There probably have been many smokers who wished they could wave a magic wand and poof their nicotine addiction away.Staff at the Azure Medical Spa think they may have just that a cold laser therapy wand which they say has helped more than 100 smokers on the Island quit the habit.Stephen Flood, 46, will have been clean of nicotine for two years this September 2 having smoked since age 15.Like many people, he started due to peer pressure.“I managed to quit once for two years cold turkey, but then I picked it up again and it was worse,” said Mr Flood. “I have tried almost everything under the sun to quit including the patch, hypnosis and the gum. Nothing worked. I would have a patch on, I would be chewing the gum and have a cigarette at the same time. I tried cold turkey again and it didn’t work.”When he first started smoking, cigarettes cost $1.25 a pack. When he quit they were $8 a pack. He would smoke about a pack a day. He wanted to quit for his children, and he also worried about his future health.A flyer in a dentist office first alerted him to cold laser treatment as an option.“They were asking for volunteers for a pilot programme to try out cold laser therapy,” said Mr Flood.Cold laser treatment basically sends a beam of light through different parts of your body. This reporter who is not a smoker tried the laser on her hand, and felt absolutely nothing no pressure, no pain, not even a tickle.The theory is that it works in a similar way to acupuncture, hitting certain key points of the body.“It is funny how it works, but one thing, it relaxes you immensely,” said Mr Flood. “I have fallen asleep sitting up in the chair having it done. What it has done for me that nothing else was able to do, was take away the physical cravings. I was just left to control the habitual cravings.”By habitual cravings, he meant the need to smoke at specific times of the day, such as upon waking or after eating.“As long as I could control the habitual cravings, then this could control the physical cravings,” said Mr Flood. “I had two treatments about two weeks apart. In between those two weeks, I had maybe two or three cigarettes. After the second treatment I haven’t had a cigarette since. I was told to come back if I needed it, but I haven’t needed it since then.”Since he came in under the test programme, the treatment was free. It normally costs around $500. Mr Flood warned that the smoker has to want to quit. The cold laser therapy is not a cure-all.“If you have the urge to quit, this here is the best thing going,” he said. “I went from a pack a day smoker to nothing in two weeks. It seemed like the first treatment killed the craving 90 percent and the second one took it over the top. They have a great follow-up programme. They call you and see how you are doing. If I am feeling the urge I will come in and they will do another treatment.”Mr Flood has found that since he quit smoking, he has greater endurance and does not feel so exhausted after a workout.“I use to do a lot of running and I used to have a cigarette before I ran,” he said. “Then I would come back and have another cigarette before I even grabbed a bottle of water.”Now that he has quit smoking he has noticed that his running has improved. His distances have increased and he is not as exhausted afterward. He finds, in general, that he has more energy.“I don’t think my appetite has increased,” he said. “But there was a metabolism change there so there was some weight gain. I monitor what I eat so I don’t believe the old adage that when you quit smoking you put on weight because you eat more. I don’t think that is true. I did put on some weight, but I am starting to lose weight again. I am not doing anything different, but it is starting to balance out.”The cold laser treatment is carried out by Sasha Benson.The Azure Medical Spa also has the assistance of American Donna Karaz, a certified laser therapist who specialises in such things as addictions, weight loss and stress. She regularly comes to Bermuda to work with patients.“We kind of just fell into this,” said Ms Benson. “When we first started Dr Carol Ferris was our medical supervisor for this programme. We said let’s take a course in this and see what it is all about. At first we tested it out on Dr James Fay’s dental patients. At first, we weren’t sure if it would really work, but we were shocked when we saw the results. It was incredible, like a little magic wand.”She started slowly treating more people. Each month they had a new client coming in for cold laser therapy treatment. She saw people who were smoking a pack and two packs a day, stop. “Now that we have Donna Karaz we can help more patients,” she said. “With a new person on board, we are ready to blow the roof off Bermuda, and help some more people. With this programme we are seeing a 95 percent success rate.”Ms Benson said it should work on anyone, as long as they are really committed to giving up smoking.“For those people who think smoking is their friend, and they don’t want to give it up, they are a little harder to work with,” she said. “Physically, it is good for everyone. If they are determined to quit, this is the programme for them. It is similar to acupuncture. What happens is smokers have a higher level of endorphins in their system. These are chemicals that give the person a happy feeling. When you quit smoking those endorphins drop, and those cause the mood swings and so forth that sometimes come with quitting. The cold laser therapy helps the quitter to deal with the drop in endorphins.”There are few risks with the cold laser therapy, although some experts say the procedure should not be carried out without protective eye gear on the patient. It also should not be used on cancerous tumours.According to the American Cancer Society website the American Food and Drug Administration still considers cold laser therapy to be experimental. It warned that some organisations were using equipment that did little more than emit a beam of light. The article also stated that there is currently no scientific data that proves that the treatment works, but there are studies underway.Contact Azure Medical Spa on 232-7333 or azuremedspa [AT]northrock.bm.Useful website: www.cancer. org.