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Jessica Alba has some unique advice for other expectant moms. The 30-year-old actress recommends "hypnobirthing classes" -- which are increasingly popular among pregnant women. Hypnobirthing involves the use of hypnosis during childbirth. "It's different for everyone, although I do recommend the hypnobirthing classes," Alba told Us Weekly on Monday at the RIMOWA store opening in Beverly Hills. "I highly recommend it. It just makes you chill." The actress wasn't quite so "chill" before the birth of daughter Honor Marie, 2: "I was freaked out going into it my first time going into labor. Like what if I panic? What if I just freak out and I don't know what to do?" So is the second pregnancy easier for Alba? "Oh yeah! But a little bit harder on the body because my daughter still wants to be picked up. Ever since my belly popped, she really is on me!"...

Expectant mothers at a hospital in Greater Manchester will be able to try hypnobirthing, as part of an NHS trial. Tameside General Hospital is introducing the technique to women who want to take part. Studies have found self-hypnosis, which started in the United States, allows many women to give birth without pain, and without gas and air, it said. Women are not distracted from the pain but learn how to stay calm so their muscles relax. Full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13451637...

Amir Raz gets some funny looks when he talks about using hypnosis and meditation techniques to build attention spans in a hyperactive MTV world. "Mention contemplation to a lot of people, and all they think of is some kind of (wacky) spiritualism, people sitting around a darkened room with candles, chanting," says Raz, a McGill University professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. "Our ideas are shaped by Hollywood movies. So you talk about hypnosis, and people see something out of a Woody Allen movie, a guy in a turban with bushy eyebrows who wants to put you to sleep." But "trim away the folkloric fat," and Raz, a cognitive psychologist who worked his way through graduate school doing magic tricks, sees mindfulness training as a valuable, drug-free tool in the struggle to foster attention skills, with positive spinoffs for controlling our emotions and even...

Breathe easy: Soprano Camilla Kerslake, pictured with Gary Barlow, used deep breathing techniques and hypnosis to overcome her stage fright The cameras were ready to whirr into action and pop star Gary Barlow was waiting expectantly in the corner of the Dublin studio. My daughter Camilla, 21, was about to shoot her first music video, singing the Take That hit Rule The World. Camilla looked the picture of calm, clearly enjoying her first taste of stardom. Yet, 24 hours earlier, suffering from a severe attack of stage fright, she had begged me to fly over and help her combat her nerves using hypnosis  -  one of the skills I use in my job as a personal development coach. In 2009, after Camilla handed Gary her CD in a recording studio, he gave her a record deal. Almost overnight she went from being a student at the Academy of Contemporary Music in...

Investigators from Marquette University’s Nurse-Midwifery Program in Milwaukee examined the physiological and psychological effects of hypnosis on healthy women. A sample of 30 healthy, female volunteers, not pregnant, predominantly White and college students listened to a 30-minute recording of relaxing, affirming hypnotic suggestions while sitting comfortably in a recliner. Hypnotizability and trait anxiety were measured at baseline. Tension-anxiety was measured at baseline and following the hypnotic induction. Heart rate, respiratory rate, and heart rate variability were collected before, during, and following the hypnosis. Paired t tests revealed significantly reduced heart rate (p<.001), respiratory rate (p<.001), low-to-high frequency heart rate variability ratio (p<.001), and tension-anxiety (p<.001), whereas high frequency heart rate variability was increased (p<.001) after the 30-minute hypnotic session. The researchers conclude that hypnosis is an innovative, low-technology, self-modulating approach that may well contribute to stress reduction and health promotion. Parameters demonstrated increased parasympathetic nervous system activity associated with relaxation...

Hypnotherapy significantly improves quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome patients, both in the short- and long-term, claim British researchers reporting to the BSG conference.Two research teams investigated the impact of hypnotherapy on quality of life in patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).They presented their findings at the British Society of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting in Birmingham, England. Click here for the full story...

A recent article from John Hopkins states "The most promising alternative therapy for irritable bowel syndrome is gut-directed hypnosis (also called hypnotherapy). Click here for the FULL STORY...

Researchers from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland compared the immediate effects of brief guided imagery and relaxation exercises - two active and one passive 10-min relaxation technique - on prenatal stress in a randomized, controlled trial with 39 healthy pregnant women.

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D. and Charles D. Gerson, M.D. of the Mind-Body Digestive Center have presented at Digestive Disease Week 2010.

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital evaluated the effectiveness of teaching guided imagery to acutely injured pediatric patients in the PICU, as compared to a one-on-one inquiry about pain-related experiences.

1. Hypnosis is very effective in bringing IBS symptoms under control. The original study that brought this to the attention of the medical world remains one of the most thorough in the field to date. In it Whorwell, Prior, and Faragher (Controlled trial of hypnotherapy in the treatment of severe refractory irritable-bowel syndrome.

Researchers from L. Sacco University Hospital in Milan, Italy review underlying mechanisms that produce fibromyalgia (FM), and summarize viable treatment options.

Hypnosis has a "very real" effect that can be picked up on brain scans, say Hull University researchers. An imaging study of hypnotised participants showed decreased activity in the parts of the brain linked with daydreaming or letting the mind wander. The same brain patterns were absent in people who had the tests but who were not susceptible to being hypnotised. One psychologist said the study backed the theory that hypnosis "primes" the brain to be open to suggestion. Hypnosis is increasingly being used to help people stop smoking or lose weight and advisers recently recommended its use on the NHS to treat irritable bowel syndrome. It is not the first time researchers have tried to use imaging studies to monitor brain activity in people under hypnosis. But the Hull team said these had been done while people had been asked to carry out tasks, so it was not clear whether...

Professor David Spiegel, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, wants the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to sanction sweeping changes. He will tell the Royal Society of Medicine on Monday that Nice should add hypnotherapy to its list of approved therapeutic techniques for the treatment of conditions ranging from allergies and high blood pressure to the pain associated with cancer treatment and bone marrow transplantation. Nice has already approved the technique for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. "It is time for hypnosis to work its way into the mainstream of British medicine," says Professor Spiegel. "There is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism and we need to get that message across to the bodies that influence this area. "Hypnosis has no negative side-effects. It makes operations quicker, as the patient is able to talk to the surgeon as the operation proceeds,...

Wife of New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen delivered her son Benjamin in a Boston bathtub in a water birth, claiming that after an 8 hour labor she experienced no pain, and was walking and doing dishes the following day.NO DOUBT her supermodel status has brought attention to the circumstances of Gisele Bundchen’s delivery; however there is a growing number of women who now opt for a gentler way to bring a child into the world. Among the methods used during pregnancy are yoga, meditation, hypnosis and ultimately a water birth, in order to avoid the use of medication and epidurals that affect both mom and baby.According to the national center for health statistics approximately 1 percent of births in the United States occur at home. In their consumer publication, “your pregnancy and birth”, the American College of obstetricians and gynecologists describes the process of water births, even though...