Research
In a variety of ways, they identify what’s healthy for
you and what isn’t, and deal with the non-you parts
– and that includes cancer cells.
Reduced immune levels lead to an increase in the
number of cancerous body cells that can be found.
Researchers have also identi?ed what they called
biobehavioural risk factors in the development of
cancer.
These were:
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Social isolation / low social support
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Depression
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Chronic psychological stress.
In terms of stress, they found that it increases the risk
of cancer due to the increase in the level of noradrenaline.
This raised noradrenaline level also increases the risk of
metastasis (that is the cancer spreading round the body).
They also found that some cancer cells are stimulated to
grow in the presence of cortisol. And cortisol reduces
A study of habitual co?ee drinkers found that subjects produced more
adrenaline and noradrenaline and had higher blood pressure on days
when they drank ca?eine compared to days when they didn’t. [x]
apoptosis (programmed cell death).
Unsurprisingly, their results indicate that interacting
with others reduces cancers (both in terms of size
and number). Social isolation results in acquired
vigilance (stress), which results in bigger tumours [xi].
Depression is also linked to patients having larger and
greater number of cancers. And depression speeds up
how far and how fast a cancer progresses. The medical
profession’s preferred treatment seems to be betablockers, which reduce cancer growth, but have other
e?ects round the body.
RELAXATION AND ATTITUDE
The other important ?nding is that relaxation
(particularly visualisations) has been shown to unsuppress the immune system. Clearly, this gives
hypnotherapists an important role to play in helping
people both before cancers become a problem and in
reducing the scale of the problem.
Of course, other relaxation strategies are available,
such as exercise, yoga, meditation, listening to music, etc.
Other studies have found that patients undergoing
treatment who have a positive attitude and want to get
well do so sooner than others. They usually avoid the
12 Hypnotherapy Today
biobehavioural risks listed above. Studies have found a
positive attitude increases the antibodies in the body,
whereas emotional stress reduces the level of antibodies.
Norman Cousins [xii] in 1989 identi?ed four ingredients
of what he called hardiness.
The components were:
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Positive expectations (versus negative
expectations)
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Relaxation (versus stress)
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Positive emotions (versus negative emotions)
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Active role (versus passive role). [xiii]
Clearly, hypnotherapists can help people with this.
Sandra Levy of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute found joy
levels to be the second best predictor of survival time for
patients with recurrent breast cancer. She found more
than half of the ?uctuation in white blood cell levels could
be attributed to psychological factors, including patients’
perceived social support and how they coped with stress.
David McCelland [xiv] of Boston University (1986,
1988) found immune system activity is high:
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In people who are experiencing positive
emotions
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Among those with a strong sense of humour
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In people experiencing love.
Immune system activity was found to be low in those
people who are stressed or out of control.
Other studies have shown that it takes only 5 minutes
of relaxation to produce dramatic brain wave changes
[xv].
In fact, numerous studies have shown amazing
results [xvi] in terms of the power of the mind to
in?uence the body or parts of the body, including an
ability to reduce bleeding and even to reduce tumour
sizes. You’re probably familiar with experiments where
people have been able to reduce the amount of pain
they feel, and others where people have anaesthetised
areas of their body (indeed dentistry and medical
operations have taken place using just hypnosis). This
amazing connection between the brain and body comes
as a surprise to some people, but surely not to us.
CONCLUSION
Stress is a good thing provided that it stops quickly
and allows the body to recover. However, excessive
stress leads to a reduction in the performance of the