Alternative rock group Coldplay have tried out hypnotherapy in a bid to see what effect it might have on their music.

According to BBC Newsbeat, the band decided to try out the therapy after their producer Brian Eno suggested it as a way of boosting their creativity.

Guy Berryman, the bands bassist admitted that whilst recording their fifth album Mylo Xyloto, they were put into a trance during sessions.

Before the bands show at the bullring in Madrid earlier the month, Berryman said, “You try 10 ideas and only one works. But nothing is too stupid for us,”

Producer Eno is renowned for his controversial and unusual techniques to help bands experiment, so the band were not surprised when he brought in a friend to put the musical four piece into a trance.

View and comment on the original BBC News article.

Coronation Street soap-star Antony Cotton has recently embarked on a profile-raising mission in ITV’s popular reality show ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!’

The 36-year-old is 1 of the 10 ‘celebrity’ contestants who flew to an Australian jungle this week to take part in the outdoor survival-style challenge.

The programme is infamous for putting its fame-hungry contestants through a series of gruesome or frightening trials, such as sky-diving, wading through various soups of creepy-crawlies, eating strange body parts or swimming in shark infested waters.

This year’s line-up includes comedian Freddie Starr, US actress Stefanie Powers, McFly bassist Dougie Poynter and The Only Way is Essex’s Mark Wright.

Cotton, who plays Sean Tully in Coronation Street, has said: “I have a morbid fear of flying, I don’t like heights and I am claustrophobic. I have had hypnotherapy and I have also been to therapy to face my fears.”

To find out more about how hypnotherapy can help cure fears and phobias, please visit our Phobia factsheet.  

43-year-old Louise Wilson suffered from a curious fear of stairs for 38 years before a hypnotherapist helped her discover it was the result of a childhood fall.

‘Bathmophobia’ is the official name used to describe a fear of steep slopes or steps. Louise Wilson suffered from this phobia for 38 long years and told the Daily Mail that she turned down various jobs simply because she would be expected to climb stairs inside the offices.

Louise has suffered from bathmophobia since she was five years old and has spent many years struggling to even get to the first floor of her own house, which she can only do by clinging onto the wall.

After she found that she could no longer even bring herself to take her son on day trips because she may encounter stairs, Louise decided it was time to seek help.

‘I would get panicky and full of adrenaline – I didn’t know what it’s like to not be frightened. It was a true phobia – I would just freeze when faced with stairs, specially open-slatted and open sided staircases.’ She said.

‘I’d feel dizzy and sick, and just want to grip the floor or the walls.’

Bathmophobia can be triggered by a variety of factors but specialists believe the most common cause is a previous negative experience involving either stairs or a steep hill.

Louise decided to seek help from a hypnotherapist in a bid to cure her phobia, where she discovered that an early suppressed memory of falling off the top of a slide as a child was likely to be the underlying cause.

‘Her parents told her the incident had happened, and we believe that is where her fear stems from.’ Said her hypnotherapist.

Louise’s hypnotherapist used a combination of both hypnotherapy and a specialist technique known as Neuro Linguistic Programming – a psychotherapy approach which looks at how the way we think influences our behaviours. A few months on and thought Louise still doesn’t feel 100% comfortable around stairs, she is able to control her phobia enough to walk up and down them.

‘It just goes to show that however long you have been suffering with phobias for, it’s never too late to get help.’ Said Louise’s hypnotherapist.

To find out more about how hypnotherapy could help you to overcome any phobias, visit our fact-sheet to find out more.

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article.

Michael Chopra, former Newcastle, Cardiff and Sunderland striker, has recently admitted to a multi-million pound gambling addiction.

Chopra said: “Your first bet’s your worst bet. As the years have come along and I’ve earned more money I’ve started to gamble more. I was gambling up to £20,000 a day at times. As soon as I’d step over the white line I would focus on football – but as soon as I got to the dressing room I would check my phone to see if I’d won.”

The striker has revealed that his move from Cardiff to Sunderland was based entirely on the sum of his signing-on fee, which was enough to pay off his looming gambling debts. He also admits playing through an injury so he could continue getting paid – a selfish decision that could have effected the success of the football team.

With the help of the Sporting Chance Clinic, the troubled footballer is now keen to fight his addiction and pay his current club – Ipswich Town – back for their loyalty and support by helping them back into the Premier League.

If you are struggling with an addiction such as gambling, smoking, drinking or eating, you may benefit from the help of a hypnotherapist. You can find a hypnotherapist near you by using the search tool on our homepage and browsing our hypnotherapy directory.

View and comment on the original Guardian article here.

According to experts from Oxford University, people living in England eat more fruit and vegetables and less fat and salt than Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish residents.

It is no secret that the average English diet is light years away from being perfect, but according to the latest figures, death rates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could be reduced by around 4,000 if residents were to follow an English style diet.

Experts from the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford have said that numerous deaths could be prevented if Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland switched their diets to fall in line with the typical English diet.

Though the English diet is not the healthiest in the world, it is achievable for the rest of the UK and it could help to bridge the diet inequalities between nations.

Dr Peter Scarborough, lead researcher of the Health Promotion Research Group has said that the key dietary factor that is fuelling the mortality gap between England and the rest of the UK is the consumption of fruit and vegetables.

“Consumption of fruit and vegetables in Scotland is around 12% lower than in England, and consumption in Northern Ireland is about 20% lower than in England. Consumption levels in Wales are similar.’’ Said Scarborough.

Researchers believe that the best way to tackle this gap would be to introduce food taxes, in a similar move to that of countries such as Denmark, which introduced a tax on foods considered to be too high in saturated fat.

Speaking to the BBC, Dr Scarborough said that junk food taxes as well as subsidies being introduced for healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables, could play a role in addressing the inequalities in health across the UK.

If you are struggling to maintain a healthy diet you may benefit from consulting a hypnotherapist. Hypnotherapy has long since been used as a method for eliminating and altering bad habits and many individuals have found it to be successful in helping them to manage their weight. If you would like to find out more about weight loss hypnotherapy or gastric band hypnotherapy please visit our fact-sheets for more information.

Views and comment on the original BBC News article here.

BeautifulPeople.com, notorious for its shamelessly ‘high’ membership standards, rejects 85-88% of all British applicants for being too ugly. 

It has emerged that only 15% of UK females and 12% of UK males who have tried to join the VIP group of adonises and aphrodites, ever make it onto the dating site.

Membership is granted to an elite few by existing members, who are given the opportunity to judge hopefuls over a 48 hour provisional period. Possible options are: ‘yes, definitely’, ‘hmmm yes, ok’, ‘hmmm no, not really’ and ‘NO definitely NOT’.

So far, Swedish men have proven the most attractive applicants, with a solid 65% of them making the grade.

Perhaps the secret’s in the bad weather, because Scandinavia appears to have the best track-record for rearing beautiful people, with Norwegian women topping the charts for most attractive in the world.

The site has rejected a total of 1.8 million people from 190 countries over the past 2 years- that’s an astounding 83% of all applicants.

Greg Hodge, managing director of the site, attributes the statistics to the idea that Brits take little care over their appearances, preferring instead to kick back with a few drinks in the pub.

“If you go to some countries they are very into how they look – very health and body conscious,” he said.

If you are one of the 85-88% of Brits who prefer a pint to a pedicure, you’re probably a lot happier in the pub than spending your Friday night judging the appearance of strangers on the internet. If, however, you are unhappy with how you look- whether ‘beautiful’, ‘average’ or downright British, then you may wish to work on your self-esteem. To find out how hypnotherapy could help you gain confidence about how you look, please visit our factsheet on low self-esteem.

View and comment on the original Telegraph article here.

UK Public Health Minister Anne Milton has said that a huge number of individuals are still failing to recognise the harm that alcohol can do to their bodies, despite efforts from the government to increase awareness.

According to Milton, the Department of Health is currently in the midst of “ongoing discussions” with the Treasury about how a different pricing strategy for alcohol could hold the key to encouraging safer and more sensible alcohol consumption.

However, Milton commented that setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol is not the solution and so a range of options are being considered whilst the House of Commons science and technology committee looks into the evidence and reasoning behind the current alcohol guidelines.

Milton commented that though people seem to accept the fact that smoking can cause significant damage to the body, and that obesity poses significant health risks, many are still reluctant to believe that alcohol can also be very damaging.

“I think that’s still a message that we haven’t got through in the guidelines.” She said.

The governments new strategy for tackling Britain’s alcohol problem is expected to be published either at the end of the year or at the start of 2012. According to Milton it will contain information about what their intentions are in terms of alcohol pricing.

Moves have already been made to raise the duty on strong beer and reduce it on weaker varieties. Milton commented that there has already been a positive industry response, with many companies opting to reduce alcohol strength so that it falls below the new duty level.

This means that each litre sold will contain less alcohol, a small step in the right direction according to Milton.

A recently published report estimated that binge drinking will cost the NHS a staggering £3.8 billion by 2011, with 1.5 million of that spent on handling A&E admissions each year.

Without appropriate government intervention, the above figure could increase if the nation remains ignorant to the dangers of alcohol.

If you have an alcohol problem then your first port of call should be your GP, as they will be able to perform an assessment to identify any damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption. They will also be able to provide you with treatment and support, and if appropriate may refer you to a counsellor.

If you are struggling to control an alcohol habit then you may find that hypnotherapy when used alongside conventional treatment methods could be of benefit. If you would like to find out more about how hypnotherapy could help you, please visit our Alcohol Abuse fact-sheet to find out more.

View and comment on the original BBC News article.

Today marks the beginning of Bruxism Awareness Week 2011.

The campaign, launched by The Bruxism Association, is designed to get people talking about what is a little known and yet surprisingly common (and sometimes severe) sleeping disorder.

To kick-start publicity for the week, The Bruxism Association has conducted a survey to explore just how effective hypnotherapy is for people suffering with bruxism. According to the results, a staggering 91% of respondents did not even know that hypnotherapy was a recognised treatment for bruxism. The bruxism patients who had tried hypnotherapy, however, believed it to be an effective treatment for their condition.

Although bruxism affects a fairly substantial 8-10% of the population, many still remain unaware of the condition.

Behind insomnia and snoring, Bruxism, or teeth-grinding, is the 3rd most common sleep disorder in the UK. It occurs when sleeping individuals clamp or clench their jaw closed with a grinding motion. This can cause disruptive side effects such as jaw ache, headaches, damaged teeth and loss of sleep for both the sufferer and, if they have one, their partner. Bruxism can also cause chewed tissue on the inside of the cheek, tooth sensitivity and indentations on the tongue.

Proven therapy aside from hypnotherapy includes occlusal splints and mandibular advancement devices (devices for oral use).

Bruxism can occur in both children and adults but is most commonly found to effect 25-44 year olds.

If you would like to know more about bruxism and how hypnotherapy could help, please visit out factsheet on bruxism.

To find out more about Bruxism Awareness Week 2011, please visit The Bruxism Association  website. 

According to doctors, a diet that is high in trans-fats could be damaging to male sperm.

Experts from both Harvard University and the University of Murcia have found that the male reproductive system is vulnerable to damage from junk food.

The scientists analyzed sperm samples from a number of young men, only to find that those who had diets packed full of trans-fats were at a higher risk of infertility than their vegetable loving peers.

The researchers found that the sperm of men who had poor diets was far less likely to survive the journey taken to fertilise an egg.

Study leader Audrey Gaskins who presented these findings, has said that the key discovery which should be taken from this research is that a healthy diet seems to be beneficial to sperm quality.

Though Gaskins went on to stress that more work is needed before the findings can be cemented, what we do know is that there is a link between both nutrition and the quality of male sperm.

President of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology, Edward Kim said: ‘We are still exploring the impact of nutrition on male fertility, but even these initial studies point to a link between a good diet and reproductive health for men.’

If you are struggling to control a lifetime worth of negative eating habits then hypnotherapy could be an option that could help you. Hypnotherapy has long since been a method used for helping individuals to change negative behaviour patterns into more positive ones. To find out how hypnotherapy could help you, please visit the homepage of this site and use the search tool to contact a qualified professional in your local area.

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article.

A woman who spent £25 a week drinking 7 pints of Diet Coke everyday for 7 years has finally kicked her fizzy habit after seeking hypnotherapy.

Claire Ayton, 36, piled on 3 stone during her 7-year Coke binge. After feeling tired all of the time, the mother of 2 went to her GP for a check-up. She neglected to inform the GP of her £1,300 per year addiction and her blood test results came back normal.

”People used to comment how many bottles of diet pop we bought at the supermarket or kept in the house,” Claire said, ”I never thought Diet Coke could be the cause of my problems because it was a diet drink.”

The worried special-needs assistant tried a number of different weight-loss methods, including Weight Watchers and Slimming World. Nothing worked until she decided to consult hypnotherapist Russell Hemming.

Hemming recognised the problem immediately and told her she was a fizzy drink addict. Claire’s body had begun to crave sweetener, namely Aspartemine, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Claire immediately gave up Diet Coke with the help of Hemming, but not before suffering headaches and fatigue from going ‘cold turkey’.

Now she goes to Zumba and Boxercise twice a week and substitutes Diet Coke for water with a chunk of orange.

Claire has already lost 5lbs and hopes to lose over 2 stone. She plans to spend the £1,300 of diet coke money on a family holiday next summer.

Some experts claim that diet drinks can make you gain weight and instead advise you to drink water whenever possible.

Hypnotherapist Russell Hemming says that he has created a successful combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and clinical hypnotherapy which works towards changing the way people focus on food.

If you would like to beat an addiction and would like to find out more about what hypnotherapy can offer, please feel free to look at our Hypnotherapy Areas section for more information. 

View or comment on the original Telegraph article here.