Hypnosis in Modern Medicine

Hypnosis in Modern Medicine

HYPNOSIS IN MODERN MEDICINE

The following is an excerpt from: “Major Hospitals Use Trances for Fractures, Cancer, Burns, & Speeding Surgery Recoveries”

By Michael Waldholz

Staff Reporter: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Often misunderstood and controversial, hypnosis is increasingly being employed in mainstream medicine. Numerous scientific studies have emerged showing that the hypnotized mind can exert a real and powerful effect on the body. These findings have led several major hospitals to use hypnosis to relieve pain and speed recovery in a variety of illnesses.

At the University of North Carolina, hypnosis is transforming the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, an often intractable gastro-intestinal disorder, by helping patients use their mind to quiet an unruly gut. Hypnosis was rated the #1 most-effective treatment in a recent UNC study. Doctors at the University of Washington regional burn center in Seattle regularly use hypnosis to help patients alleviate excruciating pain. Several hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School are employing hypnosis to speed up post-surgical recovery time. One Harvard researcher reports that hypnosis quickened the typical healing time of bone fractures by several weeks. Another Harvard study showed wound-healing benefits for hypnotized breast-cancer surgery patients. Elvira Lang, director of interventional radiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, reported that hypnotized patients who must remain awake during certain vascular and kidney procedures fared measurably better than similar patients who did not undergo hypnosis.

“Hypnosis may sound like magic, but we are now producing evidence showing it can be significantly therapeutic,” says Dr. David Spiegel, of Stanford University.

Hypnosis is being used to help women give birth without drugs, for muting dental pain, treating phobias and severe anxieties, for helping lose weight, stop smoking, or even to perform better in athletics or academic tests. Hypnosis is especially effective in alleviating anxiety surrounding anesthesia and surgery. One randomized trial published in Lancet, a respected medical journal, involved 241 patients at several prestigious medical centers. This study found that patients hypnotized before surgery 1) required less pain medication, 2) sustained fewer complications, and 3) left the hospital faster than a similar group not given hypnosis.

The biological effect of hypnosis is very real and can be quantified,” said Helen Crawford, an experimental psychologist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Crawford has demonstrated that hypnosis activates specific regions of the brain that control a person’s ability to focus attention.

Hypnosis has been used for more than 2000 years. It began gaining credibility as a medical tool in the early 1800s as psychoanalysis showed how the subconscious mind rules daily life. Combat physicians reported using it successfully for wounded soldiers during World War II. By 1958, the American Medical Association certified hypnosis as a legitimate treatment tool. In 1996, a National Institutes of Health panel ruled hypnosis an effective intervention for alleviating pain from cancer and other chronic conditions. Today, as people accept that stress can exacerbate illness, the potential curative power of hypnosis is becoming accepted, too.

(END OF EXCERPTED ARTICLE.)

Studies in several medical centers have conclusively demonstrated that the perception of pain is in direct relation to one’s level of anxiety. For example, if you receive an injection when completely at ease and relaxed, you might feel it at a pain level of 2 on a scale of 1 to 10. The same injection, however, given when you are really uptight and anxious, may feel like a level 7 or 8--and this is not an imagined difference. You actually feel the different levels of pain in each situation. Women who work with hypnotherapists during pregnancy proceed through labor and childbirth quite comfortably without medications—called hypno-birthing. People who were formerly terrified of visits to the dentist now undergo regular cleaning or more involved dental procedures with little or no anesthetic, and do so quite comfortably and free of stress. How? Through hypnosis, your actual perception of discomfort can be reduced at the same time your anxiousness about the procedure is diminished. As mentioned in the article above, several prominent medical centers now employ hypnotherapists in their burn centers, to diminish patients’ pain and facilitate wound cleansing and dressing changes. This, in turn, speeds recovery and reduces the time required for healing. With their vivid imaginations, children are marvelous subjects for this therapeutic tool.

Unlike pain medications, tranquilizers, mood elevators, or anti-anxiety drugs, hypnotherapy works with only beneficial side effects. You feel better whenever you’re more relaxed. Less anxious. Finally in control of your own life and situations. You feel more successful when you’re in control. Your self-esteem benefits. Hypnosis provides many side benefits above and beyond its primary goal, such as when utilized to relieve a fear, remove a bad habit, or while assisting your physicians with treating a troublesome medical condition.

Contrary to what has often been portrayed in movies, hypnosis cannot make people do or say things against their will. People who enter into a hypnotic trance are not put to sleep. They are not unconscious. They do not lose control of themselves or their faculties. They hear every word the hypnotherapist says. Under hypnosis, people simply refocus their concentration to gain greater self control. Thus, hypnosis is completely safe. Nobody has ever become “stuck” in a hypnotic trance. Even if a hypnotherapist should suddenly leave your side, you would be fully aware of his absence and always emerge safely from hypnosis.

People often enter into light hypnotic trances in everyday life. For example, when reading a riveting novel or watching a movie or TV, do you ever become so focused that you’re only vaguely aware of nearby noise, conversation, or activity? This is one type of hypnotic trance. While driving a car, have you ever arrived at your destination without recalling the details of your journey? If so, you were driving in a hypnotic trance. While your conscious mind was occupied with other thoughts and images, your subconscious mind was doing the driving from memory. And it is generally quite capable. Are you surprised? You should not be. What part of your mind do you think contains your reservoir of memory? Your emotions? Where does that unexpected rush of anger or anxiety come from? Or even love? Where is your entire imagination based? That’s right—your subconscious mind. What portion of your mind do you suppose regulates your breathing? Your heart rate? The amount of insulin in your bloodstream at any given time? How long or how well you sleep? What controls your entire autonomic nervous system, which in turn regulates nearly all your bodily functions? What part of your mind causes your adrenalin level to skyrocket or plunge in relation to prior experiences(memory) or imagined threats? That’s right—your subconscious mind controls all these things and more. And what part of the mind is utilized during hypnosis? Right again—the subconscious mind.

The conscious mind is critical and analytical. It’s the part of you that says, “No, I can’t do this.” Or, “I’m afraid to try this.” Or “This won’t work. I can’t lose weight, stop smoking, etc because I’ve tried it a hundred times before and it didn’t work.”

If you could only bypass your critical conscious mind, then your non-critical subconscious mind would be receptive to positive thoughts and suggestions. A subconscious mind responds to positive suggestions with something like, “I really want to accomplish this, so here’s how I’ll do it.” Boom! Without judgment or criticism, your subconscious accepts the suggestions for achieving what you want. Hypnosis is effective for many issues when a professional hypnotherapist guides you to access and directly influence your all-powerful subconscious mind. Yes, you read the previous sentence correctly—the hypnotherapist guides you so that you bypass the “critical,” conscious part of your mind and directly influence your own subconscious mind. To repeat one point from above, a hypnotist cannot make you do or say anything you do not want to do or say. For example, you can and will reject unwanted suggestions under hypnosis. It’s that simple. You can even lie under hypnosis, or simply refuse to answer certain questions. You are not out of control at any time. However, once you decide what you want to achieve, a skilled professional can guide you and show you exactly how to achieve your goal.

ONE REALLY IMPORTANT TIME TO UNDERGO HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis can be extremely beneficial prior to undergoing surgery or any invasive or frightening medical procedure. Along with regulating many other functions, your subconscious mind regulates your blood pressure, heart rate, vasoconstriction or vasodilatation(narrowing or widening of blood vessels,) and these functions have a direct influence on how much you bleed during surgery. Your subconscious mind hears everything, even when your conscious mind is asleep, such as under general anesthesia. Several people fully anesthetized during surgery have later reported hearing statements or entire discussions by members of the surgical team. A person in this circumstance will react to whatever is heard. An unthinking comment by a surgeon or nurse, for example, might cause the patient’s blood pressure to suddenly skyrocket, the heart rate to accelerate, or bleeding to increase dramatically. For example, a surgeon might be casually telling the anesthesiologist about a friend who damaged his new car, and say something like, “Worst thing I have ever seen. I thought he was gonna die.” Or, “he almost had a stroke.” The unconscious patient’s subconscious mind assumes that any comment by the surgeon in this situation is about whom? The patient on the operating table. His subconscious would likely focus on “I thought he was gonna die.” Might the patient react with fear, anxiety, or outright panic? Such a response would produce an immediate adrenalin surge and raise the patient’s blood pressure, pulse (possibly generating dangerous heart irregularities,) respiration rate, and bleeding--without the surgical team having the foggiest idea of what induced the episode.

Pre-operative preparation through hypnosis can avoid these potentially dangerous situations. A patient’s subconscious can be instructed beforehand to ignore such comments, and focus instead on pleasant memories or imagined, ideal conditions for a smooth surgery and rapid, pain-free healing.

Permit us to share one particularly important application of hypnosis that I(Dr. Smithdeal) used for years in my surgical practice. I prepared patients for surgery by providing them with written positive statements(affirmations) to read and visualize each morning and evening for 2 weeks prior to surgery. Statements such as, “During my surgery I can hear my surgeon saying, ‘Mary is doing beautifully. Her surgery is going even better than we could have imagined, and she’s getting a marvelous result. Her blood pressure is normal, her heart rate smooth and regular, and she’s doing great.’”

My staff was reminded often of the importance of not making thoughtless comments, either in the operating room or office. Unfortunately, in large hospitals where operating-room personnel change daily if not hourly, such “reminders” are virtually impossible to implement. Pre-operative hypnosis can avoid many such undesirable events.

A GIFT FOR YOU.

If you are not able to work with a skilled hypnotherapist prior to an upcoming anesthesia, surgery, or other medical procedure, or not able to contact us by phone or e-mail, I hope you will at least implement the following suggestions.

Write out several positive statements of exactly how you would like your procedure to go--under ideal circumstances. You don’t need to know or visualize medical terminology or technical details. Simply imagine the best possible scenario and describe it in your own words as though it is happening as you repeat the words. Example: “I am completely calm and relaxed during my gall-bladder(whatever procedure you’re having done) anesthesia and surgery. Even my surgeon is amazed that my procedure is so easy and uncomplicated. My anesthesia is smooth and easy, and when my surgery is fully completed and the anesthesiologist tells me it’s time to wake up, I do so easily and effortlessly. In fact, I notice that I’m hungry as I awaken, since I had nothing to eat for several hours before the anesthesia(This little “trick” planted into your subconscious avoids nausea following anesthesia, but in a positive way—it is not physically possible to be hungry and nauseated at the same time.) Do not repeat negative words or statements about future events such as “I will not feel pain, I will not be nauseated.” Use positive words and present-tense statements instead, such as “As I wake up, I am very comfortable. I am hungry.”

For as many days as possible prior to your procedure(2 weeks is ideal, but even one day is better than none,) read the written statements aloud--your subconscious is always listening to what you say. Read the statements several times daily(at least first thing in the morning, and just before going to sleep at night—this evening reading is crucial!) Memorize the statements, and visualize what you are saying as you repeat them. Make your statements real in your imagination—the imagination communicates directly with the rest of your subconscious. If any frightening or negative thought should creep into your conscious mind, immediately push it aside by repeating and visualizing the positive statements. Avoid people who insist on telling you fearful things (we all know a few of those—some may be close relatives.) Gently tell them you don’t want to hear anything negative. And don’t listen! Walk away if you have to. Program your mind for a positive experience, and allow your subconscious to create that experience for you. Anybody with normal intelligence can do this. Will it work for you? Do you really believe you can trust your subconscious mind? Here’s a hint—it has been keeping you alive since the day you were born. It is unquestionably the best friend you will ever have. Use this little gift with my blessings.(CDS)