Kathy Sykes said that she had previously been cautious about using alternative therapies. She explains, “I would rather put my faith in conventional medicine, which has been put through numerous trials and research, and proven to work through rigorous experiments.” However, after spending months studying reflexology, meditation and hypnotherapy for a BBC documentary, she has had a change of heart.

In the last few years, alternative therapies have become increasingly popular in Britain, although many scientists still refuse to acknowledge their health benefits. However, the findings of Sykes’ investigation into alternative therapy might just change their mind.

To discover more about meditation, Sykes travelled to the Himalayas to meet a Buddhist monk called Matthieu Ricard. Known as the ‘happiest man in the world’, Ricard has been meditating for 30 years and believes it can change the way you experience every moment of your life, as well as reduce anxiety and increase compassion. After meditating with Ricard, Sykes said that she “definitely felt calmer and more at ease,” which are thoughts that comply with the findings of a number of studies. Professor Richard Davidson carried out one of these studies at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He noticed a real change in brain activity when people meditated, which showed people to be happier and less anxious.

Sykes made similar discoveries when she investigated hypnotherapy, she said: “It's a therapy I've long considered pretty wacky, but I did unearth some rather compelling work by Professor Irving Kirsch from Hull University.” Kirsch used an MRI scanner to monitor changes to the brain when people under hypnosis were told to imagine a black and white picture in colour. He also monitored them doing the same thing while they were not hypnotised. By doing this, he discovered that, when hypnotised, the subjects managed to activate the parts of their brain needed to see colour. When the subjects were in a normal state, these parts of the brain were not activated.

However, Sykes wasn’t impressed with all the natural therapies she looked into; she remains dubious about reflexology. Reflexology is thought to heal a range of ailments by simply applying pressure to different areas of the feet. Professor Leslie Walker from Hull University has looked into reflexology and discovered that it can help breast cancer patients to relax. However, there was no significant difference between the results he obtained for reflexology and head massage. In addition to this, an anatomist told her that the foot map used by reflexology practitioners was dubious.

Reflexology aside, Sykes was clearly impressed by the health benefits offered by meditation and hypnotherapy. She concludes: “There is no doubt that certain studies in this field are yielding results which made me — and possibly even the most sceptical of individuals — take stock when it comes to the value of alternative therapies.”

Source:

Daily Mail