Hypnosis to improve immune response
The research, reported in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, is the latest to test whether people can protect themselves from immune system changes that normally accompany increased stress.
Lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser describes using hypnosis in this research as something like "hitting a reset button" for the participants in the study.
"We're really talking about being able to shut out a lot of distracting thoughts. And it varies according to how anxious a person is at the time," said Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University.
"Our goal was to really get people to focus on the task at hand."
Along with colleagues Phillip Marucha, an associate professor of periodontology, and Ronald Glaser, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, Kiecolt-Glaser chose medical and dental students facing examinations as the test bed for this work.
This group of researchers has done numerous studies in the last decade using these students as subjects since the exams they face are known to be highly stressful events.
At the end of this project, students who had not used self-hypnosis as a relaxation technique prior to their academic tests showed a 26 to 39 percent difference in the levels of two immunological assays utilized to measure the activity of certain white blood cells -- T-Lymphocytes -- important to the immune response.
This approach uses two compounds prepared from plants called Con-A and PHA. Measuring the activity of these cells serves as a measure of a healthy immune response.
Glaser said these two plant compounds are used by researchers as "surrogates" to gauge how readily certain white blood cells -- T-lymphocytes -- multiply in one of the most important stages of an immune response.
Earlier studies had looked at whether immune status could be improved by the use of hypnosis. This group wanted to determine if the frequency of the technique -- how often they practiced it -- and the hypnotic susceptibility of the individuals tested played a role in their immune status at test time.
Thirty-three medical and dental students at Ohio State were selected for the study. All had completed two tests to determine how susceptible they were to hypnosis.
Half of them were taught to use self-hypnosis as a relaxation technique while the remaining students served as a control group. Students in the hypnosis group were required to attend a minimal number of sessions and advised to practice self-hypnosis regularly.
Initial blood samples were taken from all students to determine a baseline of immune status markers prior to the start of the study. A second set was taken three days before the exams.
Once the samples were analyzed, they showed that:
-- When tested for exposure to Con-A, T-Lymphocytes from students in the control group showed a 24 percent decrease in T-lymphocyte proliferation compared to a 2 percent increase in the hypnosis group;
-- The cells that were exposed to PHA showed that in control group students, T-lymphocyte proliferation dropped 33 percent compared to an 8 percent increase of T-lymphocyte proliferation in the hypnosis group;
-- The more frequently the students in the hypnosis group practiced their technique, the better their immune response was, based on these tests.
Meditation may boost immune system
Previous studies have shown that meditation helps reduce anxiety and stress. However, a study conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the first to suggest that it may also have positive biological effects on the body's ability to fight infection and disease.
Led by Dr Richard Davidson, Vilas Professor of psychology and psychiatry at the university, the researchers conducted a 16-week study on 41 participants to investigate the physiological effects of "mindfulness meditation". This form of meditation involves intensely focusing the attention on thoughts and feelings as they occur, noting their existence but refraining from judging or acting on them. It is intended to deepen awareness of the present, develop attention-focusing skills and cultivate positive emotions.
The participants in the study were divided into two groups. The first group of 25 received mindfulness meditation training consisting of a weekly class, an hour of home practice for six days a week and a one 7-hour retreat during the course of the study. The control group, which contained 16 people, did not receive meditation training until after the study was completed.
Over the study period the researchers measured levels of electrical activity in the frontal area of the brain - increased activity in the left side of which is associated with optimistic and positive emotions.
The participants also received a flu shot over the course of the study then blood tests were examined to measure levels of antibodies produced in response to the vaccine.
The researchers found that the meditation group exhibited increased activity in the left side of the frontal part of the brain, indicating lower anxiety levels and a more positive emotional state.
In addition, although both groups had increased antibody levels in response to the vaccine, the meditation group had significantly larger increases at four and eight weeks, after receiving the shots, than the control group.
"Although our study is preliminary and more research clearly is warranted," said Dr Davidson, "we are very encouraged by these results."
The research team is now planning to study the effects of meditation on patients with particular illnesses.
The research will appear in a forthcoming edition of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.