The Huffington Post | By Sarah Klein
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/hypnosis-health-benefits_n_5523210.html
Hypnosis can play a very real role in protecting and promoting health. According to the American Psychological Association, hypnosis for health benefits is a clinical procedure used in conjunction with other therapies and treatments and should only be conducted by properly trained and credentialed health care professionals. They should also have been trained in the use of hypnosis and who are working within the limits of their professional expertise.
The concentration and focused attention brought on by hypnosis help use our mind powerfully which has inspired researchers and clinicians to explore the use of hypnosis in a number of health outcomes.
Swiss researchers have found that hypnosis improves sleep and compared to sleep-inducing drugs, hypnosis has no side-effects. The APA also reported that hypnosis helped improve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. Patients even continued to feel better up to six years after the hypnosis treatment ended. Researchers have also found that weekly hypnosis sessions cut hot flashes of postmenopausal women by 74 percent.
Hypnosis is perhaps most-well researched in the context of managing pain. Hypnosis was effective at lowering pain with a number of conditions, including fibromyalgia, arthritis and cancer.
Hypnosis is often employed to relieve anxieties related to other medical procedures, like surgery, scans or even giving birth, called state anxiety.
