Freedom May Expand

Buoyed by the success of his two smoking-cessation clinics, an entrepreneur with Oakland County ties is considering franchising the business and establishing a mobile-clinic service for metro Detroit corporations.

Craig Nabat, president of Freedom Laser Therapy, is a former smoker who uses low-level laser therapy to help smokers quit. With offices in Royal Oak and Santa Monica, Calif., Nabat’s business is part of a growing trend in an industry that boasts high success rates.

“You’re going to see these types of clinics popping up all over the country because there is a demand out there to help people stop smoking for good,” said Nabat, a West Bloomfield native now living in the Los Angeles area.

Since he first opened the Santa Monica clinic in 2004, Nabat and his staff has treated some 2, 600 people in California, including 20 cast and crew member of the hit TV series “Desperate Housewives.” His Royal Oak office opened in January and has treated more than 700 patients. In all, he has about 15 employees.

Nabat is exploring a franchise system, possibly along the same growth path of Atlanta-based Anne Penman Laser Therapy, which has 16 locations in nine states. Although he wouldn’t release specific figures, Nabat said Freedom Laser is profitable and expects revenue growth in the double-digits for the next three to five years.

He also is considering making the business nonprofit to further highlight his emphasis on getting people to stop smoking. In addition, Nabat has employed a sales force in Oakland County that is contacting large Detroit-area corporations about mobile units that travel to workplaces to treat smokers wanting to quit.

Although the number of adult smokers in the United States has decreased each year since 1997, nearly a quartet of the 18 and older population still smokes, experts say.

The American Heart Association last year estimated that 26.3 million men (25.2 percent) and 21.2 million women (20.7 percent) are smokers.

Laser Therapy focuses on alleviation the physical desire for nicotine, addiction. The program assists the body nutritionally by providing a 30-day vitamin detoxification regimen to aid in elimination toxins from the blood-stream and repairing cell damage.

Low-level laser therapy is approved in the United States through investigational clinical trials. Freedom Laser Therapy uses technology that has successfully treated nicotine addiction in Europe and Canada for more than 30 years.

“We try to put smokers in touch with their natural ability to feel pleasure and comfort without nicotine,” said Nabat, who quit in 2003 after being a pack-and-a-half smoker for a few years.

Nabat said the -which costs most patients $349 with a $30 follow-up appointment is painless, noninvasive and takes about 30 minutes. The only protection required during is eyewear.

More than 90 percent of Nabat’s patients quit smoking and stay off cigarettes, he said, with the help of a follow-up program.