Cancer Patients Use New Guided Imagery CD to Help Boost Healthy Immune Functioning

A self-help technique called guided imagery has been steadily gaining in popularity and mainstream distribution by hospitals, pharmas and insurance companies, as new research demonstrates its efficacy for producing heightened immune cell activity.

CLEVELAND, June 22 /PRNewswire/ — A new self-help audio recording designed to strengthen natural immune function in people fighting cancer or other viral and bacterial illnesses was released this week by Health Journeys, a company that has successfully pioneered and tested scores of CDs and downloads for over 50 health challenges, using a technique called guided imagery. The recording, Healthy Immune System, was created by psychotherapist and national imagery expert Belleruth Naparstek, L.I.S.W. in collaboration with composer Steven Mark Kohn. The new audio complements a host of other oncology titles that include Fight Cancer, Optimizing Chemotherapy, Optimizing Radiation Therapy, Help with Chemo-Related Fatigue, Bone Marrow Transplantation and Successful Surgery.

Recent research with breast cancer patients at Queen’s Medical Center in the U.K. by Dr. Oleg Eremin was one of several new studies to demonstrate the mind’s ability to up-regulate the body’s defenses against cancer. Patients randomly assigned to the relaxation and guided imagery group had significantly higher numbers of activated T-cells, Natural Killer cells and LAK cells than patients who received standard care. It has long been known that guided imagery can improve coping and quality of life by mitigating pain, depression, nausea, fatigue and anxiety; but only recently have blood tests revealed changes in white blood counts and other hard measures that show a more robust cellular defense operating within the body.

Guided imagery is a gentle form of self-hypnosis that uses soothing music and a calm voice to evoke healing images that catalyze a more proactive, empowered response from the patient, both physiologically and psychologically. It has the advantage of being user-friendly, requiring no expertise from the patient – just the ability to listen – and it works well with standard treatment. Naparstek explained, “It’s a truly democratic intervention. Anyone, any age, can use it. Special training isn’t needed; nor is education, physical strength, or a sophisticated understanding of how it works.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, which actively distributes Health Journeys audios through its website and clinical programs, “Guided imagery is more than listening to relaxing sounds. It’s a learning process to listen to someone’s voice, relax the breathing and consciously direct the ability to imagine. The effect sends a message to the emotional control center of the brain. From there, the message is passed along to the body’s endocrine, immune and autonomic nervous systems. These systems influence a wide range of bodily functions, including heart and breathing rates and blood pressure.”

Health Journeys guided imagery is now a widely recognized tool, used by major health care institutions, such as Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of California, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and hundreds of U.S. hospitals, including Mayo, Columbia Presbyterian, the Cleveland Clinic and Bethesda Naval Hospital. Pharmas such as Roche, Glaxo Smithkline and Ortho Biotech have distributed over half a million CDs to Chemotherapy and Radiation patients around the English speaking world, and there are currently over a dozen clinical trials testing efficacy, yielding particularly powerful results in studies with returning troops suffering from acute stress and PTSD, and for surgery patients.

According to David Sobel MD, Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for Kaiser Permanente, “Naparstek’s recordings are by far the most powerful, responsible and inspiring guided imagery I have heard.” The Kaiser website offers ten different free Health Journeys downloads to its members nationwide, as part of its Healthy Living program.

Naparstek reports that the immune system imagery was created at the request of cancer survivors who wanted to continue using imagery to maintain their good health after completing treatment. “It’s a particularly vulnerable time,” she said, “and people look for things they can actively do to stay well, just as they did when they were ill.” The imagery is also geared for those prone to infections, colds and viral illnesses.

Healthy Immune System and the entire catalog of Health Journeys products can be found at www.healthjourneys.com. For more information, contact: Richard Coleman at 800-800-8661 or rcoleman@healthjourneys.com.

About Health Journeys

Health Journeys is a multi-media publishing company offering a range of outstanding holistic health tools contributed or selected by Belleruth Naparstek. For further information, please contact Richard Coleman at 330.633.3831.

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SOURCE Health Journeys Inc.