Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

• Side bends

As in previous exercise but this time put your hands over your head, holding your arms together by grasping your elbows with your hands. Do this ten times.

• Three point toe touch’

Stand straight with your arms at your sides and your legs spread slightly apart. Bend down so that your hands are reaching for your toes. Now, without coming up, reach back further towards your body. And once more reach further back. Your hands do not have to touch the floor. Do this ten times.

• Lower leg stretch

Stand facing the wall. Put your feet about half a metre away from the wall with your hands supporting your weight on the wall. Keeping your heels flat on the floor let your arms bend and let your body go towards the wall without lifting your heels from the floor. Count to three and then push your body away from the wall. Repeat ten times.

Try to keep a diary from the time you commence the exercise program and discuss your progress with your doctor or physical therapist. As time goes by you may be pleasantly surprised at the speed of your progress.

However, do not despair if you experience pain or discomfort in the initial stages of your exercise program and remember to reward yourself for every slight success.

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‘Now work with the other arm. Use either your imagination or really lift it at first. It doesn’t matter. But mind now, don’t lift it too high — just enough to feel its heaviness. Now let it drop. Gently. Relaxed. Now do it in your imagination. Learn to do it more and more. And, when you breathe out again, drop it. Let it go soft. Let it go limp and feel it relaxed. Next, lift both arms together and allow them to drop. Simply relax them. Allow them to be limp and soft. Now, lift one leg. Lift it only a little. Just enough so you can feel its heaviness. Allow it to drop, to go limp and relaxed and soft. Always do this when you breathe out. Don’t lift your leg too high. It shouldn’t hit too hard. Better still, lift it only in your imagination. Do this a few times only in your imagination. Just let it become heavy and relaxed. . . . Now do the same with the other leg. Lift it a little and, while you breathe out, let it relax.

‘Let it go soft like a rag. Go ahead, let it drop like the leg of a giant rag doll. Feel free to move your legs, or any part of your body, to a more comfortable position any time you feel like. And, now both legs together. Lift them in your imagination. Now let them relax. Tell yourself how limp and soft they feel. Just like a giant rag doll or a big beanbag. Now finally, put all your limbs together. Both arms and legs. Breathe out and allow them to be limp and relaxed, heavy and comfortable. You are just like the giant rag doll you’re thinking about. Tell yourself how well supported you are by that chair, the sofa or floor. Next, imagine that you’ve put your rag doll into the sun. Let it be warmed by that beautiful sun. The giant rag doll is now lying very relaxed. Feel how the sun is shining on it. First feel it on one arm of the doll and then on the other. Make sure that the rag doll’s head is in the shade and kept cool. But all the limbs are sprawled out being warmed by the beautiful sun. Feel your own arm, warm and soft and relaxed. Now feel your other arm, also warm, soft and relaxed. Now let one leg to be gently warmed by the sun. Then the other leg, now nicely warmed, soft and relaxed. Remember that you’re the giant rag doll. It’s you lying there in the sun. All your limbs are wonderfully nice and warm now. But your head is lying in the shade and is comfortably cool. Now breathe into the palm of your hand and feel the warmth of your breath. Such warmth is within you all the time. Repeat it and put your hand down again and imagine. Imagine that you breathe this same kind of warmth into yourself. While you breathe out, imagine that you are breathing that warmth down into your throat, down into your chest, down into your abdomen. Just become nicely warm inside.

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There is also some discussion as to what the terms ‘hypnotisability’ or ‘hypnotic susceptibility’ or ‘depth of hypnosis’ mean. People wish to know whether they can or cannot be hypnotised. In trying to answer these questions there are no good associations of hypnotisability with personality. It is not necessary for a good subject to be weak-willed, gullible or hysterical. Women are no more hypnotisable than men.

It has also been noted that the more intelligent, the more extroverted and the more strong-willed the subject, the more effective their hypnosis will be. Poorer subjects may have limited intelligence or a severe mental illness. Generally speaking, people who have difficulty concentrating on one idea are difficult to hypnotise.

Hypnotisability is usually measured by the depth achieved under a standard condition of induction. That is, the more susceptible subjects become more hypnotised than the less hypnotisable. Hypnotic ability is fundamental (that is, something you are born with) and enduring, being at its peak at the age of 8 to 12 years. It then levels out and gradually decreases with age. There is a normal distribution within the general population. Twenty per cent are deep-trance subjects and may see things which are not there. Sometimes they may carry on a conversation with someone not really present after they have been given the hypnotic suggestion to carry out such an activity. They may be age-regressed (taken back to an earlier time in their life to relive certain experiences ).

About 20 per cent of the tested population are non-hypnotisable or are, at best, light-trance subjects. Within the remaining 60 per cent of the population, we find the normal distribution curve. Thus, 80 per cent of the population may be hypnotised to varying degrees. There are wide differences in the way individuals respond to the same induction procedure — the method by which hypnosis is produced. Some people respond to virtually all suggestions given while others are not affected at all. The bulk of the population show varying degrees of response. Some highly hypnotisable people may not even have to be formally hypnotised. It has been found that the skill of entering hypnosis depends to a large extent on the subject as well as the skill of the hypnotist. Despite the profound physical changes which may occur in hypnosis, no specific changes solely due to hypnosis have been found. Nor is it necessary for subjects to be relaxed. In one study, Professor E. Hilgard, psychiatrist and hypnotist from the United States, found that responsive subjects could often be hypnotised while riding on an exercise bicycle rather than lying or sitting totally relaxed. It is important to stress that the essence of hypnosis, like the essence of pain, is to be found in the person’s own experience.

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Experience using intravenous procaine to treat over one hundred patients with chronic pain shows that it is difficult to predict individual’s reaction.

There seems to be a series of response patterns after intravenous procaine, depending more on the patient’s reaction than on the actual dose of procaine.

Some notice that, after the first injection, they become much less aware of the pain. This persists until the next injection. Actually, after the course, the pain has faded away from the awareness. Although this is the most positive response to procaine, it is not the most common.

Another response is that the pain recurs with the same intensity after the first injection. But the severity of the pain is actually reduced after successive injections. This pain reduction is maintained by a continuing course of procaine at weekly, two-weekly or monthly intervals.

Sometimes the intervals between the disappearance, and the recurrence, of pain run into months. A procaine ‘top-up’ is then needed.

Another pattern, after intravenous procaine, is a changed awareness to be felt. They often describe a ‘floating’ feeling, being no longer aware of pain. This feeling lasts about half an hour to several hours. Often, after recovery, there is no longer the same pain intensity or reaction to it. The most common pattern is a combination of the above.

The procaine treatment is considered to be part of an overall medical consultation. The fees would therefore be appropriate for the time taken: in the range of $25 to $40. However, it must be stressed that this treatment may still be regarded as controversial although results of trials have been presented at pain conferences in Australia and overseas.

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