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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!"...

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...

Interesting article from the NCH website : People often ask “Why isn’t there more research on hypnosis?”  In fact, the people who ask this, in my experience, never seem to have read (or even heard of) the main research journals in the field of hypnosis (IJCEH, AJCH, and Contemporary Hypnosis) and are unaware that there’s actually an awful lot of research on hypnosis, arguably more than on any other psychological therapy, apart from cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).  However, one of the problems facing hypnosis researchers is that methods of hypnotherapy are too messy, eclectic and complex to be well-suited to good research design.  It helps build an evidence base if a treatment is “manualised” and can be described in a guide so that other researchers can replicate it in independent studies.  Hypnotherapists tend to do lots of strange things with clients, making it difficult to isolate which “bits” are effective and which...

HOW can a hypnotist paralyze your hand just with words? By making a part of your brain butt in on the process that normally makes your hand move, a study says. So the brain region that's ready to move your hand ignores its usual inputs and listens to this interloper, which says, "Don't even bother," the research concluded. It's "a kind of reconnection between different brain regions", said Yann Cojan, a researcher at the University of Geneva. Cojan is an author of the study in Thursday's issue of the journal Neuron. It used brain scans to show what happened when 12 volunteers tried to move a hand that had been paralysed by hypnosis. Results showed the right motor cortex prepared itself as usual to tell the left hand to move. But the cortex appeared to be ignoring the parts of the brain it normally communicates with in controlling movement. Instead, it...

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...

Yes, research demonstrates a significant effect when using hypnosis for weight loss.

In a 9-week study of two weight management groups (one using hypnosis and one not using hypnosis), the hypnosis group continued to get results in the two-year follow-up, while the non-hypnosis group showed no further results (Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1985).

 

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.

From the Department of Neurology at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel examined whether a Parkinson’s Disease (PD) tremor (which gets worse with stress) could improve with what they refer to as “relaxation guided imagery” (RGI) and calming music.

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,...

(NaturalNews) There is a lot still to be learned about emotions. Approximately 20 years ago, researchers were under the impression that emotions and feelings originated with the heart, not the brain. They also believed that emotions could not be measured with scientific research. In more recent years, researchers have found that emotions can play a major role in a person's overall health. A non-invasive way to study feelings and emotions is through the use of hypnotherapy and brain images (Brain & Emotions Research).