Thoughts can heal your body

Our thoughts can make us sick, and they can help us get well. Medical research increasingly supports   the role played by the mind in physical health. Dr. Herbert Benson, founder of the Benson-Henry Institute for mind body medicine at Massachusetts General   Hospital. What’s new is our detailed scientific knowledge of how the mind   connection operates.Scientists first proved a link between stress and disease in the early half of the century.

We can now measure changes in immune cells and the brain in ways that give us objective scientific proof of the connection between them.The body responds to mental input as if it were physically real, “explains Larry Dorsey, a physician and advocate for mind-body study since the 1980s. “Images create bodily changes–just as if the experience were really happening. Brain scans show that when we imagine an event, our thoughts “light up ” the part of the brain that are triggered during the actual event. Such singing, sports of any kinds, past anger, fears, motivation any event.

The placebo effect is an example of how the connection between brain   and body works in healing. It has been demonstrated when a patient believes   something will relieve pain, the body actually releases endorphins that do so.   In a recent study, Parkinson,s patients who were given fake surgery or fake drug   treatments produced dopamine (a chemical their bodies lack) in quantities   similar to those they might have received in a genuine intervention. Medical   research has suggested that 30% to 70% of successful treatments may be the   result of the patient,s belief that the treatment will work.

“There is ample evidence that negative thoughts and feelings can be   harmful to the body,” says Lorenzo Cohen, director of the Integrative Medical   Program at the M. D. Anderson Cancer in Houston. Stress is known to be a factor in heart disease, headaches, asthma and many other  illnesses.

 By: Robert Moss

Pre-surgical hypnosis saves hospitals significant money

Those of us in the field of hypnosis are always working to validate its benefits. This 1993 study not only proves the effectiveness of hypnosis in the surgical arena but also highlights the financial gain offered by this peaceful process.

In this study those who received pre-surgical hypnosis experienced more rapid return to normal gastro-intestinal function: 2.6 versus 4.1 days. Also the time to discharge from the hospital was faster: 6.5 versus 8.1 days.

This is the kicker; the hypnosis patients saved the hospital $1,200/patient. (Disbrow1993)

Studies like this support the fact that we are decades past the debate as to whether hypnosis is a legitimate modality supporting healthy change. The only debate that remains is whether it is right for the individual.

Can you be hypnotized?

It’s not a matter of whether you can be hypnotized, but whether you’ll allow yourself to be helped to enter hypnosis. Most people go into hypnosis easily once they understand that you remain conscious and do not surrender your will. Fear of loss of control, which is just a myth, is the main reason some people won’t allow themselves to be hypnotized, but if a person is comfortable with the process and with the hypnotist and knows what to expect, it’s surprisingly easy.

Everyone has the ability to be hypnotized; because it’s a natural, normal state that each of us enters at least twice each day – upon waking and falling asleep. We enter a state similar to hypnosis when daydreaming, meditating, driving on the road and arriving at our destination “automatically”, or being so deeply engrossed in a project or conversation that time seems to fly. A hypnotist helps you to enter this receptive state purposefully, and then uses the state to impress suggestions and imagery on your mind.

People seem to be able to achieve different degrees of hypnotic depth, but everyone can be hypnotized to a sufficient depth to accomplish most therapeutic goals. Repetitive hypnosis can increase the depth of hypnosis, but doesn’t necessarily make you more suggestible.

By: Paul Gustafson RN CH