Smoking Cessation Laser Therapy, Why I’m Not Convinced
If you have been trying to give up for a while you will have no doubt come across a lot of information on quit smoking laser therapy as an easy way to quit without too much willpower or the need for dangerous drugs that could give you worse health problems than the cigarettes themselves.
credit: But as the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is and there have been some issues with laser therapy that I want to tell you about before you go ahead and spend the $300+ that each laser session will set you back.
First things first…what on earth is quit smoking laser therapy and will I have to get ZAPPED?!?
Laser therapy for smoking cessation is not new – it has been used in Europe for over 25 years but contrary to popular belief there will be no burning hot beams piercing your skin and zapping out nicotine like some episode of Star Trek going on all over your body.
The therapy works along the same lines as acupuncture using pressure points all over your body to produces endorphins which help with your energy and the battle against cravings.
So I guess you have to decide if you are a laser person or a needle person? But needless to say the low level laser therapy equipment is 100% safe on the human body.
To be fair the laser treatments for smoking cessation are no stronger than a low level light bulb and the most you will experience is a slight tingling sensation on your skin.
The main promise of the treatment is that armed with your newly created endorphins you will be able to deal with the cravings much easier. Couple this with smoking cessation counseling and you could be much more likely to give up for good this time.
But for me this seems a little bit weird…
The idea of paying such a large sum to produce endorphins in your body that might help you quit seems overpriced. You can produce endorphins on demand by just going for a short run then when you get back just put on your smoking hypnosis CD and save $280 a week!
Of course if you read the leaflet in the laser therapy clinics they will tell you quite rightly that one session if often enough for a patient to give up smoking.
What they don’t tell you is that there is a whole heap of other smokers who still feel the strong need to smoke and feel like they must have more and more laser therapy to make their investment worth while.
In preparation for writing this for you I decided to dig up any medical evidence to support the claims made by these laser clinics but I could find nothing. The laser therapist will tell you that it exists but I could find nothing out there to support the claims.
Note: If you have come across any paper on the subject then please drop me an email.
Final thoughts
I guess my main problem with laser therapy is that it seems to pray on the millions of desperate people who have tried every quit smoking aid and still feel the strong urge to light up.
I’m not going to be one of those people who tell you to try lasers if you have already done everything else. In my opinion I really don’t think lasers are proven enough to warrant the high price tag.
A better solution to me seems to be to stop smoking injections that at least target the cause of the addiction head on.
Just my thoughts, let me know what you think.
