Over the weekend, the news agency Reuters has been reporting on a UK study that suggests that hypnotherapy 'may help ease some of the bowel inflammation seen in ulcerative colitis' and may also be potentially helpful in other inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's. 

The article rather curiously refers to 'hypnosis therapy' and "hypnotherapy," in inverted commas, almost as if the writer is embarassed to be speaking about the phenomenon. As this is such a short article, I'll reproduce some of it here: 

'Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes chronic inflammation in the lining of the colon and rectum, leading to symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. There a number of medications for the disorder, but there is some research to suggest that hypnosis could serve as an additional therapy.

For example, "hypnotherapy" has been shown to aid irritable bowel syndrome and ulcers -- conditions that, like colitis, involve inflammation and can be worsened by psychological stress.

For the current study, UK researchers had 17 patients with active ulcerative colitis undergo a 50-minute session of "gut-focused" hypnotherapy aimed at relaxation and relief of inflammation. Another eight patients, who acted as a "control" group, listened to their choice of music for 50 minutes.

Afterward, the researchers found, blood levels of IL-6 -- a marker of inflammation in the body -- fell by 53 percent in the hypnosis group, whereas music listeners showed no substantial change. Similarly, certain other chemical markers of inflammation declined in the hypnosis group, but not in the control group, the investigators report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

"This work shows that a single short session of hypnosis can return some of the chemical changes in the bowel associated with inflammation back towards normal in patients with ulcerative colitis," senior researcher Dr. David S. Rampton, of Barts and the London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, told Reuters Health.

Exactly why hypnosis might ease inflammation is not clear. According to Rampton's team, the therapy might have direct effects on colon activity or it might affect people's pain tolerance or perceptions of their symptoms.

The current findings, Rampton said, provide "a scientific basis for a properly designed clinical trial" to see whether hypnotherapy, given over weeks or months, might benefit people with ulcerative colitis.'

So, bring on that clinical trial, please! I am pretty confident that the researchers will find that hypnotherapy is the single most efffective treatment for such bowel inflammation, in the same way that Dr Peter Whorwell has been researching and working with IBS so successfully at Withington Hospital, near Manchester for many years now. Dr Whorwell advocates hypnotherapy as the only truly effective treatment for IBS. It brings lasting and effective relief where there was previously none available.

The study also shows that hypnotherapy is not simply deep relaxation - as in listening to music - but that something else is going on when we work with the power of our subconscious minds. The study does not say what kind of hypnotherapy methods were used with the patients in the study but I suspect that it might have included visualisation techniques, such as those being used by Whorwell. 

A 53% drop in inflammation in the body is a pretty amazing outcome from one hypnotherapy session. If hypnotherapy were a drug, they'd be rushing to get the patents on it in place right now!  How wonderful that people can be taught to use self-hypnosis techniques easily and naturally for themselves.

So I do hope that anyone suffering from ulcerative colitis or IBS will benefit from the publicity around this latest research study. And if there is anyone out there reading this who would like more information about how to use hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis for the treatment of IBS or inflammatory bowel conditions, do please give me a call.