The Evolving Role of Hypnosis in Healthcare with Dr. David Spiegel

In this week’s episode of SuperAge, Dr. David Spiegel, who, after
receiving a PhD in medicine from Harvard, went on to become a
renowned expert in hypnosis, dissociative disorder, PTSD, as well
as a Stanford professor. He has also authored many books over the
course of his 40-year career, including Living Beyond Limits: A
New Hope and Help For Facing Life-Threatening Illness. In our
conversation, Dr. Spiegel shares his insights on harnessing the
power of the mind for healing and wellness. Drawing from
experience, Dr. Spiegel discusses the significant impact of
hypnosis in managing pain, stress, and anxiety, especially in
cancer patients. He illustrates how self-hypnosis can be a vital
tool for emotional and physical wellbeing and provides
fascinating stories about its effectiveness. This episode offers
a unique perspective on research-backed alternative healing
methods, emphasizing the untapped potential of the human mind in
health and recovery.

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Key Moments“We started out helping people to stop
smoking and we found that one out of five people just stopped
smoking using the [Reveri] app right away. So that's about as
good as I get when people are sitting in my office and I'm doing
it. And it's about as good as you get using varenicline or
bupropion or nicotine patches as an alternative.”

“They learned to control their pain with self-hypnosis so that a
new pain in their chest didn't automatically mean to them that
their disease was progressing. It meant they needed to do
something to control the pain. And they did. So they had half the
pain. And in our original study that we published in The Lancet,
we found that the women randomized to work groups actually live
longer than the control patients by an average of a year and a
half.”

“We found actually that people with breast cancer who were
inefficient sleepers, who had trouble getting to sleep or staying
asleep, actually also had shorter survival. But the other way
around is that good sleepers live longer. It was having a long
period of good 7 hours of consistent sleep at night, predicted
with fewer disruptions, predicted longer survival with breast
cancer.”

“After a deep inhale, a slow exhale is important. And part of why
it is is, you know, we're used to saying, you know, if you're
anxious or tense, take a deep breath. Well, actually, the inhale
actually tends to increase sympathetic activity because it
reduces venous return or blood to the heart. If you think about
it, you're lowering pressure in the chest.”

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