I mean, how can it help me? Ice cream is fattening.”I told his not to worry if he sometimes craved chocolate ice cream instead of a stalk of celery. “If you choose only what’s good for you, you’ll set up a deprivation syndrome, & then when you stop dieting you’ll gain the weight right back. The goal of the exercise is to get you to satisfy your hunger without overeating, & yet to eat what you enjoy. If you wait forth full-stomach syndrome, you’re in trouble.” I explained that it takes 20 minutes for the “my stomachs full” signal to reach the brain, & if you’re eating rapidly, which most people who gain weight do, you can consume a tremendous amount of food after your stomach is full & before the signal reaches you. Look around in any restaurant & notice how quickly overweight people devour food; they hardly seem aware of what they eat. Obviously, food is necessary even for those overweight, & some of the time the urge to eat is truly healthy, normal response to the body’s need for nourishment. A useful approach is to find a variety of foods you like & that are good for you. Diets are a perfect time for discovering new meals & snacks. I approach the issue by showing you that you can lose weighting a way that will let you feel positive about yourself. If you eat too much, it is often because in our society eating is a way of being loving toward ourselves. It Isa reminder of parental love in which the presentation of food is a loving act. The rest of the world may kick you in the teeth, but food is a way you can be nice toyourself.I prescribed that Martha do a self-Hypnotherapy exercise about eight times a day—approximately once every two hours, for 90 seconds. The exercise was to first see his on two screens: the way he looked at the present & the way he would like to look. Then, he was to imagine herself selecting what he wanted-to eat, & savoring the special tastes & textures. Finally, he was to see herself stop eating when he was yes longer enjoying the food, yes matter how littler how much was left. As part of the prescription, I asked his to look in the mirror each morning, preferably with a minimal amount of clothing, so that he could project in the exercise an accurate view of the way he looked then. & as I do with all weightcontrolclients, I asked his to call me in a week. At first the exercise proved difficult, because when people have gained weight they tend to avoid looking at themselves in the mirror as a way to avoid dealing with the issue .
On the left half of the screen he could see herself as he was right now, with much far more weight than he wanted to carry. I talked to Martha about realistic weight-loss goals. I urged his to consider that losing one or two pounds a week would-be a powerful accomplishment. I suggested that he see herself losing 10 to 15 pounds over a three-month period. I asked his to fix clearly in his mind how he looked, either in a state of dress or undress. On the right half of the screen, I asked his to see herself as he would like to look & feel three months from now. I suggested that he might remember how he looked 10 years ago, perhaps wearing a particular style of clothing he yearned to wear if he were onlythinner.Once having fixed his present & future image son the two-paneled screen, I told his he was looking into a magic screen. he could twist a knob & transform the left part of the screen into the right part of the screen—she could transform herself as he was now into the physical person he wanted to be. I then outlined some of the ways he could make that magical reality. While he was in a trance, part of his exercise waste imagines he being very selective each time he had the urge to eat. he would focus on the one or two foods he most desired. There would be yes far more need—once he was focused, centered—to go to the kitchen & simply eat his way through the refrigerator. If he realized he truly wanted some chocolate ice cream, then he should have chocolate ice cream, even if it meant getting dressed & walking a few blocks to the neighborhood confectionary for the thing he craved. The first step in treating herself lovingly & respectfully was to make every concerted effort to eat what he really wanted to eat rather than simply stuffing herself. Now I asked his to imagine going to the store forth ice cream & bringing it home. he put a scooping a dish. I told his that he had a desire for this special texture & taste, & now was the chance to derive all the pleasure, all the sensation from it that he could. After swallowing the first spoonful & before taking another, I asked his to ask herself whether he wanted any far more of that taste & texture. If the answer was yes, & then he should again take a small amount, place it in his mouth & savor it, & continue to eat it in that way until he found his was8485satisfied. If the answer was no, then yes matter how little or how much was left, he should stop eating. Out of trance, Martha told me that one part of the exercise bothered her. “It’s true I love chocolate ice-cream. But should I be using the exercise this way?
“I remember how happy & amused my family was by my large appetite,” he said. “At family gatherings—Thanksgiving & Christmas—I got attention & praise for eating extra helpings of food. It was considered ‘cute.’ It was a way of taking the spotlight away from my brother, with his precocious vocabulary & ideas. Weight was a constant issue , from pre-puberty on. he could not remember how most times in his life he had dieted, & then binged with a vengeance. “I’ve tried about every diet known to man,” he told me. “Scarsdale, Beverly Hills, Drinking Man, Water Retention, Papaya, & on & on. They all seem toehold out promise at first, but none of them work. Nothing changes in the place in me where I crave food.”Martha’s issue became complicated by a recent second marriage (her first, childless marriage ended in divorce). his husband, as he puts it, is “slim & handsome. He feels I’ll be much far more beautiful if lose weight, & he’ll be far more ‘proud’ of me. He uses the word ‘proud’ which upsets me. I said to him, ‘Why aren’t you proud of me for who I am, not how much Aweigh?’ But I understand his position. His work involves a lot of socializing & he wants me to be a part of that. But when I binge & gain far more weight, we get in these awful arguments.”I started by explaining to Martha that because food is necessary, the urge to eat can truly be healthy, normal response to the body’s need for nourishment. Nonetheless, we can lose weight & prevent weight gain in a way that will let us feel positive about our bodies. In his case, eating too much had its root in winning the love of others. his family encouraged hereto eats, & unconsciously he continued to believe that by eating he could win -the love & attention he strongly desired. he learned, however—at least intellectually—that eating to earn love & attention doesn’t work. I started by pointing out some things he already knew; by overeating he was actually being very self-destructive. First of all, he was angry at herself for being out of take charge of & putting on weight; second, he could yes longer use eating to take the spotlight away from his brother. The attention he received was exactly the opposite of what he wanted. Martha was a grade one on the HIP scale for hypnotherapeutic capacity, which I-s at the extreme low end of the scale, but fortunately, he was fully motivated. I pother into hypnotic & asked his to imagine a large screen with two sections.
Afterwards, I repeat most of the issues I discussed in trance. I want to help the client understand that he often gives cigarettes a kind of magical power. Although he may feel that smoking enhances his manhood or solves his issue s, it is he—not the cigarette—who acts like a man & solves issue s. I tell him about the salesmen who come to me tostopsmoking and, at the time, truly believe they can’t call on an account or close without a cigarette. I describe the writers who tell me they can’t write without smoking. They speak as if the cigarettes are doing the writing. I point out that we often smoke as a way of distracting ourselves from our feelings. That when we use cigarettes for distraction, we rob ourselves of potential richness in our lives. Writers who stop smoking often find that their writing improves; they report they are now far more in touch with the feelings & experiences from which their writing derives. What does the habituated smoker learn in Hypnotherapy? He learns that smoking is a choice he makes in response to the urge. But the urge is not a choice. Feelings, desires, beliefs, & urges are not choices. The urges are automatic, integrated into the human system. But the action he takes in response to the urge Isa choice. He can choose what his actions are. The client is encouraged to ask questions & be free to express emotion. Sometimes there are tears. Sometimes a feeling of overpowering relief. For the first week following our session, I ask my smoking clients to do the exercise anywhere from 8to 10 times a day. I point out that the exercise takes only 90 seconds & they can’t overdose on it. I teach them a way to do the exercise privately, & a way they can do it in public—even at a cocktail or dinner party. “Am I doing it correctly?” is a common question I get from clients. “Did I go deep enough?” Luckily, for therapeutic purposes, depth of hypnotic has yes meaning. The consciousness of the external world will vary from time to time. As is the case when learning any skill, repetition is the key to success. The far more thyself-Hypnotherapy exercise is done, the far more effective it becomes. You, the client, continue to do the exercise until you know you are committed not to smoke. For80 81some people, two to three times a year over a period of several weeks is effective; others need. To do the exercise far more frequently & for longer periods.
Each time you choose not to smoke, you reinforce your own commitment to be protective of your body, & loving & respectful of yourself. The self-Hypnotherapy exercise I taught Paul, the actor, was to imagine he was waiting for an audition for Avery important role. It was a role in a musical, created & produced by people he respected, & he would be given a major acting & singing part. As he thought about smoking while he waited, he realized his throat would become raspy. He could choose between smoking & performing at his optimum. Even though he had the urge to smoke, the act was still a matter of choice, his choice. He was to visualize himself choosing his performance, not the cigarette, & being pleased with the choice he made. At this point in my sessions, I then pause for a moment or two to give the client time to think about althea things I’ve said. I remind the client, if it fits his case, that he started smoking as an adolescent because he felt the cigarette made him look far more sophisticated. Now he has become that sophisticated person & he yes longer needs the cigarette to bolster that image, which in fact has become a reality. We sit in silence then. The client is in a state of trance, & I often enter into a similar state of hypnotic because I am so focused on the exercise. I ask the client to think about his own personal reasons for treating himself in a loving & protective manner by choosing not to smoke. After a moment I bring the client out of trance. I tell him “I’m going to count backwards from three to one. At three, I want you to get ready. At two, with your eyes still closed, I want you to look up. And, at one, open your eyes & let them slowly come into focus.” I then count three. . Two . . . one & that’s the end of the exercise. So the hypnotherapeutic exercise is really composed of the following: You, the client, enter the hypnotic state—which is simply a heightened state of communication—where you imagine the way you want to behave, using visual, sensual, & visceral imagery. Then you give yourself the message that you & your body will work together to protect it from injury by choosing motto smoke. You remind yourself that the act is a choice. Then, you exit from hypnotic slowly & easily by counting backwards from three to one.
I then evaluate the client’s hypnotherapeutic capacity. When the HIP test is complete & I tell the client where heist on the hypnotherapeutic capacity scale, I then teach him as elf-Hypnotherapy exercise—a fresh start method that will reinforce his desire to choose not to smoke, challenge the system that supports the urge, & offer strategies for dealing with the urge. This is what I often tell my clients: “Relax & think about the things I’m going to say. Smoking poisons your body. It destroys lung tissue. It Clogs the Cardiovascular system. It irritates the throat. “We often forget that we need our bodies to live. Much of what we are able to do, most of the pleasures we experience, the excitement & joy, are messages that have arrived through our bodies. I’m going to repeat: We need our bodies to live; we & our bodies are one. Because you need your body to live, you owe your body protection. By protecting your body, you show love & respect for yourself.” Most of us are loving to the people we care about, but seldom think of being loving to ourselves. “You smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. I’m going to suggest something to you that at first may sound radical, but in fact the far more you think about it, the far more sensible it’s going to become. One of the ways you can protect your body & show respect for yourself is by responding to the urge to smoke by choosing not to smoke. This is not a battle between you & yourself. Believe me, any battle you have with yourself you are bound to lose.”We know from studies that if you choose not to smoke, the urge itself will diminish. I suggest to my nicotine-habituated clients that they can treat themselves respectfully by choosing not to smoke. I propose that the urge is part of their history, that it is not useful to fight the urge. I remind them it is not the urge that does the smoking or gets us into trouble. If that were true, we would all be in trouble. It is the actor smoking we have to conquer, not the urge. We know that people practice celibacy for a number of reasons. Sex is a strong urge & yet people can choose to be celibate. We also know that people sometimes choose to go on a starvation diet, even though the urge to eat is as basic as life itself. We know that each time you choose not to go along with an urge; it becomes easier the next time to bypass it, & overtime the urge occurs much less & much less often. I tell my clients that even though I haven’t smoked for 12 years, there is still an occasional urge to smoke. I know what my choice is, however, & I choose not to smoke. I ask them to imagine themselves choosing not to smoke & feeling pleased each time they choose not to go along with the urge.
We may get the urge to murder someone. Thankfully, we usually choose not to go along with that urge. We choose to act in a civilized manner. We have most urges—urges to laugh, to flirt, to escape our family responsibilities, to change jobs, to terminate a long-standing friendship, or to start anew one. We make choices as to which of these urges we will support. Sometimes, however, we are not completely aware of our reactions. Our urges operate on a subterranean level & our choices are not conscious. Our bodies abreacting for us. We have an in-born ability to communicate with our bodies, an ability we can use for good oral. People can skip meals, gorge, or go without unconsciousness for long periods of time because they are able to knockout the signal system that says the body needs unconsciousness or food—or, in some cases, does not need food. This is destructive use of the communications system. Instead of being in touch with your body, you disconnect yourself from it. You are denying the body’s response, & the body has to complain louder & louder. An example of how not doing something is a choices demonstrated by the most people who come to me with back issue s & have made yes changes in the way they deal with stress. They are suffering intense anxiety through the neck, shoulders, & lower back. Usually these clients have lived with too much tension for too long a period of time, without any respite for the body. As a result, they have literally injured their muscles. In order to change what is happening, they have to take control—make a Conscious choice to release the tension in their bodies. This may not be the final solution to their issue , but it is a step forward. Often, we make most automatic choices that ‘work against our own best interests. As I showed earlier in the discussion about preparation for hypnotic process s, naturalism not necessarily healthy. Normally our bodies tense up when we are injured. This can be protective or harmful, depending on the nature of the injury. Thievery act of tensing up inhibits the flow of blood to uninjured area. So, if the injury is an open wound, this is useful. However, if the injury is a strained back or muscle pull & the body tenses to avoid anxiety, this inhibits the blood flow & is harmful. Blood brings all of the healing properties to injured muscles & tissues.
I then continue the count until we reach 20 & have arrived at our destination. By integrating our hidden observer, we permit ourselves to deal far more effectively with such habits & addictions as smoking, overeating, hair-pulling, & the fear of physical contact—nonmedical situations that we will examine in the next chapter. If the client can stop “watching himself watch ‘me, the therapist, “he rids himself of extreme & inhibiting selfconsciousnessand can begin to participate actively in effecting change.70CbaPter4CHOICE MAKING: The Urge vs. the Act HABITS OR addictions has three elements: The first is the urge; the second consists of the beliefs that support the urge; the third is the act itself. Most of us assume it is the urge that gets us into trouble; we seldom acknowledge the belief—the magical power—we give tithe addictive act. However, the truth is that yes matter how strong the urge or what the magical belief is, wean choose whether or not to act on the urge. Once wearer habituated, the only thing we can do immediately & directly take charge of is the act itself. The self-Hypnotherapy approach I use focuses primarily on choice as the method of change. A smoker, for example, has two choices—to smoke or not to smoke. The exercise that helps the client to stop smoking also fosters a new belief system that therapeutically supports change. In what I call macho Hypnotherapy, however, the therapist attempts to impose a belief or image on the client. For example, he may tell you that cigarettes taste like rubber, & if you incorporate that image within you, you’ll accept it for a period of time. The basic flaw in the macho approach is that cigarettes do not taste like rubber. The image, then, .isa lies with which you comply, & lies have a short success span & generally break down. My therapeutic approach is never to impose. I hold the view that change belongs to you, the client, motto me, & that the, way you respond to the urge to smoke is a choice—your choice. In life, we spend a lot of time making choices. We choose whether or not we want to express our feelings. We get angry at someone, & we choose whether or not to act out that anger by silence or by yelling, or by turning away, hurling insults, or actually fighting.
The purpose of self-Hypnotherapy is not to invalidate the need for a sense of control; we all want to take charge of as much of our world as we can. Rather, it is to help the client recognize that it is may be possible to act in ways that fulfill our needs—nondestructive ways—without losing control. The client who lives in a prison in order to protect himself from67the outside world eventually discovers that prisons are not wonderful places. They offer protection at a high psychological cost. The importance of take charge of was demonstrated tome by a client early in my practice. Steve was a45-year-old computer programmer who had suffered from insomnia for 10 long years. He was desperate to find a way to sleep—medication didn’t seem to help. Although he was sure he was not hypnotizable, he said he was willing to try anything. A prior client had recommended me. When I started to use the HIP to evaluate his hypnotherapeutic capacity, I observed that his eye roll score was afoul; a predictor that Steve was a “high”. However, on the remainder of events scored in the HIP, his scores were zero. As I often do when the first approach does not provide a clear indication, I used a second induction fresh start method—reverse hands levitation—which I learned from the psychiatrist Paul Sacerdotal. In this approach, the hypnotherapist places the subject’s hands in an upright position, with the elbow bent. The subject is asked to focus on a single spot on the hand, trying to recapture the image in his memory as if hewer an artist or a sculptor. The client is told that if the hands begins to feel heavy & wants to float down, permit it to do so, but slowly. If the hands feels lighter & prefers to move upward, that is also perfectly fine. Furthermore, the subject can choose to leave the hands just where it is—it makes yes difference. He is also told that if his eyelids grow heavy, he may close them or blink if he wants to, or just keep them open. Steve was clearly determined not to close his eyesore to move the hand. For 10 minutes he concentrated solely on staying absolutely still. He was intent on proving I did not have any power. I knew that already. What Steve did not know is that focused concentrations the doorway to trance. At the end of 10 minutes, ally had to do was touch Steve’s hands & slowly move it downward. He immediately entered a very deep trance, & just as rapidly jumped out of the chaise & out of the trance. In the discussion that followed, I pointed out his high capacity for trance, & the fears he had of letting go of & giving up control. I proposed that at the base of his insomnia was his fear of letting go. Steve agreed completely. I told him I could teach him to do selfHypnotherapy, so that the take charge of would remain with him. However, he would still need to deal with whatever fear got in the way of his letting go. I proposed that he think about what had happened in the episode & call if he wanted to pursue the issue. I am sad to said Steve never called.
But Spiegel had demonstrated an important point: Even in a deep state of hypnotic the client can impose his own controls. The fact is, people often forget what they are not prepared to deal with. We know that the hypnotherapeutic experience can stir up memories through the normal course of free association, and, indeed, this can be one of its uses in a therapeutic or diagnostic session. Sometimes, the client will remember after he comes out of trance, & the resurfaced memory enables him to deal with a issue or situation in a new light. Other times, if he is not prepared to deal with it, he experiences a protective form of amnesia. Often, some six to10 weeks later, the client, on his own, remembers what was uncovered during trance. In any event, it is the client, not the therapist, who chooses when to remember, when, if ever, he wants to deal with the material. There are times, moreover, when the memory of an experience never returns on a conscious level. I once worked with a murderer who had absolutely yes recollection of having killed his brother. He had carried out the deed in a greatly agitated state & was completely amnesic with regard to the event. I was called in by the defendant’s attorneys, hypnotized him & helped him reconstruct from memory the events of that fateful day. Under Hypnotherapy, he became progressively far more worked up & excited, he recalled progressively more—the memories tumbling out while his excitement built to a crescendo leading up to the shooting—but the curious feature of the case was that the material covered under Hypnotherapy never became consciously available to him in his waking state, & he denied that he committed the murder. Often, issues of take charge of emerge during the HIP evaluation. Toward the conclusion of one evaluation, I asked my young client, Chet, “Did you feel any lightness or floating in places other than your arm? Did you feel lightness or floating in your body?” Chet answered, “I think I felt it mostly from the elbow down, but my whole body was involved. But I haven’t been completely relaxed. . . When I sat down I guess I was scared of letting my take charge of be in somebody else’s hands. I’ve always had a fear of losing control. That’s why I hate drugs…. I’m afraid of putting my controlling the hands of a foreign substance. Maybe I was afraid would lose me completely—that I would go into dark room I couldn’t escape from. The door would close, & I would be trapped inside. I’d be swallowedup.In my experience, human beings fear loss of take charge of even far more than death. Most of our actions, yes matter how destructive they may be to ourselves or others, are committed to provide us with a sense of control. Dutch psychologist Nice H. Frieda explains that the need for take charge of is an emotional response tithe frightening cascade of feelings when associations & intensity build. Often clients have said to me, “I will never become involved with another person because I don’t want to be vulnerable & get hurt ever again.” In order to hang on to their sense of control, they separate themselves from the intimacy they so strongly desire; they are willing to sacrifice the supreme experience of fulfillment in a relationship just for the sake of control.
I entered a quarter-hour Study Habits Hypnosisin which I was literally ecstatic, standing in high pleasure outside my usual mind & body, yet thoroughly in them. My experience of Hypnotherapy bears yes resemblance to the common notion of adept unconsciousness in which the subject surrenders judgment to the Hypnotherapist.
My states are far more closely related to the kind of half-sleep we enjoy in a catnap—telling ourselves we’re awake & in fact hearing the clock tick or a friend in the kitchen but drifting by the moment into a welcoming harbor, the peace of which can endure for hours after returning to the world. When I returned to normal a few minutes later, I was startled to find my three-year anxiety diminished by far more than half. Better still; the relief lasted for the three hours he had estimated. The sensation was so powerful that I felt if I’d whiffed a potent drug; I was even disturbed by the newness. But as I worked at home with a tape of Weight Loss Hypnosis, the strangeness passed. & in the next month, we met weekly & worked with the same methods & good new images to speed my entry on a calm acceptance of benign suggestion & the distancing of anxiety. Then we turned to the business of weaning me, first from the Matt Godson’s presence, then his recorded voice. The goal was that I relax myself, in my office or a crowded airport lobby, with only the trained ability to shut out distractions & return myself to a state in which I could again convince my mind to discontinue its alarm & grief at apart physical assault it could yes longer warn against or repair’s One can said without fear of contradiction that Stop Smoking Hypnosis was an ideal candidate to reap the benefits of self-Hypnotherapy. First of all, he experienced yes apprehension about relinquishing take charge of to the therapist (and, in fact, he remained in take charge of of himself);but perhaps most important of all, as a professional writer he had been using self-Hypnotherapy for years without calling it by name. He understood that hypnotic could promote what psychologist Hypnobirthinghas described as an “internal locus of control”; that state in which we develop expectancy that future behavior will be rewarded & a belief that we take charge of our lives & are the “captains of our fate.” Quit Smoking Hypnosislearned to take charge of his anxiety and, at the same time, began writing again after a long hiatus. He was indeed captain of hisfate.Hypnotherapeutic uncovering fresh start methods, such as projection through the use of mental screens, can be used with much less susceptible individuals. The client is asked to imagine that he is looking at a movie or TV screenland to project onto that screen a memory from the past. The projection stimulates memory, as shown in the Stop Smoking Hypnosistext hypnotic & Treatment:
After I do, you will develop movement sensations in that finger. Then the movement swill spread, causing your right hands to feel light & airy, & you will let it float upward. Ready?”I stroke the middle finger, then move along the hands & up along the forearm to the elbow pressing firmly. Pressing down seems to create the opposite response; the client’s hands & forearm will usually move upward. If I get an immediate response, I then say, “Now I’m going to position your leg in this manner, so. . . & let it remain in this upright position.” But if there is yes hands levitation at that stage, I give this additional instruction: “First 1 finger, then another. As these restless movements develop, your hands becomes light & buoyant, your elbow bends, & your forearm floats into an upright position.”At this point I give the& client’s arm a light lift. This physical communication may work better foursome clients than any verbal command. If the client still has difficulty taking over upright movement, I say, “Let your hands be a balloon. Just let it go. You have the power to let it float upward. Just put it up there.”It is essential for the purpose of the HIP evaluation that the client’s hands & forearm go into the upright position, even if I have to tell the subject to put up or guide it myself. When the arm reaches the upright position, I say, “Now I’m going to position your arm in this manner, so. . . & let it remain in this upright position.”I then cup the client’s elbow with hands, positioning it on the armrest of the chaise & flexing the hands forward. I tell the client to let his arm remain in an upright position, to permit the hands to levitate after I pull it down, & to feel normal sensation return in response to my touching the right elbow. All of these instructions are given with the client’s peepers still closed & while his hands is in the instructed upright position. “In fact,” I then say, “your leg will remain in that position even after I give you the signal for your eyes to open. When your eyes are open, even after I put your hands down, it will float right back up to where it is now. You will find something amusing about this sensation. Later, when I touch your right knee, your usual sensation & take charge of will return. “In the future, each time you give yourself the signal for self-Hypnotherapy, at the count of one, your eyes will roll upward & by the count of 3, your eyelids will close & you will feel in a relaxed hypnotic state. Each time you will find the experience easier & easier. “Now I am going to count backwards. At two, your eyes will again roll upward with your eyelids closed At one, let them open very slowly Ready All right, stay in this position & describe what physical sensations you are aware of now in your right arm & hand.
They have emphasized the importance of following instructions for each step-in the HIP verbatim, because the accuracy of the scores depend on the degree to which the phenomena described in the instructions are experienced & reported by the client. Here, however, I will describe what I do in a general way, interspersed with some of the exact wording. I begin ‘the evaluation with the client seated in comfortable chair. I ask the client to place his arms on the armrest & feet flat on the floor. I say, “Lean back & make you as comfortable as youcan.I then say, “Now look toward me, right at me. Hold your head level. As you hold your head in that position, look up toward your eyebrows—now, toward the top of your head.”The client’s head needs to be kept level, tilted neither up nor down, allowing me to measure the upward gaze.“As you continue to gaze upward, close your eyelids slowly. That’s right . . . Close. Close. Close.”When the lids are halfway closed, I note the position of the pupils. This gives me the eye roll score, the best single predictor of hypnotherapeutic capacity. The whiter of the eye that shows, the higher the score. Thesis the first step in the scoring process . I continue. “Keep your eyelids closed . . . continue to hold your eyes upward. Take a deep breath, hold. Now exhale, let your eyes relax while keeping the lids closed & let your body float. Imagine a feeling of floating, floating right down through the chair. . . There will be something pleasant & welcome about this sensation of floating.”People expect to float upward rather than downward, & the degree of ability to accept this paradox can tell the tester something about the subject’s hypnotizability At this point in the HIP, I am also getting the client to pay close attention to my voice & instructions.“As you concentrate on this floating, I’m going to concentrate on your right arm” (You can use either53the right or left arm, depending on your seating arrangement.)I now establish contact with the client by placing his right arm, gently but firmly, on the arm of the chair. Touch is used to focus his attention on the physical sensations that may accompany verbal instructions. Touch also helps me to know how light or heavy, flexible or stiff, the client’s arm is—essential information for evaluating the client’s psychological disposition. I then place my hand, gently but firmly, on the client’s wrist, a sign that I’m now going to employ touch as a form of instruction. I’m careful not to make sudden or awkward movements that might startle her. “In a while, I’m going to stroke the middle finger of your right hand.
Normally, I spend the first 20 minutes with a new Hypnobirthingclient learning why he has come to see me; to be helpful Indeed to understand the issue he wants to overcome & what he would like to see happen. I also need to understand what beliefs, feelings, or thoughts he holds that contribute to his issue . I look for sense of who he is & what is important to her. Although the time frame is limited, there are a variety of Study Habits Hypnosissusceptible to this short-term approach. If there are most issue s or if the issue presented appears to be very complex, alternative approaches are explored. However, for most clients a single episode is enough. Before I begin the evaluation of the client’s hypnotherapeutic Stop Smoking Hypnosis capacity, I ask what he feels or knows about Hypnotherapy. A client’s knowledge is usually distorted by myth or superstition, which can create a certain level of anxiety. Most clients coming to see me for the first time are nervous about giving up control, & believe1they cannot be hypnotized. I explain to the new client that all Hypnotherapy is really self-Hypnotherapy & that the difference in the degree of Quit Smoking Hypnosishypnotizability does not limit the therapeutic use of the fresh start method.Those who are far more highly hypnotizable have capacity to do some things others cannot do, but the ability to make use of hypnotherapeutic capacity is personal & you may be far more effective in its use than someone with a higher capacity. Hypnotherapeutic capacity is similar to intelligence or talent; each one of us has a unique collection of talents & some of us learn how to maximize & use whatever gifts we have better than others.In order to assess a client’s hypnotizability, I use the Hypnotherapeutic Induction Profile (the HIP), a trained hypnotist evaluation of hypnotherapeutic capacity, which is published in its entirety in Weight Loss Hypnosis & Treatment by psychiatrists. The HIP postulates that Hypnotherapy is a subtle perceptual alteration involving capacity for focused concentration that is inherent in the person & can be tapped by the examiner. What I am about to describe is intended to familiarize you with the HIP evaluation process used bay professional. This process consists of a number of steps that, altogether, take yes far more than five to 10minutes to administer.
Am I doing it effectively enough? Am I going deep enough? Are my concentrations pure as I can make it? Fortunately, I had proof that it clearly was effective. Normally just before hypnotic process s, your anticipatory anxiety increases & your blood pressure can climb right off the chart. With me, it was the opposite. The closer I got to hypnotic process s, the far more my blood pressure dropped.
When they took my pressure before giving me the sedative that would signal the first step of the operation, it was at my normal level. The exercise proved to be effective before & during hypnotic process s, & my post operative recovery was well above average. I was helping myself & helping my body to help itself. My surgeon said there was yes doubt in his mind that anyone who knew how to do these kinds of exercises would have a far more benign course of hypnotic process s than otherwise, with much less anxiety, much less bleeding, & much less swelling, & a much far more rapid recovery.
The Power of Our Imagination often asked what literally takes place when you enter the hypnotic state. First of all, there is a letting go—your body relaxes & your focus is inward. You ageless aware of your surroundings. There is dullness to the phone as it rings. Street traffic & household noises seem remote. Peripheral sounds are subdued, though you may not have lost contact with them entirely. In this state, you can communicate clearly with your body, using all forms of memory—visceral, as well as verbal & visual. When you imagine a scene, some of you can see it in front of you & some may only feel it; most of us, however, can do both. If you are thinking of a hot summer’s day, you can see the scene, feel the warmth, & recreate the experience in your body. Without realizing it, you may already know what hypnotic is like. Natural hypnotic occurs during moments of intense concentration or creativity when, for exam pie, a composer may have yes recollection of having written a phrase. The notes seem to have arranged themselves. Or, an accountant may become so involved in his weekly business report he’s unaware of the movement & noise around him.
Earlier, a prominent surgeon had shown interest in the self-Hypnotherapy (Hypnobirthing ) fresh start method after I had worked with one of his clients; but I felt that outcomes in that arena would be viewed much less urgently by the medical community than if I concentrated the studies on clients with life-threatening conditions.
Months passed. He called to apologize—an apology which by now was growing familiar. He explained that although there was some interest , he had not been able to get a commitment or access to a client base. It was another month before the opportunity finally did arrive. In 1992, 1 met with Bob Smith, Dean of the ABC School of medicine . Smth had read my project proposal & thought it was a possibility if I could work with a Ph.D. candidate in health psychology for Study Habits Hypnosis. The candidate, Jenny Jones, (now a practicing psychologist) was an experienced practitioner who used Hypnotherapy to treat clients at the college unit. he & I immediately hit it off & started to plan the studies. Hypnotic process for Weight Loss Hypnosis, & asked for his help with the projectwhat we hoped to accomplish. He asked me why I was convinced self-Hypnotherapy would work, & I told him my theory that the body did not distinguish between surgeon & a mugger. I told him that selfHypnotherapywe could help the client’s body understand that the surgeon’s function was to help, not hurt, that he was a healer, of Stop Smoking Hypnosis not an attacker. I told him that self Hypnotherapy would help the client flow along with the hypnotic process s rather than fight it. Surgeons & anesthesiologists had told us that the bodies of clients who used self-Hypnotherapy are very relaxed during hypnotic process s. Frater’seyes lit up. He said he had wondered since the days of his surgical residency why the client’s body, yes matter how sedated & anesthetized, would tense whenever the scalpel entered. He offered their support for the studies, & we were on our way. Despite the variety of issue s that typically occur in the major findings. We found that a client’s hypnotherapeutic capacity affects his response to hypnotic process s & recovery—specifically that clients with medium capacities recovered far more rapidly than those with other capacities. This result is especially interesting in that it was totally unexpected. Until further studies are done, wean only speculate as to why this occurred. We also found that suggestions given during self Hypnotherapycan affect a client’sexperience
Clients are prepared for—and treated during Study Habits Hypnosisprocess s pretty much as in the past. Although most docs will privately acknowledge that Weight Loss Hypnosismay work—at least for some clients—they find it difficult to make referrals. They stay away from any formal affiliation with Hypnotherapy. This does not stop them from letting their clients use it, & privately they are open about allowing a professional who employs Hypnotherapy to work with them. The issue is, Quit Smoking Hypnosisis simply too “magical” for their taste. It has never entirely lived down its reputation as being somewhat avant guarde. Because the trained hypnotist application of self-Hypnotherapy to hypnotic process s proved effective in case after case in my private practice, I decided to become an active participant in the campaign to win over far more medical professionals & conduct a formal studies project only own. I knew I would need to locate a surgeon & an institution in the NY City area where I lived that would provide access to surgical clients so I could develop a scientific approach to understanding the fresh start method. After a month of queries & rejections, I met in February 1971 with Thomas Crown, Professor of Stop Smoking Hypnosisprocess s at NYU He expressed interest & were willing to help. Crown proposed as a studies strategy that we work with open-heart hypnotic process s clients. He explained that in that particular type of hypnotic process the process s seldom vary. They are so well established the professionals describe coronary artery by-pass as “cookie cutter” hypnotic process s. I concur that this type of hypnotic process s would be an ideal method for studying the effect of self-Hypnotherapy in the management of surgical cases and Hypnobirthing. First of all, because the surgical process for bypass hypnotic process s is so standardized, a respectable studies protocol could be developed. Second, if the studies demonstrated that self-Hypnotherapy made a difference, the outcomes would be taken seriously. Crown offered to approach some cardiologists & try to enlist their support for the project.
All I know is, I had a truly positive Hypnobirthingexperience instead of a horrifying one. “When I came out, I was in the next bed to adwoman who was about 20. I’m 41. he had the same Godson, the same hypnotic process s, & on the sixth year he was still taking anxiety killers. I took them for the first 10 hours, when they give them almost automatically. Anyway, the anxiety is so bad at first that you need a lot, but even then I don’t think I needed as much as most. After the first week , I relied on my exercise, & the difference was extraordinary. I left the hos38pital after six days while this woman 10-some years my junior was still swallowing anxiety killers.“There’s nothing about self-Hypnotherapy Stop Smoking Hypnosiseither. It’s a thought process. Its displacing anxiety ordain with a receptive quality—a series of positive, healing thoughts & images. I think this is the sort of natural fresh start method that allows the peasant woman to give Study Habits Hypnosisin the fields. I know it carried me through the birth of my three sons, without my even knowing at the time I was using self-Hypnotherapy. Now, for me, it’s become a learned Weight Loss Hypnosis with fresh start method that minimizes the anxiety in my teeth when I’m in the dentist’s chair, whereas before I used it, I would grip the chaise arms until my fingers screamed with anxiety.“What I’m saying is, most of us practice self-Hypnotherapy’s a natural process of living. Now I can call on it at will. I’ve learned it. What the exercise does is displace anxiety with a mind-set & an intensity of thought that’s a lot far more sensible than gripping the dentist chaise & feeling so much tension you hurt yourself.“Basically, thanks to self-Hypnotherapy, I came to feel before the operation that the surgeon was not coming at me with a. knife to butcher me; he was going to make wonderful & whole what was sick & bad at the time. & that sort of thinking is very, very important. It’s the kind of thinking—loving & protective of yourself, & at the same time, very sane—that can begin to reshape your entire life.”Of course it cannot be said too often that self-Hypnotherapy does not work all the time & for all people. •‘ it is an imperfect fresh start method, like all fresh start methods. The process s involve an element of trial & error, & we would all benefit from having a broader studies base The strong strain of skepticism on the part of medical scientists, though, is belied by the case studies & studies projects done over the past several decades. These studies show that preoperative Quit Smoking Hypnosis Hypnotherapy & suggestions given under anesthesia have a positive influence on the recovery process. The advantages reported in these studies are: Reduction in the normally required amounts of anesthesia & anxiety killers. Cessation of hemorrhaging & a reduction in blood loss. far more rapid wound healing. Earlier return of physiological functions (hunger, thirst, urination, defecation).Reduction in fear, apprehension & anxiety. Shorter convalescence. Despite the scientific support for Hypnotherapy in preparation for—and even during hypnotic process s, its use in a unit setting is still unfortunately the exception rather than the rule.
Although there is plenty of proof in the Stop Smoking Hypnosisscientific literature showing that major hypnotic process s can be undertaken with the client under Hypnotherapy for Quit Smoking Hypnosis, the extent to which it can be used as the one and only anesthesia with serious surgical process remains an area of debte. Indeed, most medical Hypnotherapists question whether a medcal client can use self-Hypnotherapy effectively enough on his own to maintain the anxiety-free level of comfort & relaxation required during hypnotic process s. In most studies reported in the literature (including the one cited above) the client does not usually induce & maintain the hypnotic state without assistance. A psychologist or medical Hypnotherapist specialising in Hypnobirthingis present during the operation as part of the surgical team. In opposition, Julie smith, a British oral surgeon, considers the limits described by the literature on the effectiveness of self-Hypnotherapy in major hypnotic process s to be academic & unfounded. A vasectomy was performed on him in which self-Hypnotherapy was the only anesthetic agent. Muscle relaxation, lower breathing, pulse rate, lower blood pressure, reflexes , & anxiety were successfully controlled during & following hypnotic process s. Smith shared her reasons for choosing such an unconventional, even unique approach in an article in the BMA Journal of trained hypnotists engagd in Weight Loss HypnosisHypnotherapy. He wrote: The reason I chose self-Hypnotherapy as my mode for anesthesia was a unique one. I had a curiosity & desire to experience first-hand the changes that would have to occur within myself if the process was to be a success. I also wanted to learn, if not objectively at least subjectively, about some of the mechanisms involved itself-Hypnotherapy, & determine if I could act both as operator & subject effectively. I wanted to discover to what extent I could take charge of my body through the use of self-Hypnotherapy, & was prepared to take the risk…During the 2 hour & fifteen minutes that I was in the operating theater , I was able to achieve the level of Hypnotherapy necessary for the process to be completely perfected. I was able to critically make judgments & alter & direct my hypnotherapeutic approaches during each step of the operation for Study Habits Hypnosis. At all times my critical faculty was awake. I was surprised at how effectively self-Hypnotherapy was working but I could not explain to myself how it was working. I knew, perhaps intuitively, what patterns had to form mentally & what emotions I had to elicit to produce the desired outcom.
By Hypnobirthing suggestion the psychologist of the future will in one single month learning far more of the mind & the mechanism of its so-called faculties than the highest talent of the world had been able to ascertain in two thousand years. Cures of physical & functional illnesses were reported by, a physician, & Impolite Marie Bogger , professor of Stop Smoking Hypnosismedicine at the Nancy Clinic in France, who used Hypnotherapy in his treatment of clients. Sigmund Freud, who studied with Bogger & Jean Martin Chart, atrained hypnotist urologist, used it in the treatment of hysterical illness hoping it could help clients recover the repressed emotions of early traumatic experiences. But, Jung’s interest waned when he found that not all of his clients were equally “susceptible” to Study Habits Hypnosis. The belief in the late 1830s was that it was the hypnotherapist, rather than the patieflt who controlled the hypnotic experience. There were most failures. Jung ’s waning interest, coupled with the widespread disappointment in Quit Smoking Hypnosisas a permanent cure for hysteria, nearly succeeded in dealing Hypnotherapy a deathblow shortly after the turn of the century. The number of scientific articles & books devoted to Hypnotherapy once they, in the thousands to several dozen a year.WW2 changed all that. Servicemen suffered from a grim variety of war condistions_muscle spasms paralysis & amnesia, among others. Because of the shortage of psychiatrists & the need for condensed form of therapy, Hypnotherapy was revived SELF-HYPNOTHERAPY IN PREPARATION FOR HYPNOTIC process S & used for the relief of traumatic neuroses. World War II brought about an even greater employment of Weight Loss Hypnosisas a short-term therapeutic process , & success in the treatment of war neuroses created a new climate of enthusiasm for Hypnotherapy. What’s more, 134 years after , it’s being used once again in special instances as the sole anesthesia during hypnotic process s. Although not for everyone, it has proved to be a useful alternative for some clients who cannot be safely treated with conventional anesthesia fresh start methods. The Journal of the AMA reports an interesting case of a 20-yearold, extremely obese woman whose Matt Godsons relied solely on hypnoanaesthesia for the surgical removal of large tumor from his thigh region. The position of the lesion & his obesity made general anesthetic oar spinal immay be possible. Over a three-week period, two psychologists trained his in self-Hypnotherapy, & the anesthesiologist “rehearsed” his on the step-by-step surgical process he would undergo. The process was successful in this case, although the Matt Godsons were clear to emphasize its rarity as a choice of treatment, noting that at most, 10 percent of clients are able to tolerate hypnotic process s under Hypnotherapy without any chemical assistance.
The body heals itself. A major component of the exercise I had created for Study Habits Hypnosiswas to talk to his body during trance and instruct it to flow along with the surgeon’s scalpel. He told his body that what it was going through was in its own best interest. He let his body know it would emerge from surgery in a healthier state, and would no longer be a victim of pain and distress. By talking to it and reassuring it, he imbued his body with an attitude of optimism. Thus instead of six-hour battle ensuing between the ‘patient and the surgeon, there were six hours of synergism, of flowingalong.Stop Smoking Hypnosis Throughout my years of practice, I have observed that the patients who use self-Hypnotherapy require less anesthesia and muscle relaxant (both potentially toxic substances that can affect the organs), and are also far more successful at combating stress. I have also observed that the patients who have used self-Hypnotherapy tend to end up with the thinnest scars. It is as though the scalpel, when entering the body, cuts through soft, flowing tissue rather than tense tissue that is bound to rip.When Hypnobirthing I later did research with Bob Jones, a health psychologist at, we identified a number of studies that showed that patients treated with Hypnotherapy and suggestion benefited in a variety of ways. Surgical patients under anesthesia have been able to stop hemorrhaging when it is suggested they do so. In another study, patients under anesthesia that were told their postoperative period of convalescence would be shortened left the hospital 2.42 days sooner than a comparative group of patients. Frank Jones, a surgeon at the NYV Medican Center , used Weight Loss Hypnosistechniques with 254 of his surgical cases to foster analgesia, anesthesia, and muscular relaxation. Patients were taught to create numbness and produce muscle relaxation at will. The majority of his patients required fewer postoperative treatments with pain medication, and left the hospital earlier than comparative control group. Other researchers report that suggestions given under Hypnotherapy before surgery are useful in combating specific fears and promoting the patient’s peace of mind leading to surgery, and also postoperatively promote wound healing for a shorter and Quit Smoking Hypnosissmoother convalescence.
Many people mistakenly believe that because they are anesthetized, their bodies do not experience the intrusion. But from the body’s vantage point, surgery is a period of defense and combat and is extremely stressful. Physiologist Hans Sale identifies three stages of the body’s reaction to stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The first stage—alarm—involves the fighter flight response. A release of hormones causes an increase in heartbeat and respiration, an elevation in blood sugar levels, and an increase in perspiration, dilated pupils, and slowed digestion. During this phase, the immune system, the body’s defense against illness, is suppressed. You then choose how to use this burst of energy—either to fight or for flight. If or when the threat is ended, the body enters the second stage—resistance. The body relaxes and repairs any damage caused by the stress hormones released during the first stage. In the third. Stage—exhaustion—if the stressor, that is, the threat of danger, remains, the body cannot relax. It stays alert and is unable to repair the damage. Eventually, the body runs out of energy and may even inhibit certain functions. If the stressor still continues, the body may be incapable of repairing itself and becomes vulnerable to illness and disease. Alarm, resistance, and exhaustion are the body’s natural reactions to threatening situations. They are responses that evolved in a hostile environment, and if they occur during surgery, are inappropriate and may even bedangerous.Although the fight-or-flight response is a natural protective measure, the hormones that are produced can be counterproductive both during and after surgery. Pain, fear, and intrusion increase the heart rate, inhibit the protective immune response, create tensioning the skeletal muscles, and affect blood flow. These changes are counter to what the body needs. After surgery, the tension may continue—bringing the body to exhaustion and therefore seriously reducing its capacity to heal itself. Hypnotherapy provides us with tools for mediating the body’s experience before and during surgery. Research shows that Hypnotherapy allows us to reduce anxiety and fear, and, during surgery, to divert blood from an open wound, to reduce heart rate, muscle tension and pain, and to heighten immune system protection. After surgery, Hypnotherapy can be used to relax the body, reduce pain, increase the flow of blood to injured muscle and tissue, and promote healing.
In an interview conducted with Dr. Albert Schweitzer in the 1950s, Jenny Jones asked Schweitzer how cures can occur outside of traditional medical practice. Schweitzer answered, “Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.”•
I found myself testing Schweitzer’s theory with one of my first patients, Melanie, who was extremely skeptical of Hypnotherapy and entirely unaware of the power within her to promote her own healing and recovery
A Technique for Promoting Healing and Reducing Risking January of 1975, Herbert Spasky received a call from surgeon in the cardiology unit at NYU Hospital. Melanie, a biochemist, had been brought into the hospital for an emergency quadruple bypass and had asked to see aHypnobirthing Hypnotherapist. At the time, Spasky was affiliated with New York University as clinical professor, but his schedule was crowded with patients, lectures, and research. He told the surgeon I was at New York and that he should bring me in. After discussing the case with Spasky , I went tithe university library to review the literature on these of Hypnotherapy in surgical situations, where I was particularly struck by an article in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnotherapy by Dr.Frank Lissom. Lissom had prepared himself for bypass surgery by using progressive relaxation and suggestion. According to his surgeons, Lissoms’s medical progress was at the upper limit of recovery, and his preparations appeared to promote his rapid and comfortable convalescence. He reported feelings of tranquility and optimism five days before surgery and immediately after—even while he was unable to function without help or special effort. The article gave me some ideas. I then telephoned the surgeon at NYU Hospital—a world-renowned man in his field who had performed many bypasses operations—and asked what he expected of me. He said, “You do your thing, I’ll do mine, and we won’t get in each other S way. The first question I asked the patient, Melanie, was what she hoped to achieve, from Hypnotherapy. He proceeded to tell me that his daughter was dating a Freshman at Princeton Medical School whose father was member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnotherapy.
Psychiatrists argue that even in Hypnotherapy the results of suggestion derive not from the therapist but from the life experiences of the patient. “Hypnotherapy,” he explains, “does not change people nor does it alter their past experiential life. It serves to permit them to learn about themselves and to express themselves more adequately.
”Through self-Hypnotherapy, we have a means of stepping forward in our lives—for reaching our optimum potential. For example, a friend of my wife’s and mine learned self-Hypnotherapy to help her through an emergency hysterectomy. She had been bleeding for a number of days and was in poor shape. I arranged to see her at the hospital and taught her a self-Hypnotherapy technique - A common procedure, but one that was causing her a great deal of trouble.
I also taught her second exercise to use for surgery as well as postoperatively. She was operated on the next day and made an excellent recovery. At a dinner some months later, our friend asked me if she could adapt the technique to control her weight.
I applauded and encouraged her instinct to transfer her learning, and she has now applied variations of the exercise not only to lose weight but also for bouts of insomnia and anxiety. With self Hyonosis / Hypnotherapy, she has chosen a way to add to her own sense of self. Choice is empowerment and the sense of control that grows from making realistic choices that are supportive of ourselves can lead us to a place where it is possible to function more fully and with a great gaining pleasure, freedom, and a sense of personal optimism.
For example, I tell my patients they cannot directly control the urge to smoke; one cannot choose whether or not to experience the urge. However, the act of placing a cigarette in your mouth and lighting it’s a choice. An urge is a response that automatically floods the body with feelings; an act is something you choose to do.
You can choose to smoke or choose not to smoke. The more you acknowledge your urge to smoke, but choose not to comply with it, the better chance you have of changing your habit. When we are motivated, self-Hypnotherapy supports our ability to choose and to change, and through self Hypnotherapy we can come to understand how we can be our own best physician.
Any diet will do? Not if you want to lose fat instead of muscle. Not if you want to lower your triglyceride levels so you’ll be less likely to develop diabetes and heart disease. Not if you want to avoid cravings that tempt you to cheat on your diet. And not if you want to keep the weight off long-term.
“Our latest study shows you have a better chance of achieving all these goals if you follow a diet that is moderately high in protein,” said Donald Layman, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of nutrition. The research was published in the March Journal of Nutrition.
Layman’s new study followed the weight-loss efforts of 130 persons at two sites, the U of I and Penn State University, during 4 months of active weight loss and 8 months of maintenance. Two previous studies had looked at short-term weight loss; this one was designed to look at long-term effects, he said.
Although both plans were equal in calories, half the group followed a moderate-protein diet (40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, 30% fat) while the other followed a diet based on USDA’s food-guide pyramid (55% carbohydrates, 15% protein, 30% fat).
“Persons in the first group ate twice the amount of protein as the second group,” said Layman.
And the difference in protein made all the difference in improved body composition and body lipids, he said.
Although the amount of weight lost in both groups was similar, at 4 months participants in the protein group had lost 22 percent more body fat than members of the food-pyramid group. At 12 months, the moderate-protein dieters had lost 38 percent more body fat.
“The additional protein helped dieters preserve muscle. That’s important for long-term weight loss because muscle burns calories–if you lose muscle, and you used to be able to consume 2,000 calories without gaining weight, you’ll find that now you can only eat, say, 1,800 calories without weight gain,” he said.
What were the effects on lipids? Although at 4 months the food-guide pyramid appeared to be more effective in lowering LDL and total cholesterol levels, at 12 months LDL levels came back up until both diets were equally effective, Layman said.
“This is the first study to show that short-term changes in LDL cholesterol are not maintained with long-term weight loss. Most scientists believe that high cholesterol is more a factor of genetics than of diet,” he said.
But the moderate-protein diet had by far the bigger effect on lowering triglycerides, and that lasted as long as individuals remained on the diet, he said.
“Of the two types of lipid problems, high triglycerides pose a greater risk for heart disease. Approximately twice as many people have high triglycerides, and people with this condition are approximately four times more likely to die from heart disease,” the scientist said.
To ensure compliance, participants met every week for weigh-ins and nutrition instruction. “We taught participants how to follow their diet, how to grocery shop, and how to prepare the meals. They also measured everything they ate three days a week,” he said.
“Studies that report there is no difference among diets also report that subjects were not carefully following the diets,” said Layman. “It’s very important to realize the difference between diet compliance and diet effectiveness.”
The protein diet was easier to follow and maintain long-term, with 64 percent of the moderate-protein dieters completing the study compared to 45 percent of dieters using the high-carbohydrate diet, Layman said.
“Subjects on the moderate-protein diet reported that they weren’t as interested in snacks or desserts, and they didn’t have food cravings. When you eat protein, you feel full longer,” he said.
Average weight loss for the protein group was 23 percent higher than the food-pyramid group, with 31 percent of “completers” in the protein group losing more of than 10 percent of their initial body weight versus 21 percent of the food-pyramid group.
WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire/ — With spring upon us, there is no better time to shine the spotlight on the sunshine vitamin and the important role it plays in our health. Although we may have more opportunities to catch some rays in the coming months, we can’t rely on the sun to supply all of the vitamin D our bodies need.
Even though we have the ability to make our own vitamin D when the ultraviolet rays of the sun hit our skin, many Americans fail to get enough vitamin D. In fact, vitamin D deficiency in this country is being called a silent epidemic. The prudent use of sunscreen, sun-blocking pollution and long, cold winters indoors are partially to blame. That’s why it’s even more important to look to your diet for vitamin D.
Milk is a leading source of vitamin D:
Milk is one of the few food sources of vitamin D. In fact, it’s the leading source of vitamin D in the American diet. The recommended three 8-ounce glasses of lowfat or fat free milk provide 75 percent of the daily value for vitamin D. Milk also provides eight other essential nutrients, including calcium, potassium and vitamin A, which many Americans also lack.
Vitamin D Has Been Dubbed a “Super Nutrient”:
Vitamin D was once known as simply a bone builder. It’s true that vitamin D works with calcium to keep bones strong, but new and emerging research suggests vitamin D may be far more versatile, offering an array of health benefits. Some preliminary research suggests vitamin D may support a healthy immune system, heart health, normal blood pressure and healthy aging. And, ongoing research continues to explore the potential connection between vitamin D and certain diseases, including some cancers.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People lose weight when they cut calories, but a diet with some extra protein may be especially effective at trimming body fat and improving blood fats, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that over one year, a moderate-protein diet was better than a standard high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet at helping overweight adults shed body fat. What’s more, it had greater benefits when it came to boosting “good” HDL cholesterol and lowering triglycerides, a type of blood fat that contributes to clogged arteries.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Nutrition, suggest that trading in some carbs for protein may do dieters good.
For the study, 130 overweight adults were randomly assigned to one of two calorie-restricted diets: the commonly recommended higher-carb diet, with about 15 percent of calories coming from protein, 55 percent from carbohydrates and 30 percent from fats; or a moderate-protein diet where 30 percent of calories came from protein — including lean meat, low-fat dairy and nuts — while 40 percent came from carbs, and 30 percent from fats.
All participants were given menu plans and attended weekly meetings with a dietitian to help them stick with their new lifestyle.
After one year, the average weight loss was similar in the two groups — 23 pounds with the moderate-protein diet, versus roughly 19 pounds with the high-carb diet.
However, the moderate-protein former group lost more fat mass, and had greater improvements in both HDL and triglyceride levels.
The extra protein at each meal helps dieters preserve “metabolically active” muscle mass, explained lead researcher Dr. Donald K. Layman, of the University of Illinois in Urbana. At the same time, he told Reuters Health, the diet’s lower carbohydrate content means lower levels of the blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin.
So the diet encourages the body to shed more stored fat, according to Layman.
The greater improvement in triglycerides, he said, is largely the result of cutting carbs, which can raise triglyceride levels.
A problem with any diet is that people have to do it right to be successful. In this study, dieters in both groups got a lot of help, with planned menus and weekly educational sessions. Whether people would fare as well on their own is unclear.
“One of the problems with moderate protein diets is that people bring old diet concepts to their approach,” Layman said.
For example, he said, the concept of eating “lots of small meals” throughout the day works when the diet is high-carb, low-fat because people are hungry more often — but it’s a bad idea with a moderate-protein diet.
“The important change is three consistent meals with balance of protein and carbohydrates at each meal,” Layman advised.
“A higher protein diet is not more protein at dinner, but balanced protein at breakfast and lunch.”
he incidence of high blood pressure is rising. Some 25 percent of American adults have high blood pressure; another 25 percent have pre-hypertension. While scientists agree that salt has something to do with blood pressure, they argue intensely about how much and for whom. Still, experts agree that everyone would be better off eating less salt on the grounds that prevention is preferable to treatment
WHAT IS IT?: Salt is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride. We need both minerals, but dietary advice focuses on sodium.
AGE FACTOR: Blood pressure rises with age in response to sodium in the diet. It is also a risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
THE SOURCE: In America, high-salt diets are the default. About 80 percent of dietary salt is added to processed, restaurant, fast and catered foods.
RECOMMENDATION: Most people should have no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day, the equivalent of one teaspoon. In reality, many people consume two to three times that amount.
THE IODINE CONNECTION: Kosher salt and fancy sea salts are likely lacking the iodine you need. Water and foods from coastal areas — like Houston — often have enough iodine. Inland residents need to make sure their table salt is iodized.
HELP YOUR MEDS: If you’re taking medicine for high blood pressure, having less salt will help your meds work better.
The book: Harvey-Berino is head of the nutrition/food science department at the University of Vermont and wrote the book with Joyce Hendley, nutrition editor of Eating Well Magazine. It takes a no-nonsense approach to eating and espouses a plan called VTrim, developed at UV. VTrim matches sound nutritional information with behavioral changes, which dieters can also tap into online.
The basics: The book includes several worksheets through which dieters can set their own goals and develop a plan for getting from point A to point B — or somewhere in between. VTrim encourages slow, steady weight loss and a caloric intake of at least 1,200 calories a day.
The recipes: Entries range from hearty breakfast fare to flavorful salads and soups, as well as comforting dinner entrees. Several vegetarian options are in here too.
Best tip: This book even provides shopping tips, helping you navigate a supermarket for a well-filled pantry.
KIM Jong Il, the North Korean leader, was photographed puffing on a cigarette during a recent tour of a tobacco factory, despite having reportedly suffered a stroke last August.
A picture shows Mr Kim with a cigarette in his mouth at the factory, in the city of Hoeryong. Another, broadcast on North Korean state television, shows Mr Kim exhaling smoke, apparently enjoying a cigarette produced on-site.
Mr Kim “expressed great satisfaction over the fact that quality cigarettes are mass-produced” and called on workers to improve the quality of cigarettes provided to troops, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
Mr Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke six months ago, but is believed to have recovered. North Korean officials deny he was ever ill.
Once a reputed gourmand who enjoyed cigars and fine wines, Mr Kim is said to have given up his former chain-smoking ways years ago. It is not clear whether he is once again smoking regularly.
Remember the guy from Super Size Me who ate about 23,000 Bic Macs and never got fat? Ever wonder how he did it? Turns out he may have been born without the “fat enzyme.”
The enzyme MGAT2 is found in the intestines and determines the fate of our food by regulating how it is metabolized: It either makes fat go straight to your waistline, or converts it into energy. Scientists in California have discovered that when mice are missing the gene for MGAT2, they can eat whatever they want and never have to worry about getting fat.
The University of California at San Francisco knocked out the gene in experimental mice to see how their bodies grew after feeding them different diets. When the normal and experimental mice were fed a diet low in fat, both sets of mice grew the same way. But when the mice were eating a 60 percent fat diet (i.e., a typical American diet), the experimental mice weighed 40 percent less and had 50 percent less fat than the normal mice.
Not only does decreasing MGAT activity in mice reduce their chances of packing on the pounds, it also prevents them from developing other obesity-related problems such as fatty livers and glucose intolerance. While the researchers are unsure of precisely how the experimental mice kept the weight off, they think that when the mice are missing the MGAT2 enzyme, their body ultimately doesn’t store or use the fat.
Still, don’t go on a Big Mac binge just yet: Until scientist can figure out how to manipulate this gene to create the magic skinny pill, we will continue to metabolize food like we did when we were hunters and gathers.
mphasises the links between poor diet in mothers and ill health in their children, and calls for women of childbearing age to be made more aware of the importance of good nutrition.
The report “Early Nutrition and Lifelong Health,” published this month by the British Medical Association Board of Science, looks at the evidence that the diets of women of reproductive age, and those of their foetuses and young children, are significant factors in influencing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, brittle bone disease and even some forms of cancer and mental illness, later in those children’s lives.
Lead author Professor Mark Hanson, director of the Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease at the University of Southampton, comments: “Society and public health organisations need to pay much greater attention to these issues if the rising epidemic of these diseases is to be prevented. Tackling the diseases once children reach adulthood is often too late. By taking steps to improve maternal nutrition we could save many people from a lifetime of ill health.”
The research was funded in part by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Professor Hanson’s co-authors are Professor Caroline Fall, Dr Sian Robinson and Dr Janis Baird of the MRC Epidemiology Research Centre at the University of Southampton.
Their report raises concerns about diets in the UK, but also in developing countries in many parts of the world.
According to the authors, unbalanced nutrition, whether too much or too little or of poor quality, can have long-term effects. In the UK, for example, many have diets low in certain nutrients although they have access to plentiful food.
The numbers of women who breastfeed their infants is still too low, they say, with many women starting to breastfeed, but then stopping too soon, and many infants being fed inappropriate foods at the weaning stage.
“The nutritional transitions occurring in many developing societies will have major effects on diets between generations, and this will increase the risk of chronic disease dramatically,” continues Professor Hanson.
According to a recent study conducted by the University of Michigan, approximately 25 percent of girls seeking to lose weight turn to diet pills. Unfortunately, many of these girls will end up disappointed, or worse, sick.
Diet pills are not very effective in promoting long-term weight loss because they act on immediate sources of weight gain instead of focusing on fat loss. Additionally, the energy-increasing ingredients such as ephedra and caffeine cause several harmful side effects, including mild to severe anxiety, bloating, stomach cramps, headaches, nausea, light-headedness, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, blurred vision and insomnia.
So why do people keep using these products? Initially, they seem to work. Diet pills promote quick weight loss, fooling the consumer into thinking that they will continue to lose weight if they continue with the product, and instilling a fear that the consumer will gain weight if he or she stops taking the pills.
So how do the products work? First, they make you lose water weight. Several pills include diuretics that they promote as “cleansing” or “flushing out” the body. Reduced water weight will make someone appear smaller and may even accentuate muscle tones, but that is only because the individual is on the verge of dehydration. Upon rehydrating, none of this weight loss is maintained.
Secondly, diet pills increase energy, reducing the need to eat. When you have tons of energy and can accomplish anything, you don’t pause for food to refuel. This energy usually comes in the form of high dosages of caffeine, ephedra or guarana, all of which increase heartbeat and blood pressure and lead to anxiety, lightheadedness and headaches as well as a large variety of other uncomfortable symptoms. As college students, it is important to note that stimulants of any type may initially increase focus but when consumed in such great quantities can reduce the brain’s ability to remember or process information effectively.
Thirdly, the pills suppress appetite. Diet pills fool your body into thinking you don’t need to eat, so you avoid food and lose weight. The problem with this is that it alters the body’s natural hunger symptoms. Once the pill regimen is stopped, hunger can come back even more ravenous than before, causing weight gain. Altering the body’s ability to regulate food intake can also lead to other eating disturbances and possibly eating disorders.
Still, stores like General Nutrition Center (GNC) promote the sale of these products and claim that they are completely safe. Curious about what a sales person might say about the pills, I visited the GNC in the Galleria this past Sunday and spoke with a salesperson there.
The two most popular weight-loss pills among men and women are the Vitapak Energy supplements and Hydroxycut pills; the salesman said he assumed they are the most effective, as they are the two products that both men and women consistently come back to buy.
The Vitapak Energy packets are individual packets of approximately six vitamins, a few of which are designed to “promote fat burning” and “increase metabolism.” Due to their harmless effects, and packaged with other recognizable vitamins, the ginseng and other energy boosting ingredients are well-hidden in an earthy and natural-looking way, promoting them as “safe” for the body.
On the other end of the spectrum, Hydroxycut Products look like they are right out of a commercial, with pictures of svelte men and women on the cover and promises of reducing weight by a certain poundage in a said number of weeks. Hydroxycut contains loads of caffeine (300 mg per serving), and the salesman warned of possible dehydration but claimed that otherwise they were entirely safe.
The problem with claiming supplements are safe is that no higher power regulates what is sold and consumed, since dietary supplements do not need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
There is one exception to the rule: Alli. Alli is the only diet pill currently on the market that has been approved for usage by the FDA. Alli was approved because it works only in the digestive system, avoiding many of the dangerous health side effects of other pills. Instead of speeding up metabolism, Alli prevents the digestion and absorption of dietary fat (approximately ¼ of what is consumed) so that this does not affect body composition but instead bypasses digestion and heads straight for elimination.
While this may seem like a free pass to eat all the fries and burritos you want, it is extremely important to realize that while on the Alli regimen, strict adherence to a healthy diet is essential. In fact, the pills come with manuals on healthy eating, exercise tips and lifestyle changes that promote weight loss.
Those using Alli as a quick fix will be disappointed, as it is not intended as such. Failure to adhere to a healthy diet while on the pills will result (according to the Alli Web site) in loose stools, frequent stools/diarrhea and excess gas with oily residue. This is a product that should only be taken with your doctor’s advice or recommendation and is typically used by severely overweight patients, not college students looking to drop five pounds by formal season.
When it comes to weight loss, there is no quick fix. No shake, bar or pill is going to shed pounds the way a healthy diet and increased exercise will. Weight loss is all about decreasing calorie intake and increasing energy output, i.e. burning more calories than you eat.
In order to effectively lose pounds of fat, most health professionals recommend combining daily aerobic and weight training exercise with healthy diets of around 500 fewer calories than usual; this should amount to one to two pounds of healthy weight loss per week. As always, please seek professional advice from a doctor and nutritionist if considering embarking on a new workout or diet plan to promote weight loss.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and it is also National Nutrition Month, the theme of which is”Eat Right.”
Scientists have estimated that more than one-third of all cancers can be traced back to dietary influences. Colorectal cancer affects both men and women equally and the risk increases with advancing age.
Some of the risk factors include inflammatory bowel disease, personal or family history or colorectal polyps. A lack of physical activity, a diet high in fat and low in dietary fiber, obesity, alcohol consumption and tobacco use are also factors that could place you at risk.
Studies show that lifestyle changes can lower the risk for colorectal cancer, since it’s one of the more curable cancers if it’s detected early.
Skip processed meats
Studies published by the National Cancer Institute found the consumption of processed meats such as bologna, sausage and hot dogs and meats such as beef, pork and lamb may increase the risk of colorectal cancer, whereas the consumption of more fish, chicken and dietary fiber may decrease the risk of colorectal cancer.
Research shows how important it is for baby boomers to add soy into their diets. Studies show an average daily consumption of about 10 grams of soy protein, which amounts to half a cup of edamame, or tofu, or a quarter cup of roasted soy nuts could lower post-menopausal women’s chances of developing colorectal cancer by about one-third, as compared to women who consume less soy.
My suggestions to you: Stay away from high-fat foods such as processed foods, because the more saturated fats you consume may trigger tumor growth and colorectal cancer. Instead include foods high in omega-3 fatty acids such as tuna fish, salmon and trout.
Eat your fruits, vegetables and whole grains each day. Research shows eating foods high in fiber such as dried beans and lentils, brown rice and rolled oats, which supply a wide variety of protective vitamins and phytochemicals, may decrease the risk of colorectal cancer.
Stay physically active by walking for 30-60 minutes every day. Studies show that excess weight is strongly linked to colon cancer in men and premenopausal women. If your weight is too high, you can make a few lifestyle changes, such as eating smaller portion sizes, switching to vegetarianism and cutting back on sweetened drinks and high-calorie snacks.
If you have a question you would like to have answered, join us tomorrow during Dial-A-Dietitian night by calling
