I first met Mark Marino at our Know Cancer Community Awareness Fair back in February. After chatting with him for only 5 minutes, it was clear we shared a similar vision. Over the past year, I have continued to watch his dedication  to helping smokers kick their habit and get healthy. This has made it abundantly clear that my assumption of Mark was correct, and we at Know Cancer truly appreciate his commitment to cancer prevention and education! It's no secret that smoking greatly increases your risk of getting cancer. 

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking related diseases claim an estimated 480,000 lives each year. Most smokers have tried many methods to kicking this dirty habit (gums, patches, shots or pills) and yet most are ineffective and have unwanted side effects. Healing Laser Clinics utilize “Laser Therapy,” a safe and painless technology to help you stop smoking with no negative side effects. Stop smoking laser treatments have been used in Europe for 30 years and Canada for 16 years with an 87% success rate. This painless/non-invasive procedure is done by shooting a low level "cold" laser light at precise acupuncture locations on your face, neck, wrists and hands.

When you smoke a cigarette, natural chemicals in your body called endorphins immediately signal your brain to make you think you feel better. Nicotine addiction alters the normal endorphin cycle in the body making it harder to feel good without the use of nicotine, whether it is from cigarettes, dip, chew, cigars or pipes.

As you know, the effects of nicotine wear off quickly (usually in 1 to 2 hours) and as time goes by, the body’s endorphin levels drop far below normal. As a result, you begin to feel extremely irritable, upset, stressed, fatigued, and anxious for another cigarette. After you inhale again, endorphin levels are raised back up to a point where you feel better. This continues on and on in a never ending cycle. 

This is a nicotine addiction and this is why it is difficult to quit smoking. Just as cigarettes raise endorphin levels in your body to make you feel relaxed, so does Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT). By naturally elevating endorphin levels, laser therapy allows you to eliminate nicotine from your body while avoiding the cravings, stress, and irritability most commonly associated with withdrawal. The difference between cigarettes and laser treatment is the laser naturally stimulates your cells to release endorphins over a much longer period of time…approximately 3 to 5 days versus 1 to 2 hours for a cigarette. Since it takes between three to five days to allow nicotine to completely leave your body, this creates a perfect window to get through the initial struggle of quitting.

Healing Laser Clinics offers 2 treatments to alleviate the nicotine cravings and to help you quit smoking. Mark Marino, his father Ken Marino and Melissa Morgan are the company’s founders and are all X-smokers themselves. This gives them a sincere understanding of what smokers are going through and experiential knowledge on how to help them. Mark (Healing Laser Clinics President) is also featured in the Healthy Living section of KnowCancer.com. I encourage you check out his video interview as he gives us a peak at the most effective methods of quitting with the least amount of side effects.  He also walks us through what it is like to quit smoking and some of the everyday things we don't think about when quitting. Mark was recently deemed Volunteer of the Month by the American Lung Association and Healing Laser Clinics proudly donates part of their proceeds to the American Lung Association to help with lung research and to educate children on the dangers of smoking.

Healing Laser Clinics was also awarded Know Cancer’s first ever plaque for their commitment to cancer prevention and education. Healing Laser Clinics is committed to helping people stop smoking and end their nicotine addiction. If you or someone you love needs their help you may contact them through www.HealingLaserClinics.com and make an appointment at one of their many locations throughout Central Florida.