Laser anti-smoking therapy

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

Anyone heard of this one before?

I ran into someone today who claimed to have become a non-smoker thanks to a laser treatment. He said he went to a health centre where he lashed out £26 to have a laser stuck in his ear for 30 minutes, after which he stopped smoking. The way it was explained to him was that nicotine was clinging to the outside of his blood-cells, and the reason he was so tired was that, like a Mexican bus, his cells carried a load inside and out. The laser apparently cleaned out his cells and would leave him free from nicotine, and he described a giddiness and light-headed feeling immediately after the treatment. Upon asking for more info it turned out the health centre in question wasn't a governent health centre, but a 'natural therapy centre' which just added to my skepticism.

I'm assuming you can't actually filter blood non-intrusively using lasers (dialysis a thing of the past?) and that we have a placebo effect here, and the light-headedness probably comes from having a device shoved in one ear for half an hour. I've never heard of this and I cant find details on the centre mentioned, so I wondered what you guys make of it?

 

[Stitch]

Sounds decidedly quack to me.

 

[ReFLeX]

Quackwatch only has "cold-laser therapy" (smoking not mentioned) and "laser facelifts."

 

[wollery]

Surely having your blood cleared of nicotine would leave you with withdrawal symptoms and, therefore, a huge craving for cigarettes.

 

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

Some searching through the vaults of the internet have turned up various bits and pieces, all BS. Some say it's a variety of accupuncture and you're to have it in the ear, face and hands, whilst others call it accupressure and vary the bits to be rubbed, probed and lasered. They're claiming that shining a light in your ear has all the beneficial effects of stabbing yourself with needles, and you can't really argue with that.