Diabetes has become one of the most dangerous diseases that are killing both the old and the young people in the world. According to International Diabetes Federation (2003), it was found that about 5.1 percent of the world population between the ages of 20-70 years had diabetes in 2003. This figure is expected to increase to about 6.3 percent by the year 2025.
Type 2 diabetes is the worst of all diabetes. This is because it covers about 85-95 percent of all types in developed countries. Research has been done in effort to seek a way to deal with this disease but there is no cure yet that has been found. People suffering from this disease are usually injected with insulin in order to regulate and manage its severity.
Besides the insulin injection, there are other new methods that have been introduced to help in diabetes management. These include psychotherapy and hypnosis.
These two methods of diabetes management help in regulating the blood sugar, improving the compliance of a person, and also enhancing peripheral circulation of the blood. Type 2 diabetes requires close monitoring and management because of its severity. This should be focused on regulating the blood glucose levels and lifelong daily management of the symptoms.
Psychotherapy and hypnosis in management of diabetes
Psychotherapy and hypnosis are two key methods that are currently been used by many patients of Type 2 diabetes in efforts to regulate their autonomic processes like peripheral blood flow and blood sugar. These two methods also help during counseling sessions of the patients to lower their stress caused by the disease and also stress attributed to general life.
How psychotherapy and hypnosis helps in regulating blood glucose
The main problem among those suffering from diabetes is that their bodies do not produce enough insulin or if it does, the insulin produced does not function in the right manner. Another possibility is that their body cells may fail to respond properly to the insulin. The resulting effects are that their blood sugar usually fails to be cleared from the bloodstream. This cause the blood sugar levels to be too high.
Hypnosis has great effects on the level of both lipids and carbohydrates metabolism in diabetic patients. In other words, it helps the body to regulate production of insulin. According to study on this alternative way of dealing with diabetes, it was found that patients who use psychotherapy and hypnosis lower their daily insulin intake by almost 50 percent.
Psychotherapy and hypnosis helps to increase compliance
Psychotherapy and hypnosis are beneficial in metabolic control of diabetes. It is also believed that these two methods are helpful in managing both acute and chronic pains in patients suffering from diabetes. Hypnoanalgesic techniques when administered properly are superior to medication, psychological placebos and other sort of treatments.
Hypnosis and weight loss
Most Type 2 diabetic patients usually have a low level of compliance. These patients follow dietary recommendation about 60 percent of the times, body workouts recommendation about 34 percent of the time, and recommendation on foot care about 47 percent of the time. Besides maintaining a healthy lifestyle, diabetic patients also need to observe their body weight. This calls for regular exercises and a healthy diet.
This helps in controlling obesity, which is one of the risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. Having an exercise program is one thing that needs to be emphasized to diabetic patients in order to have a healthy lifestyle. Hypnosis has been evaluated in several studies and has been found to be one of the best techniques in controlling and managing a good body weight.
Studies have shown the use of hypnosis in dealing with obesity has about 0.98 deviation effects size and that its benefits increases substantially over a period of time. In conjunction to this, hypnosis has beneficial effects on reduction of stress.
How hypnosis helps in increasing peripheral circulation in diabetic patients
Diabetic patients need proper foot care and management. It is known that recurrently high blood sugar levels are dangerous to blood vessels and can cause impairment of peripheral circulation. Most patients suffering from poor peripheral blood circulation as a result of diabetes are usually prone to infection and wounds that are difficult to heal on their feet.
What makes this more serious is the diabetic peripheral neuropathy that cause the feet to be numb. This makes it difficult for the patient to feel anything when damage is done on the feet. Poor management has serious consequences because even a small cut on the foot may result in potential amputation of the feet.
Hypnosis is a very good and effective technique that helps in increasing the circulation of blood to extremities and as a result it aids in reducing the diabetic feet problems. When hypnosis is used together with thermal biofeedback, the results are encouraging. In overall, the efficacy of hypnosis is promising in diabetic patients and their foot care.
Conclusion
Psychotherapy and hypnosis have been used successfully for a long time in managing Type 2 and other types of diabetes. When well administered, hypnosis only takes six to ten sessions to control or even get rid of diabetes. Most sessions are done once a week and usually take about fifty minutes.
This includes both in children and in adults who require hypnosis help. It is believed that almost all diabetic people suffer from overweight issues, anxiety and/or depression and that these effects only heighten their diabetic symptoms. Hypnosis is therefore useful because it helps in controlling thoughts, thus helping in healing the body and even helps in production of more insulin. There are irresistible proofs that hypnosis can help diabetic patients because it is a proved safe and effective technique that is assisting many people change.