“It was the first medically approved hospital-based program in America that used hypnosis as an integral part of cancer care,” said Giles, a board-certified chaplain. “We have tracked all of the people who have gone through the program over a 10-year horizon, and know they are doing better (than) expected to do when compared to the national cancer outcomes database. At this point, the group is full and there is a one-year waiting list.”
“The work’s been very rewarding,” said Giles, an officer of the National Guild of Hypnotists and author of the curriculum used by the guild to train people to do medical hypnotism in the United States, Great Britain and Canada.
Giles, whose Web site at www.csgiles.org provides a wealth of information and links to scientific studies, shares recent findings about the nature of cancer.
“What’s been found is that cancer cells have receptor sites for chemicals in the body associated with stress,” he said. “They use those chemicals to fuel a process called angiogenesis (generation of blood vessels that aid growth of a tumor). The stress chemicals in your body are energizing the tumor cells and encouraging tumor proliferation. So by maintaining a state of low stress in the mind, you actually change the physiology of the body and starve the cancer cells of chemicals they need to grow. That seems to be why hypnotism is effective. While it doesn’t kill the cancer, it does inhibit its spread.”
A study from the National Institutes of Health shows psychosocial support of cancer patients makes an enormous difference, he said.
His hypnosis program focuses on symptom management of pain, nausea and lack of appetite; mood management in helping the patient remain relaxed and optimistic; and specific imagery around the cancer itself, to encourage the body’s immune system to fight back.
Giles notes that public acceptance of hypnosis has improved dramatically.
Articles now abound in medical journals showing the effectiveness of hypnosis in health care, he said, adding, “The opinions of the medical community have simply shifted with the research.”
Source: www.metrowestdailynews.com
Manage the pain associated with cancer, and reduce the negative side effects of the treatment with self hypnosis here.
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