Dr David Hamilton Home Page

Visualisation for Interstitial Cystitis
(www.drdavidhamilton.com)

A 2008 study conducted at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak used guided imagery (a guided visualisation) to treat women with interstitial cystitis. Thirty women were involved in the study and were randomized into two groups.

For 25 minutes, twice a day, for 8 weeks, 15 women listened to a guided imagary CD, which guided them in imagining relaxing the pelvic floor muscles, healing the bladder, and quietening the nerves that were specifically involved in interstitial cystitis. Fifteen other women were in a control group so did not do any visualisation. They simply rested for the 25 minute periods.

After 8 weeks, the results showed that guided imagery was highly successful. The women who did the guided imageryhad significantly reduced symptoms and much less pain than the women who didn't. In particular, pain was reduced byan average of 53% in the group who did the visualisation.

Simply imagining the inner workings of a medical condition (in any way that it appears to you) and then imagining it healing is a very powerful way of causing healing in the body.

My research into the placebo effect and studies of people who have defied the medical odds has shown me that the body has a much greater capacity to heal itself than we think. With visualisation, we tap into this healing capacity, helping the body to be restored to perfect health.

Without knowledge of the impact of our thoughts on our biology, we instead get in the way of healing. Our negative thoughts and complaints about an illness, for instance, only serve to prolong its stay in the body. Optimists actually heal faster than pessimists. Stress has been shown to slow wound repair by 40%, affecting over 170 individual genes, turning down some that are vital for repair.

Visualisation can be used to assist the body in healing itself. When we visualise, we are basically saying, 'I intend to be well again'. This activates the healing capacity of the body and we then move towards recovery.