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• Possibilities in Hypnosis, where the Patient has the Power
• Hypnosis Can Get to Root of Fear of Change to Lose Weight
• Test Anxiety
• Facts about Hypnotherapy

Encouragement and another reason to Step Up and let the world know how Hypnosis Works!

Original Message-----
From: Beverly Taylor [mailto:beverly@easykeytolife.com]
Sent: 20/01/10
Subject: NFL player acknowledges hypnotherapy in The Huffington Post

Just wanted to share an NFL player's public thank you to my hypnocoaching and hypnotherapy recordings:

 "I must also mention the incredible women in my life, such as my mother Rita Sanford, Beverly Taylor (whose hypnotherapy tapes help me cope with surgery and life goals) and our team psychologist and fellow UCLA alum Janice Furst."

By Brendon Ayanbadejo, NFL Linebacker, three time Pro Bowl player, AFC Defensive Player of the Week. Quoted from article in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendon-ayanbadejo/the-raven-with-broken-win_b_316077.html?awesm=fbshare.me_B1l

(Btw, he incorrectly says I'm a physiologist, who I'm not). While I'm very happy for myself and I really love assisting Brendon in his greatness and with his surgery process, I'm also so thrilled that an NFL pro player would publicly thank hypnotherapy. So many athletes use hypnosis, but many won't tell anyone. They don't want people to know because of the myths or they consider it such a strategic advantage, that they won't tell. I have sports clients who do both.

My thanks to my teachers of hypnotherapy, sports enhancement hypnosis, and hypnocoaching: Marilyn Gordon, Don Mottin, Sarah Horton, and Hollis Polk.

To everyone's success!
Beverly Keyes Taylor

Stress, Anxiety Can Make Allergy Attacks Even More Miserable, Last Longer

Article Date: 15 Aug 2008 - 2:00 PDT

A new study here shows that even slight stress and anxiety can substantially worsen a person's allergic reaction to some routine allergens.

Moreover, the added impact of stress and anxiety seem to linger, causing the second day of a stressed person's allergy attack to be much worse.

The finding, the latest in more than three decades of study on stress and immunity, is important since allergic reactions are the fifth-most-common chronic disease in America, and medical costs to treat them can reach $3.4 billion each year.

In a report presented today (8/14) at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Boston, Ohio State University researchers described recent experiments meant to gauge how psychological stress might affect allergy sufferers.

"Allergies are not minor problems," explained Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State. "A huge number of people suffer from allergies and, while hay fever, for example, is generally not life-threatening, allergy sufferers often also have asthma which can be deadly."

Some data suggest that 38 percent of the people who suffer from allergic rhinitis also have asthma, and that 78 percent of asthma sufferers have allergic rhinitis.

Kiecolt-Glaser and Ronald Glaser, professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State, recruited 28 men and women. All of the volunteers had a history of hay fever and seasonal allergies

The volunteers spent two half-days in a research unit at the Ohio State Medical Center. Each time, they were given the standard skin prick test several times to determine their reactions to various allergens, and blood, saliva and serum samples were taken before, after and at several times during the research project.

All of the participants were given a battery of psychological questionnaires to determine their levels of stress, anxiety, self-confidence and feelings of control over situations.

On the day that individuals were assigned to the low-stress control condition, they were given the skin prick test and then asked to read from a magazine. Then they were asked to tape themselves reading the same material aloud.

During the day that people were assigned to the experimental condition, however, they had a much tougher time.

"We used a 'speech stressor test' used in a lot of psychology research," Kiecolt-Glaser said.

"Basically the participants each appeared before a panel of several 'evaluators' who supposedly were behavioral experts. Participants had to give a 10-minute speech, which was videotaped, and then are asked a series of math questions they had to solve without paper or pen."

Afterwards, they had to watch their videotaped performance.

"The whole exercise is a nice stress experiment in the laboratory," she said.

The researchers measured the raised "wheals" that formed on the arms of the participants before and after they were stressed, as well as the next day.

"The wheals on a person who was moderately anxious because of the experiment were 75 percent larger after the experiment, compared to that same person's response on the day when they were not stressed," Kiecolt-Glaser said, signifying a stronger reaction.

"But people who were highly anxious had wheals that were twice as big after they were stressed compared to their response when they were not stressed. Moreover, these same people were four times more likely to have a stronger reaction to the skin test one day later after the stress," she said.

This next-day change labeled a "late-phase reaction" is important because it signals an ongoing and strengthening response to the allergens, and even suggests that sufferers may react strongly to other stimuli that previously hadn't caused them to develop an allergic reaction.

Gailen Marshall, a co-investigator on the project and professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Mississippi, said that late phase, or delayed, reactions are typically unresponsive to the most common forms of allergy treatment, such as antihistamines.

"Late phase reactions also occur in allergic asthma and can, in the proper settings, be potentially life-threatening.

"The results of this study should alert practitioners and patients alike to the adverse effects of stress on allergic reactions in the nose, chest, skin and other organs that may seemingly resolve within a few minutes to hours after starting, but may reappear the nest day when least expected," he said.

Partner Ronald Glaser, director of the University's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, said that they stimulated cells taken from study participants and then measured the levels of cytokines like interleukin-6 (IL-6) that the cells produced.

Lymphocytes taken from participants during the study showed increased levels of cytokines like IL-6. High levels of IL-6 are part of the allergic response to an allergen, Glaser said. The researchers also measured levels of stress hormones called catecholamine and they were elevated as well.

He suggests that the raised levels of these compounds are to blame for the residual effects seen in the late-phase reaction.

"What's interesting about this is that it shows that being stressed can cause a person's allergies to worsen the next day," she explained.

"This is clinically important for patients since most of what we do to treat allergies is to take antihistamines to control the symptoms runny nose, watery, itchy eyes, and congestion.

"Antihistamines don't deal with those symptoms on the next day."

People may be setting themselves up to have more persistent problems by being stressed and anxious when allergy attacks begin," Kiecolt-Glaser said.

The researchers estimate that Americans pay $2.3 billion for allergy medications each year and $1.1 billion for doctor visits to treat allergy attacks. Those amounts don't include approximately 3.5 million workdays lost as well.

Working along with Kiecolt-Glaser, Glaser and Marshall on the project were William Malarkey, professor of internal medicine; Stanley Lemeshow, professor and dean of public health; Kathi Heffner from Ohio University; Kyle Porter, Cathie Atkinson and Byron Laskowski, all from Ohio State.

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Ohio State University
1125 Kinnear Rd.
Columbus, OH 43212-1153
United States
http://www.osu.edu 

New York Times
November 4, 2008
Personal Health
The Possibilities in Hypnosis,
Where the Patient Has the Power
By JANE E. BRODY

My husband, Richard, smoked cigarettes for 50 years, having failed several attempts to quit on his own. When a friend told him in August 1994 that hypnosis had enabled her to quit, he decided to give it a try.

“It didn’t work; I wasn’t hypnotized,” he declared after his one and only session. But it did work; since that day, he has not taken one puff of a cigarette.

Gloria Kanter of Boynton Beach, Fla., thought her attempt in 1985 to use hypnosis to overcome her fear of flying had failed. “When the therapist brought me out, I said it didn’t work,” she recalled in an interview. “I told her, ‘I heard everything you said.’ ”

Nonetheless, the next time she and her husband headed for the airport, she was not drenched in sweat and paralyzed with fear. “I was just fine,” she said, “and I’ve been fine ever since.”

Like many others whose knowledge of hypnotism comes from movies and stage shows, my husband and Mrs. Kanter misunderstood what hypnosis is all about. While in a hypnotic trance, you are neither unconscious nor asleep, but rather in a deeply relaxed state that renders the mind highly focused and ready to accept suggestions to help you accomplish your goals.

Hypnosis has been mired in controversy for two centuries, and its benefits are often overstated. It does not help everyone who wants to quit smoking, for example; then again, neither do other kinds of treatments.

And the patient’s attitude is critical. In the words of Brian Alman, a psychologist who practices hypnosis in San Diego, “The power of hypnosis actually resides in the patient and not in the doctor.”

Roberta Temes, a clinical hypnotist in Scotch Plains, N.J., insists that hypnosis cannot make people do anything they don’t want to do. Hypnosis can succeed only in helping people make changes they desire, she said in an interview.

In her book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hypnosis,” Dr. Temes points out that success in achieving your goal is the best proof that you were really hypnotized. She also suggests a second or third session if you didn’t quite reach your goal after the first try.

What Hypnosis Can Do

In effect, hypnosis is the epitome of mind-body medicine. It can enable the mind to tell the body how to react, and modify the messages that the body sends to the mind. It has been used to counter the nausea of pregnancy and chemotherapy; dental and test-taking anxiety; pain associated with surgery, root canal treatment and childbirth; fear of flying and public speaking; compulsive hair-pulling; and intractable hiccups, among many other troublesome health problems.

Writing in The Permanente Journal in 2001, Dr. Alman said that “useful potential” for benefiting from hypnosis “exists within each patient.” “The goal of modern medical hypnosis,” he said, “is to help patients use this unconscious potential.”

Dr. Alman described a 65-year-old concentration camp survivor who repeatedly choked when she tried to swallow, though examinations of her esophagus revealed no obstruction. After three hypnotherapy sessions, her problem was solved. “I was liberated from my esophagus,” the patient said.

You may not even have to be face to face with a hypnotist to benefit medically. Dr. Temes said hypnosis could be helpful even if done with a cassette tape or CD, or by telephone, which she offers as part of her practice. She said many helpful CD’s could be found through the Web site www.hypnosisnetwork.com. (CD's can also be found here at www.SuccessTherapy.ca/products)

Ellen Fineman, a physical therapist in Portland, Ore., had had five surgeries to repair a retina that kept detaching. Hoping that a sixth attempt would hold, she used a hypnosis tape prepared by Dr. Temes for patients undergoing surgery.

The hypnosis tape “was very calming and reassuring,” Ms. Fineman said in an interview.

“It told me that I would be in the hands of professionals who would take good care of me and that I’d have minimal swelling,” she said. “This time the surgery went superbly — no inflammation, no swelling and no more detachment. The surgeon was amazed and asked what I had done differently this time.”

While not everyone is easily hypnotized, nearly everyone can slip into a therapeutic trance, Dr. Temes maintains. Another of her patients, Dr. Susan Clarvit, a New York psychiatrist, thought she could not be hypnotized — she was too scientific, too rational a person, she said.

“But I was desperate,” Dr. Clarvit said in an interview. “I was pregnant with my second child and too nauseated to be alive. Dr. Temes asked me what I held most often, and I said a pen. She hypnotized me so that when I held a pen I had an overall feeling of wellness. I held a pen all the time, even while driving, and didn’t feel nauseated.”

Under hypnosis, Dr. Clarvit was given a posthypnotic suggestion that linked holding a pen to feeling well. Such suggestions enable people to practice a new, desired behavior after being brought out of the trance.

Someone trying to overcome snacking on sweets might be told, “When you are hungry, you will eat vegetables.” The suggestion to a smoker might be “you will drink water when you want a cigarette,” and someone terrified of public speaking might be told “you will do deep breathing when you feel scared.”

Many patients are also taught to practice self-hypnosis to reinforce the new behavior. Dr. Karen N. Olness, a professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University who is the president of the International Society of Hypnosis, said that “self-hypnosis training in children is an effective and practical strategy to prevent migraineepisodes.”

Indirect Benefits

Sometimes patients with well-established illnesses can benefit indirectly from hypnosis.

Dr. Alman told of a woman with multiple sclerosis who was treated with hypnosis for depression that had failed to improve with antidepressants. Almost immediately, he reported, not only did the woman’s depression ease, but her gait and speech improved markedly.

He explained that for many patients the medical problem is so complex that specific directions and commands may be ineffective. The benefit from hypnosis may rely more on unleashing unconscious processes within the patient. He suggested that there exists “a wealth of material in the patient’s unconscious that can be used in healing” but lamented the fact that although medical hypnosis can often produce rapid change even in difficult cases, it is “underutilized as a therapeutic tool.”

Did you know?

• As of December, 2004 there are more than 5,000 clinical research studies having to do with hypnosis and its benefits currently being conducted worldwide?

  (According to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

• As of December 15, 2004 results from more than 3,000 clinical research studies are available showing positive benefits from hypnosis?

  (According to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)

• According to studies done at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, suggestions given in a hypnotic state, even once, can produce actions in human beings that are the same type of actions that would have resulted from more long-term conditioning and practice.

• In a research study on Self-hypnosis for relapse prevention training with chronic drug/alcohol users, (Am J Clin Hypn. 2004 Apr;46(4):281-97), individuals who played self-hypnosis audiotapes "at least 3 to 5 times a week," at 7-week follow-up, reported the highest levels of self-esteem and serenity, and the least anger/impulsivity, in comparison to the minimal-practice and control groups.

• In a research study done with 60 college student volunteers (Spring of 2004 at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona), using hypnosis with ego-enhancement suggestions showed "significantly dramatic effects" in brain-wave patterns, subjective sense of self-confidence, and test scores.

• As reported by NewScientist.com news service:

  "Hypnosis is more than just a party trick; it measurably changes how the brain works," says John Gruzelier, a research psychologist at Imperial College in London. "Hypnosis significantly affects the activity in a part of the brain responsible for detecting and responding to errors, an area that controls higher level executive functions." The finding is one of the first to indicate a biological mechanism underpinning the experience of hypnosis. “This explains why, under hypnosis, people can do outrageous things that ordinarily they wouldn’t dream of doing,” says Gruzelier, who presented his study at the British Association for the Advancement of Science Festival in Exeter, UK. Gruzelier hopes it will also benefit emerging research showing, for example, that hypnosis can help cancer patients deal with painful treatments.

• Research using positron emission tomography (PET) scans, shows that hypnosis might alleviate pain by decreasing the activity of brain areas involved in the experience of suffering. Scientists have found that hypnosis reduced the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex, an area known to be involved in pain, but did not affect the activity of the somatosensory cortex, where the sensations of pain are processed.

• Clinical trials of therapeutic hypnosis confirm its potential benefits. Christina Liossi, a psychologist at the University of Wales in Swansea, recently conducted a study of 80 cancer patients aged 6 to 16. She found that those under hypnosis experienced far less pain during treatments than control children, who simply talked to the researchers normally.

• According to published results of clinical studies (Am J Clin Hypn. 2004 Apr), the use of hypnosis facilitates a more uncomplicated birth process. In a separate research study done by University of Florida counseling psychologist Paul Schauble, it was also found that women who learn hypnosis before delivering babies suffer fewer complications, need less medication and are more likely to have healthier babies than are women without hypnosis. Schauble's first study involved adolescents getting prenatal care at a public health clinic. A group of 20 patients who received hypnosis preparation were compared with 20 who were given supportive counseling and 20 patients in a control group who received only the standard prenatal care. None of the women who received hypnosis required surgical intervention in their deliveries, compared with 12 in the supportive counseling group and eight in the control group, he said. "Patients who are prepared for labor and delivery in hypnosis are more likely to absorb and benefit from information because they are in a relaxed, highly focused state," he said.

• In an ongoing pilot study being done by University of Florida counseling psychologist Paul Schauble, preliminary results show hypnotized patients with hypertension are more easily able to make lifestyle improvements that can lower blood pressure.

• A study being done by a team of University of Florida researchers is finding that learning self-hypnosis gives a patient greater control over the stress, anxiety and pain of medical operations and childbirth, overall. "Training patients in hypnosis prior to undergoing surgery is a way of helping them develop a sense of control over their stress, discomfort and anxiety," says Dr. Paul Schauble, psychologist. "It also helps them better understand what they can do to bring about a more satisfying and rapid recovery." He also said, "We've found, in working with individual patients, that they often feel literally stripped of control when they go into the hospital. The surgeon may do a good job of explaining the surgery, but patients' anxiety may make it difficult for them to absorb or comprehend. This can result in undue apprehension that can create complications or prolonged recovery."

• "Children make excellent subjects for hypnosis because they spend more time using their imaginations," says Florida counseling psychologist Paul Schauble. "But with practice most adults can learn how to enter into a therapeutic hypnotic state quite easily as well".

• In 1998 Henry Szechtman of McMaster University in Ontario and his co-workers used PET to image the brain activity of hypnotized subjects who were invited to imagine a scenario in which they were listening to someone speaking to them, and who then actually experienced a scenario in which they were listening to someone speaking to them. The researchers noted that the act of imagining a sound, called hallucinating a sound, was experienced exactly the same as real hearing, both being experienced as coming from an external source.

• 18 separate studies found that patients who received cognitive behavioral therapy plus hypnosis for disorders such as obesity, insomnia, anxiety and hypertension showed greater improvement than 70 percent of the patients who received psychotherapy alone.

• Disclaimer:

  Hypnosis cannot, and should not, stand alone as the sole medical or psychological intervention for any disorder.

  Hypnosis should not be used instead of appropriate medical, dental, or psychological treatment, and any individual with a medical or psychological problem should first consult a qualified health care provider for diagnosis and professional advice. Hypnosis should only be practiced by those who have been appropriately trained, who practice appropriately, and within the scope of their training.

  Information compiled by Gwyneth McNeil, Certified Hypnotist and Certified Instructor with the National Guild of Hypnotists and Managing Director of Academy of Life Management in Salt Lake City, Utah. 3098 Highland Drive Suite #317 - Salt Lake City, Utah 84117

Provided by www.WorldHypnotismDay.com © 2006
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