Stare into my eyes and breathe deeply, when I whistle you will act like a chicken and when I clap my hands you will be back to normal. Hypnosis—to the general public—seems to be nothing more than an entertaining, off-the-strip Las Vegas act for a few bills in the hat that’s passed around. In ancient ayurvedic medicine or Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) however, hypnosis is much more than a sidewalk act. Hypnosis is a trance-like state of focused attention in which the subject isn’t unconscious, just concentrating on a deep mental image that takes them out of their present awareness. Usually done using a pattern of organized verbal suggestions, hypnosis is a way to invite a person to relax without using drugs.
The practice of hypnosis can alter your experiences and bring changes in emotions or behaviors and can also alter the state of your body. Hypnosis has long been used to treat irritable bowel syndrome as well as skin conditions and is sometimes used instead of traditional anesthesia.
With breast cancer being the second most common cancer in the world following tobacco’s favorite lung cancer, studies are constantly being done to ease the pain following chemotherapy and the after effects of hormone therapy in order to enhance the quality of life for breast cancer survivors. With amost three-fourths of breast cancer survivors experiencing hot flashes, they are a major side effect during and following various cancer treatments and can be disruptive enough to ruin or challenge normal everyday activities. Hot flashes are caused by decreasing estrogen levels within a woman’s body which make the internal thermometer confused. When the body goes through a “hot flash” the heart rate shoots up and she starts sweating, then you get weak followed by the chills. Hot flashes are known to cause frustration in menopausal women’s lives by messing with their hormones and shocking the system from hot to cold throwing the mind on an emotional rollercoaster. A lot of times hot flashes can cause sleeping problems. There have been other suggested treatments for hot flashes [1] but a new study looks to alternative methods to cool women down.
In a study done at Baylor University, 26 survivors were given hypnotic relaxation over five weeks versus 25 breast cancer survivors who did not go under hypnosis treatment. All of the volunteers before the study had breast cancer, did not have any sign of the disease at the start of the trial, and were reported to have up to fourteen hot flashes per day over a month. Each hypnosis session lasted for almost an hour, five times a week, focusing on coolness and relaxation and after each session the women were encouraged to continue to use visual relaxation techniques at home on their own.
Funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology [2], the study showed primarily positive results. The women who received hypnosis had a 68 percent decrease of hot flashes (around 4 fewer hot flashes per day), a main symptom of menopause.
Baylor’s professor of psychology and neuroscience, Gary Elkins reported the findings that anxiety, insomnia, and depression were also diminshed in the study and these reports are significant because hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is not highly recommended to breast cancer survivors because of the greater risk for new tumor growth. Baylor University isn’t done conducting it’s investigation into easing hot flashes. The National Institutes of Health has given the school a $2.6 million grant in approval of a five year trial involving 180 women, half of which started menopause biologically and are going through hot flashes.
The study only lasted five weeks, but the hypnosis group proved to be less anxious, more positive, and with an improved sleeping pattern, they seemed to have a better time living through their hot flashes instead of under their control. With the positive outcome of this study, researchers approved the use of hypnosis as an effective alternative treatment for breast cancer survivors—and menopausal women—so if you’re experiencing hot flashes, it’s your turn to close the windows and tune into your internal visual therapy methods to cool you down.