concludes that around half of those men will die from the habit.
While smoking rates have fallen in most developed countries like the UK and the United States, they have risen in China, as cigarettes have become more available and consumers richer. Figures show that China is the world’s biggest consumer of cigarettes – one in three cigarettes smoked globally is in China – as well as the world’s biggest tobacco producer.
Governments and health agencies around the world are trying to encourage people to stop smoking but Chinese efforts have been hampered by the habit’s popularity, and its usefulness as a source of tax revenue – the government collects about 428bn yuan (£44bn) in tobacco taxes each year.
While people try nicotine patches, e-cigarettes and other mechanical aids to quit smoking, hypnosis and hypnotherapy have been proved the most successful means to break the habit.
Quit Smoking Support says on its website that hypnosis can be ‘highly effective for smoking cessation’.
It quotes research as showing that, when done correctly, the success rate from hypnotherapy is slightly above 66%. Compared to that, the success rate of trying to quit on your own is just 5%; using behaviour therapy 25%,;and using Nicotine Replacement Products, 25%.
“Hypnosis looks like the best option out there. In fact, there is no other method supported by research that even comes close,” the support group says.
Hypnotherapists across the UK registered with the National Council for Hypnotherapy are well-qualified and highly-trained in helping people beat unwanted habits – like smoking.
The NCH says: “If you have an unwanted habit or behaviour, it may often feel as if you are out of control, that there is someone else or something inside of you that is making you do this.
“The good news is that you are in control, you can change how you react to certain situations, and you can protect yourself in ways that are healthy and which allow you succeed and grow stronger in body and mind. You just need to know how to change it, and to believe you can.”
The smoking habit can be broken with just one hypnotherapy session but that depends on numerous factors, including the desire to quit.
The Chinese study was conducted by scientists from Oxford University, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Chinese Center for Disease Control.
It found that only 10% of Chinese smokers quit by choice. Instead, most are forced to give up their cigarettes because they’re too sick to continue.
Study co-author Richard Peto said there was hope – if people can be persuaded to quit. “The key to avoid this huge wave of deaths is cessation, and if you are a young man, don’t start,” he said.