I recently found this link Why We Do Stupid Things. It is a fascinating read. Think about how this has application in your life.

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 46 million inpatient surgeries were performed in 2006. This statistic does not include outpatient surgeries where people are released within 24 hours after surgery. Preoperative surgery often causes anxiety because people have a fear of the unknown. People tend to fear the worst before surgery and this can cause stress and can actually have a negative effect on postoperative recovery. Hypnotherapy has been found to reduce stress, anxiety, and pain in patients recovering from surgery.

There have been numerous studies showing that adults who have a great deal of preoperative anxiety, have a harder time recovering from surgery post-operative. In 2006, a study looked at children to see if the same was true. The study involved 241 children ages 5-12 who were scheduled for outpatient surgeries. Before the surgery, all children were evaluated based on anxiety. All children remained in the hospital for 24 hours and their pain was assessed every 3 hours. They were evaluated for 14 more days and pain medication was standardized for all children.

The results of the study showed that the children who were more anxious reported significantly more pain in the 3 days of recovering from the surgery. The more anxious children consumed more pain medication and had more anxiety and sleep problems post-operative. This study shows that preoperative anxiety is a serious issue that needs to be addressed in both adults and children to help them in the surgery recovery process. Increased anxiety before surgery leads to more anxiety, pain, and slower recovery time post-operative.

Another study looked at the effects of hypnosis and stress reducing techniques in reducing pain and anxiety in surgical patients. The study consisted of 60 patients undergoing elective plastic surgery. They were randomly selected: a control group received stress reducing techniques and a group received hypnosis to reduce anxiety. Patients’ pain and anxiety were measured before, during, and after the surgery.

Results showed that the hypnosis group reported significantly lower levels of pain and anxiety before and after the surgery. The hypnosis group also required less pain medication following the surgery and their vital statistics were more consistent during the surgery. The patients also reported greater satisfaction with their surgical experience.

This study shows that hypnosis is a highly effective form of reducing pain and anxiety for people undergoing surgery. This also leads to improved recovery after the surgery due to less anxiety and pain associated with the procedure.

Sources
Faymonville, M.E., Mambourgh, P.H., Joris, J., Vrijens, B., Fissette, J., Albert, A., & Lamy, M. (1997). Psychological approaches during conscious sedation. Hypnosis versus conscious stress reducing strategies: A prospective randomized study. Pain,73(3), 361-367.

“inpatient surgery.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on June 8, 2009 from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/ins…

Kain, Z.N., Mayes, L.C., Caldwell-Andrews, A.A., Karas, D.E., & McClain, B.C. (2006). Preoperative anxiety, postoperative pain, and behavioral recovery in young children undergoing surgery. Pediatrics, 118(2), 651-658.

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

Your subconscious mind is the powerhouse behind your automatic habits and behaviors. As an example, this remarkable part of your mind lets you drive your car while your thoughts are elsewhere. You can make turns, accelerate, or brake without thinking about it.

Activating your subconscious powerhouse through hypnosis offers many benefits. Here are just a few:

*Blood flow to the brain increases, resulting in clearer thinking, improved memory, and enhanced creativity.

*Serotonin levels increase by 21%, which calms the mind and body, and creates an overall sense of well-being.

*Up to 100% of excess adrenaline is eliminated; excess adrenaline could otherwise be toxic to the body.

*Endorphin levels increase by 25%; these are the hormones that flow through the body when we feel happy.

*20 minutes of hypnotic relaxation can be equivalent to 3 to 4 hours of sleep. Many active hypnosis clients find themselves sleeping less, and enjoying life more.

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
-Walt Disney

Hypnosis in Medicine
By David I. Brager , Washington State University Student ID#47948823, For/ English 402 , Professor Leonard Orr, PhD/ 22 January 2001

Throughout history, there has been a struggle for each human to overcome fear in his or her attempt to survive pain. This survival has taken place through a variety of discoveries, both internally, through reason and thought, and externally, through machines and constructions.
The limits of our abilities have been tested by experimentation, trial and tragedy. Of these limitations, fear of the unknown has been the gravest limitation of growth.

Discoverers and explorers have pushed our knowledge of the outer world while doctors and philosophers increased our knowledge of the inner world. With each new discovery, society has tested theories, accepted a few as consistent, adapted these into practice, and transcended the fears of old with a fresh, bold hunger to learn more.

Over time, unusual mental phenomena have occurred which allow people to overcome pain by turning off their abilities to sense stimulations. Such controls have allowed people to survive what would otherwise be undesirable or unbelievably cruel levels of pain.

Phenomena of survival have commonly been dismissed as miracles or freaks of nature. For centuries, such were never seriously considered as solid scientific discovery (BSMDHW).

Ever since 1836, when a method was developed by which one could induce the phenomenon, a new terminology was coined to describe this thought-provoking process. The term has been in use to describe it to this very day: “Hypnosis” (BSMDHW).

Hypnosis is the ability to put oneself into a trance-like state by autosuggestion (Mosby). So, as defined by Mosby, “autosuggestion by oneself” means that hypnosis is actually self- induced. Therefore all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

Hypnosis use in the medical field needed to radiate more authenticity. Thus, in the use specifically for the reduction of pain, the medical terminology is called “hypnoanesthesia” (Defechereux, 1938).

For a patient to achieve pain reduction through hypnosis, the patient must become an integral member of the surgical team (Mutter, 705 [4]), for the patient becomes his or her own anesthesiologist. However, in the rare case that a patient slips out of hypnoanesthesia, the standard anesthesiologist will step in and administer general anesthesia (Defechereux, 1938).

Based upon the procedures noted, there were basically two types of induction approaches used, both of which induce intense levels of boredom (the key which unlocks the entrance to the subconscious):

Eyes open suggestion/fixation (Whorell, 69[4]) or Erickson’s method (Defechereux, 1938; Havens) require the patient to focus his or her eyes on a single point or spot on the wall (often a single beam of light on a wall in a dark room) until the patient is bored into a subconscious state.  Eyes closed suggestion (Halligan, 986) or scripted (Lang, 1486), which also place a patient in a calm or dark room (Loitman, 118), but allow the patient to use his or her imagination while a monotonous repetition of words (Mosby “Self-Hypnosis”) coax a person into a subconscious state.

It has been found that hypnosis does not increase endorphin production as it was once thought to occur (Anonymous, 313[6]). In plain language, this means that the brain is not being affected by the morphine-like drug, endorphin, that the brain is known to have the ability to create. Thus, such pain relief is not clearly understood, though there are many technical theories.

One theory has been hypothesized that hypnosis blocks pain from entering the consciousness by activating frontal-limbic attention systems to inhibit pain impulse transmissions (Anonymous, 313[6]). What this means is that the state-of-mind which is created by hypnosis keeps the signal of pain from entering the conscious mind. The hypnosis does this by shifting the attention systems away from the stimulation that pain creates. By shifting attention, the brain does not process the stimulation or note that anything in the body’s operating environment is abnormal. Under normal conditions, when the body notes a problem, it will then turn on the signaling sensation of pain, noting that some part of the body is hurt, broken, or ill.

It has been found that hypnosis does not actually stop the signaling of pain. When this discovery was first made, there was a concern that people who underwent hypnosis were actually feeling the pain but masking their emotions. However, further studies revealed that although the pain signals were being generated by the body, these sensations were not being processed by the brain. Thus, the patient was not “feeling” the pain. It is this distinction which is essential to understand how a patient, who has had hypnoanesthesia, does not go into post-surgical shock (Wolkes, 22[6]).

Hypnosis began its use in surgery in 1837 when Dr. James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon, adapted and used it as his sole anesthesia for painless surgery in India (Mutter, 705(4); BSMDHW). From his experimentation and use, post-surgical shock dropped from 50% to only 5%, but his credibility amongst his peers lapsed, due to their distrust of something as mysterious as hypnosis (BSMDHW). The stigma hypnosis has had was recently shattered by medical doctors who tested it extensively and found similar successes.

Between April 1994 and June 1997, 197 thyroidectomies and 21 cervical explorations for hyperparathyroidism were performed under hypnoanesthesia using Erickson’s method. The surgeons all reported better operating conditions for certivotomy using hypnoanesthesia, with only two (1%) requiring General Anesthesia (Defechereux, 1938).

Biobehavioral “non-pharmacological” analgesia in the form of imagery, relaxation training and hypnosis has been used successfully to treat procedural pain (Lang, 1486). Clinical practice guidelines for acute pain management, published by the U.S. Public Health Service, mention relaxation exercises and cognitive approaches. However, other uses are now being explored.

Eighteen patients, ranging from ages 20 to 48, were monitored for the effects of hypnotically induced emotions of excitement, anger, and happiness on colonic motility (spontaneous motion). Each patient had a solid-state catheter entered into their anus via a colonoscopy. After each patient was hypnotized, he or she was then suggested to feel each intense emotion. During the suggestion of specifically intense emotions, the patient’s colon motility was then measured.

During the test, the suggestion of anger, and then of excitement, each revealed high motility. However, the suggestion of happiness caused a measurement which was so low, it equated to the baseline (pre-hypnosis, fasting) measurement.

The study purported to have proven that hypnosis-based emotional suggestions indeed had effects on colonic motility. The authors further suggested that hypnosis might be effective for patients with irritable bowel syndrome (Whorell, 69[4]).

In another case study, a patient with longstanding conversion hysteria, which is a medical term for psychosomatic leg paralysis, was monitored by using Positronic Imaging Tomography, which is known in the medical field as a “Pet Scan.” It was discovered that two distinct prefrontal areas of the brain were activated.

The doctors in the study hypothesized that if someone was hypnotized to believe he or she had leg paralysis, thereafter, that person’s brain would, by Pet Scan, reveal similar prefrontal activity. So, a second patient, who did not suffer from conversion hysteria, was hypnotized using an eyes-closed relaxation and deepening involving visual imagery and the sensation of descent.

After the induction, the patient was suggested that his left leg was paralyzed. The patient believed the suggestion and found he could not move his leg.

After the hypnosis suggestion was made, the PET scan that was done which revealed similar prefrontal activity in the hypnotized patient as to that of the non-hypnotized patient with actual hysterical paralysis. Thus, it was considered that this conclusion supports the growing body of evidence that shows hysterical and hypnotic paralysis share common neural systems (Halligan, 986).

On the other hand, in treating psychosomatic conversion hysteria, hypnosis also been shown to provide a cure. A patient from Libya, who was suffering from leg paralysis, had been in and out of medical hospitals all over Europe, but no possible organic explanation or solution could be found to explain his illness.

In Paris, it was suggested that his illness may be psychosomatic, and was thus seen by Chawki Azouri, a Lebanese psychoanalyst from the Centre de Formation et de Recherche Psychanalytiques. While in a hypnotic state, it was discovered that the patient’s father had abused him, both with mind-altering drugs and tormentation, in an attempt to control his behavior into accepting an arraigned marriage. He resisted, and in the process, paralyzed himself with fear, on a subconscious level, which removed him from having to deal with the situation. After two months of sessions, wherein the patient overcame his mental anguish in relation to his family problems, his paralysis disappeared, and he was deemed “cured.”

One of the greater benefits of using hypnosis in medical procedures is to effect and shorten the patient’s time to recover. This is not only beneficial for the patients but also for the doctors, staff, and hospitals, for every minute one patient is moved out, there is room for the next patient to move into place, especially in operating rooms.

Replacing or supplementing anesthesia with the relaxation techniques reduced the average procedure time by 17 minutes (20% of total procedure time). This, in turn, reduced the average procedure cost by $130 per patient (Lang, 3097). Such reduction in cost was primarily the result of fewer interruptions during the procedures and avoiding over- or under-sedation of the patient that usually results in the patient being held overnight instead of being released in a few hours.

Consider Kadlec Medical Center, which has eight operating rooms. During a twenty-four hour period, assuming the average data from Lang is correct, each operation normally takes eighty-five minutes. Thus, at maximum in a single day, there are roughly sixteen completed operations per room.

If twenty percent of the operating time was eliminated by using hypnoanesthesia, the average time per operation would then be sixty-eight minutes. At this rate, a room could maximally host roughly twenty-one sessions in a twenty-four hour period.

When taken to the fact that Kadlec has eight operating rooms, the cost effects on the profitability of a hospital become clearer. Without hypnoanesthesia, the maximum number of operations in a single day Kadlec can perform is 128, but if they adapted hypnoanesthesia, they could deliver 168 surgeries per day. This is approximately a 30% increase in overall operating room effectiveness.

In the case of the 197 thyroidectomies and 21 cervical explorations for hyperparathyroidism, all patients having hypnoanesthesia reported a pleasant experience and had significantly less postoperative pain and analgesic use (Defechereux, 1938). This is of recent major benefit, for drug addiction, especially for prescription drugs, is often implicated from dependency on painkillers.

Hospital stay was also significantly shorter, providing a substantial reduction in the costs of medical care (Defechereux, 1938). Using figures from Kadlec Medical Center, when a patient has to be moved to a room, even for an eight-hour stay, a room rate of $500 is tacked on the patient’s bill. When a patient recovers enough to be released without being checked into a room, the savings become very clear.

When considering pain management, dentists have found hypnosis to be effective for patients with painful tooth-root sensitivity. In a study done by the United States Air Force Dental Corps, eight patients, all of whom had suffered with this problem for an average of four and a half years, were induced into hypnosis and told that they could tolerate or ignore pain on one side of their mouth. The hypnotic suggestion was implanted once a week for three weeks, and in all, seven of the eight patients’ pain sensitivity decreased, as this result was tested, and lasted for over six months.

Hypnosis has even been found useful in increasing the blood content of white blood cells. In a study done at Washington State University by Professor Arreed F. Barabasz, Ph.D., sixty-five volunteer college students were selected, had blood samples taken to determine current white blood counts, and categorized into two groups. One group of 33 students was easily able to achieve hypnosis while the other 32 had great difficulty. All volunteers then watched a video describing the immune system.

Afterwards, they then listened to a hypnotic induction asking them to imagine their white blood cells attacking “germ cells,” and for them to repeat the self-hypnosis process on their own time twice a day.

Students who easily underwent hypnosis revealed, in blood tests taken at the end of the study, a larger increase in two major classes of white blood cells than those students who did not take well to hypnosis. Thus, the study purported that hypnosis may prove to be helpful in the treatment of Cancer and AIDS (Bower, 152[1]).

With so many discoveries on the use of hypnosis, there has been more emphasis on learning and disseminating these approaches to others. One of the pioneers in this field has been Stanford University Professor Emeritus Ernest R. Hilgard, who opened Stanford’s Laboratory of Hypnosis Research in 1957 (Wolkes, 22[6]).

Dr. Hilgard believes that hypnosis is a technique, like using a stethoscope. It is based in a routine skill, which requires minimal abilities to be delivered to a patient.

One who delivers hypnosis must develop an acute awareness of the responses a hypnotized patient will deliver more precisely over that a non-hypnotized patient. According to Dr. Hilgard, who has produced the most widely used experimentally derived scales for measuring hypnotic susceptibility; there are three primary differences a hypnotized patient delivers which a non-hypnotized patient will not:  Intensely controlled muscular action, such as inducing temporary paralysis, is easily produced in the hypnotized patient. As noted above, a patient who accepts paralysis under suggestion will create the same neurological processes as are involved with actual conversion hysteria to induce such paralysis.

Secondly, hallucinations that alter a patient’s field of vision are accepted as real. Such suggestions test how deep the patient’s belief in the hypnosis really is. A hypnotized patient, with eyes open, can either “see” things that are not real, or edit out things, that others around them can see, from their own sight.

Finally, a patient’s acceptance of a suggested imaginary activity or ability is effortless. By watching how a patient adapts, accepts, and believes in the suggested activity, the patient delivers visual signals to the hypnoanesthesia team on just how hypnotized the patient is. So, if a patient is told that he or she had just climbed Mt. Everest and needed to tell about it, the patient’s imagination would rationalize the suggestion as real, augment a false memory with details so the patient would be professing “truth” because the patient was unaware the story was being generated merely by a working suggestion.

With the dissemination of information expanding on the use and acceptance of hypnosis among medical practitioners, especially with the help of internet sources, the trend for more adaptation of these techniques appears to be well supported. Combined with the testing for new avenues of use, the future of hypnosis in medicine looks to be an enterprising field.

As health care costs have skyrocketed, when one considers how hypnosis aids shorter surgical procedures, decreased anesthesia use, and faster recovery time, the financial benefits become abundantly clear. Any process which factors into lower medical costs, better pain reduction, and higher survivability for the patient must have more information generated to educate and aid the general public’s acceptance and request for its use in their own medical therapy.

Hypnosis should become a standard practice in the medical field. In this way, it can better aid the survival of humankind.

Works Cited
“Hypnosis.” Mosby’s Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary. 5th ed. 1998. (InfoTrac)

“Self-Hypnosis.” Mosby’s Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary. 5th ed. 1998. (InfoTrac)

Anonymous. “Integration of Behavioral and Relaxation Approaches into the Treatment of Chronic Pain and Insomnia.” JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association 276.4 (1996): 313(6). (InfoTrac)

Bower, Bruce. “Marital tiffs spark immune swoon … but hypnosis offers immune aid [study by WSU Professor Dr. Arreed F. Barabasz]” Science News 144.10 ( 4 Sep. 1993): 152(1). (InfoTrac)

British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis. “A Brief History of Hypnosis in Medicine.” British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis Website (BSMDHW). http://www.bsmdlh.org/history.html

Defechereux, Thierry. “Hypnoanesthesia for Endocrine Cervical Surgery: A Statement of Practice (an abstract).” JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association 283.15 (2000): 1938. (InfoTrac)

Halligan, Peter W., et al. “Imaging Hypnotic Paralysis:
Implications for Conversion Hysteria.” The Lancet 355.9208 (2000): 986.

Havens, Ronald A., ed. The Wisdom of Milton H. Erickson: Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy. New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc., 1985.

Lang, Elvira V., et al. “Adjunctive Non-Pharmacological Analgesia For Invasive Medical Procedures: A Randomized Trial.” The Lancet 355.9214 (2000): 1486 (InfoTrac)

Lang, Elvira V. “Relaxation Technique Reduces Patient Anxiety Before Surgery.” American Family Physician 61.10 (2000): 3097. (InfoTrac)

Loitman, Jane E. “Pain Management: Beyond Pharmacology to Acupuncture and Hypnosis.” JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association 283.1 (2000): 118. (InfoTrac)

Mutter, Charles B. and Michael L. Coates. “Hypnosis in Family Medicine.” American Family Physician 42.5 (1990): 705(4). (InfoTrac)

Whorell, P.J., et al. “Physiological Effects of Emotion: Assessment via Hypnosis.” The Lancet 340.8811 (1992): 69(4). (InfoTrac)

Wolkes, John. “A study of hypnosis: director of Stanford’s Laboratory of Hypnosis Research for more than 20 years, Hilgard paved the way for the growing respectability of hypnosis (an interview with Ernest R. Hilgard [PhD]).” Psychology Today 20 (Jan. 1986): 22(6). (InfoTrac)

Additional Sources
Azouri, Chawki. “The talking cure.” UNESCO Courier Mar. 1994: 34(2). (InfoTrac)

Brager, David I. Scrypnosis: Hypnosis without Hypnotists. 26 Nov. 2000 http://www.scrypnosis.com

Zarrow, Susan. “Soothing sensitive teeth: hypnosis may relieve the pain.” Prevention 42.3 (Mar. 1990): 22(3). (InfoTrac)
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

The dangers of smoking have been studied and analyzed for years. The detrimental effect of smoking on people’s health and their activities is now public knowledge, and many people who have become addicted to smoking are now looking for ways to quit.

Most stop smoking programs work at increasing the individual’s strength to resist the desire to smoke. They rely on willpower, and for most people that is the worst method for quitting smoking. Willpower fluctuates like moods and emotions. One day it may be strong, the next day it may be weak.

Hypnosis works at eliminating the desire to smoke, whether it be from identification or replacement, the two principle reasons for smoking.

Identification is when the smoker indulges in the habit because the smoker admires (or associates) with others who smoke, such as, parents, peers, or celebrities. Identification smoking is the most common and the easiest to eliminate.

Replacement is when smoking takes the place of a previous habit, such as, overeating. Smoking is used to replace something that is missing, such as companionship, love, acceptance, self-esteem, security, or independence. Or smoking fills a void created by anxiety of boredom. Replacement smokers often receive sensual gratification from smoking. They enjoy the feeling of the cigarette in their mouth or the taste of the tobacco. For cigar and pipe smokers, the act of lighting becomes a ritual.

For both types of smokers, smoking is both a physical and a mental process. So, to be effective, the stop smoking program must address both aspects.

To address the psychological aspects of smoking, the hypnotherapist may include an evaluation of why the person started smoking. “What purpose does it serve in their life?” For the Identification Smoker, suggestions can be given to help strengthen a person’s perception of the individuality, that is, not needing to smoke to be accepted. For the Replacement Smoker, a more detailed analysis of their motivation is required.

To address the physical aspects of smoking, the hypnotherapist may include suggestions that change the perception of the taste from pleasant to unpleasant. The individual can imagine cigarettes as unappealing, bad tasting, foul smelling, and revolting in every sense of the word. This makes quitting easier.

Hypnosis takes advantage of the mind’s natural ability to imagine and visualize. The client pictures themselves free from the habit, filled with new health, energy, and vitality. They can see themselves as looking healthier, more attractive, and being more active.

Once a smoker has achieved success in a stop smoking program it is necessary to reinforce the programming that led to quitting. Smoking is a habit that is acquired and built over time. It can rarely be completely eliminated in an instant. Even though they may have stopped smoking, the behavior pattern still remains. Fortunately, it fades with disuse. Hypnotic conditioning with audio CD’s can be used to reinforce the changes until they become permanent.

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
-Walt Disney

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.

His bed was next to the room’s only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation..

Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.

Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man could not hear the band – he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, ‘Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.’

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

‘Today is a gift, that is why it is called The Present.’

Change the way you see, Not the way you look!

Author – Unknown

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

Hypnotism has many more practical uses that can benefit your everyday life.

Here are five common, everyday issues that hypnosis can help you with.

1. Insomnia. Hypnosis is incredibly effective for relieving insomnia. Most patients get relief within one session. Even people who have suffered from insomnia for years have experienced immediate relief. Hypnosis can be used to stop the symptom of insomnia and can be used as an ongoing therapy to prevent the return of insomnia.

2. Finding Lost Objects. Have you ever lost an object and been frustrated trying to remember, consciously, where you put it? Then maybe weeks or months later you find it and remember, “oh, yeah, I put that there because…” Hypnosis can be used to access the subconscious mind, which will remember accurately where you put the object. Many people have recovered lost objects this way.

3. End an Unwanted Habit. Want to quit smoking, biting your nails, or some other habit that you just can’t seem to quit through “willpower” alone? The subconscious mind is 88% of our brain’s power, so trying to quit with willpower alone means the odds are stacked against you, 12% against 88%. Your subconscious will not release the habit without intervention, and that is what hypnosis is, intervention for your subconscious mind. Convince your subconscious that you are a non-smoker, non-nail-biter, etc., and watch yourself change.

4. Get Past a Fear or Phobia. Many people have their lives limited by a fear or a phobia. Perhaps you don’t fly home to see family because of a phobia about flying. A fear is a learned reaction to a real event (e.g., a fear of dogs because you were bitten as a child). A phobia is an irrational reaction (e.g., fear of flying when you haven’t had any negative experiences on a plane). Both fears and phobias are quickly resolved through hypnosis, giving you new freedom in your life.

5. Get Relief from Chronic Pain. Pain relief, an anesthetic effect, is a natural property of hypnosis. Before the discovery of ether, hypnosis was commonly used to anesthetize patients for surgery. Even today, hypnosis is being used for dental patients and for medical patients who cannot tolerate chemical anesthesia, and these patients tend to recover more quickly as well. What does this mean in your day to day life? Chronic aches and pains that are not responding to traditional medical approaches can be relieved by using the anesthetic properties of hypnosis. Once a qualified hypnotherapist teaches you how to use hypnosis this way, you can provide pain relief for yourself at any time, anywhere, in any circumstance.

There are many more applications for hypnosis that can benefit you in your everyday life. Many have used hypnosis successfully for weight loss, to improve their memory, to relieve stage fright or performance anxiety, and much, much more. How could hypnosis benefit your life?

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

July 1, 2009
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

The smoking cessation drugs Chantix and Zyban must now carry a boxed warning — the strongest type possible — about the risk of serious mental health problems, including depression, behavior changes and suicidal thoughts, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday.

These have occurred in people with and without underlying psychiatric illnesses as well as those still smoking, Curt Rosebraugh, head of the FDA office that approved the stop-smoking drugs, said at a news conference. The symptoms linked to the drugs resemble those of nicotine withdrawal.

Rosebraugh emphasized that such events appear to be rare and that for many people, the drugs’ benefits outweigh their risks. “The health benefits of quitting smoking … are immediate and substantial,” he said.

Besides the immediate labeling change, the FDA is requiring the drugs’ makers to conduct a clinical trial to determine how often serious psychiatric symptoms occur in people using them. Earlier clinical trials didn’t uncover a potential psychiatric risk, Rosebraugh said, but “they weren’t specifically looking for it.”

The FDA decided to require the boxed warning after reviewing voluntary adverse-event reports for stop-smoking products, Rosebraugh said.

Chantix was approved in May 2006. In September 2007, a “bizarre” Texas case spurred the FDA to look at adverse-event reports, Rosebraugh said, referring to musician Carter Albrecht, 34, whose girlfriend blamed Chantix for the abnormal violent behavior that led to his shooting death.

In May 2008, a watchdog group posted a study online that linked Chantix to loss of consciousness, lapses in alertness, dizziness and muscle spasms. That led the Federal Aviation Administration to remove it from the list of drugs considered safe for pilots and air traffic controllers.

For Chantix, the FDA has received 98 reports of suicides; for Zyban and bupropion, the drug’s generic name, 14. There also were 188 reports of attempted suicides by Chantix users, 17 by smokers trying to quit with bupropion. Nicotine-replacement products haven’t generated similar reports, Rosebraugh said.

He cautioned “these are crude counts” and attributed the higher number for Chantix to publicity about the drug and its larger market share.

Chantix maker Pfizer and Zyban maker GlaxoSmithKline say they don’t believe the suicide reports establish their drugs as the cause.

“If some of this is nicotine withdrawal, it really doesn’t matter,” the FDA’s Robert Temple said. Smokers trying to quit and their doctors need to pay attention to behavior changes, no matter their cause, Temple said.

Bupropion is also sold as Wellbutrin, an antidepressant. Generic bupropion and Wellbutrin already carry a boxed warning about suicidal behavior in patients who receive the drug for psychiatric disorders.

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

We’ve heard it before: “Imagine yourself passing the exam or scoring a goal and it will happen.” We may roll our eyes and think that’s easier said than done, but in a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Christopher Davoli and Richard Abrams from Washington University suggest that the imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals.

A group of students searched visual displays for specific letters (which were scattered among other letters serving as distracters) and identified them as quickly as possible by pressing a button. While performing this task, the students were asked to either imagine themselves holding the display monitor with both hands or with their hands behind their backs (it was emphasized that they were not to assume those poses, but just imagine them).

The results showed that simply imagining a posture may have effects that are similar to actually assuming the pose. A The participants spent more time searching the display when they imagined themselves holding the monitor, compared to when they imagined themselves with their hands behind their backs. The researchers suggest that the slower rate of searching indicates a more thorough analysis of items closer to the hands. Previous research has shown that we spend more time looking at items close to our hands (items close to us are usually more important than those further away), but this is the first study suggesting that merely imagining something close to our hands will cause us to pay more attention to it.

The researchers suggest these findings indicate that our “peripersonal space” (the space around our body) can be extended into a space where an imagined posture would take us. They note there may be advantages to having this ability, such as determining if an action is realistic (e.g., “Can I reach the top shelf?”) and helping us to avoid collisions. The authors conclude that the present study confirms “an idea that has long been espoused by motivational speakers, sports psychologists, and John Lennon alike: The imagination has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality.”

Released ( Apr. 15, 2009)

Journal reference:

Reaching Out With the Imagination. Psychological Science, (in press)Adapted from materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.

Association for Psychological Science (2009, April 15). Power Of Imagination Is More Than Just A Metaphor. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 16, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/04/090414153527.htm

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

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Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney

Researchers Observe Changes in Brain Activity During Hypnosis
By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

June 26, 2009 — University of Geneva researchers say they found in a series of experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that brain activity is different under hypnosis.

Their study is published in journal Neuron.

The study concludes that hypnosis induces a disconnection of motor commands from normal voluntary processes under the influence of brain circuits involved in executive control and self-imagery, Yann Cojan, PhD, of the Neuroscience Center and Medical School at the University of Geneva, tells WebMD in an email.

The researchers used fMRI to scan brains of 12 people who were tested on hand movement before and after hypnosis for left hand paralysis.

Despite the paralysis, neurons in the motor cortex region were still firing away in preparation for the task, Cojan tells WebMD.

He says his team confirmed “subjective reports of hypnotic phenomenon” and also that “functional connectivity is a very important process in the brain” that hypnosis is capable of modifying.

What was surprising was that the cortex appeared to be ignoring parts of the brain with which it normally communicates in controlling movement, the researchers say.

Hypnosis produced changes in areas involved in attention, and also modified connections between the brain’s motor cortex and other regions, Cojan tells WebMD.

Besides the 12 who were hypnotized, the researchers also scanned the brains of six people who had not been hypnotized but who had been told to feign hand paralysis for testing. They comprised the comparison group.

“These results suggest that hypnosis may enhance self-monitoring processes to allow internal representations generated by the suggestion to guide behavior but does not act through direct motor inhibition,” Cojan says in a news release. “These findings make an important new step toward establishing neurobiological foundations for the striking impact of hypnosis on the brain and behavior.”

In the study participants, messages weren’t sent through normal brain channels, so when hypnotized subjects were told to move their left hands, they couldn’t, Cojan says.

Hypnosis, the researchers found, induces a disconnect in normal voluntary processes involved in planning to move a body part. “Hypnosis is a very old tool in many medical domains but it is still unclear how it works,” Cojan says.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maximum Power,

Dr. Dave Hill, DCH
http://www.drdavehill.com

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” -Walt Disney