Cramps? Constipation? Diarrhoea? Bloating? No one wants digestive problems when there’s so much great food on offer over the festive season.

IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, is the more common form of digestive problem. It is thought to effect  about 1 in 10 people in the UK and is most common among women aged between 25 and 45.

IBS can be debilitating, causing sufferers to feel depressed and stressed. Although it can be life-changing, it is not life-threatening and is not thought to develop into bowel cancer.

Recent research shows that ‘mind’ therapies, such a hypnotherapy, can be effective at relieving the symptoms of IBS.

If you want to enjoy your full turkey dinner without disappearing to the bathroom every two seconds, you could book a session with a hypnotherapist. To find out more about how hypnotherapy can help you with IBS, please visit our Hypnotherapy Areas section.

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article here. 

Companies who do not address the mental health problems of their employees could face a high number of absences and reduced productivity in the work place.

According to research conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, one in four individuals in the UK workforce have experienced a mental health problem at some point during employment.

However, very few employers have taken action to manage this important issue, with many workers still feeling afraid to speak out before their problems escalate into long term absence.

The results of the survey showed that only 25% of the 2,000 employees that were surveyed said their employers encouraged openness regarding mental health problems and only four in 10 said they would feel comfortable opening up about a problem if they had one.

Mental health related absences cost the economy an estimated £8.4bn per year and there is lots more that employers could be doing in order to both reduce this cost and to increase workplace productivity.

Potential solutions which have been suggested include a temporary reduction in hours, or flexi-time if employees have experienced personal issues such as a bereavement or relationship breakdown.

If either yourself or someone you know are suffering from poor mental health and/or stress and it is effecting your ability to perform your job role then your first port of call should be your GP who will be able to provide you with appropriate advice about the best treatment avenue for you.

Hypnotherapy has long since been used as an alternative therapy for mental health problems such as depression and stress reduction. It can either be used alone, or alongside conventional medical treatment. To find out how it could help you, please visit our fact-sheets to find out more.

View and comment on the original Guardian article.

With the Christmas party season upon us, it’s highly likely that at some point between now and New Year’s Eve, you will be stumbling home with a ravenous urge to grill everything in your freezer.

London fire Brigade Commissioner Ron Dobson has said: “Our message is simple, if you’ve had too much to drink, don’t go home thinking you’re a contestant on MasterChef.”

According to statistics, 25% of the 18,000 accidental house fires in London over the last 3 years have been caused by 18-35 year olds, 1/3 of whom had been drinking.

In light of the festive season and our propensity to over-drink at office parties, Drink Aware has issued an advertising campaign across London and on social media sites. One advert reads: ‘Last night a Burger saved my life!’

Buying fast-food on your way home from a night out, although unhealthy, is a lot safer than putting a chip pan on before passing out in a drunken haze.

If you’re worried about the fattening properties of late-night kebabs, you can always make yourself a sandwich and pop it in the fridge before you leave the house.

Many of us like to have a few drinks during the holiday period, but it pays to be careful and to know your limits. If you think you have an addiction and would like help fighting it- whether alcohol, food, smoking or any other form, a hypnotherapist may be able to help you. To find out more, take a look at our Hypnotherapy Areas section.

View and comment on the original Independent article.

According to results from a recent study, the more alcohol individuals consume the higher the likelihood of them having unprotected sex.

Researchers from the University of Toronto have found that as alcohol consumption increases, so does an individuals willingness to engage in risky behaviour such as unprotected sex.

The university experts pooled together results from 12 previous studies that looked at the relationship between unprotected sex and alcohol consumption.

After bringing together the results and analysing the combined data they found that decision-making was influenced by the level of alcohol that was consumed.

For every 0.1mg/ml increase in blood alcohol level, the intention to engage in unprotected sex rose by an average of 5%.

The team presented the findings of their study in the journal Addiction, concluding that alcohol use is a risk factor for intentions to engage in unsafe sex. They also stated that this finding may be of public health importance as the role of alcohol could be a factor in the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Policy and campaigns director at the National AIDS Trust, Yusef Azad has said that the study results suggest that a better link-up between alcohol programmes and sexual health services is needed to provide support for those who are concerned about sexual risk, and wish to receive help to tackle their problematic alcohol use.

If you are concerned that your alcohol consumption may be having an impact on your ability to make decisions then it is important that you seek help. Visit your GP who will be able to provide you with professional advice and support about appropriate treatment interventions.

Hypnotherapy has also long since been used as an alternative method of tackling problematic alcohol consumption. For information about hypnotherapy for alcohol abuse please visit our fact-sheet to find out more.

 View and comment on the original Independent article.

Previous ‘world’s fattest man’ Paul Mason went from a staggering 70 stone to 30 stone in the last year- but the dramatic loss has left him with bags of excess skin.

The weight loss began when he underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2010. Now the 50 year old wants to have surgery to remove the hanging flesh he claims is hindering his goal to reach 17 stone.

Mr Mason’s weight began to pile on during a stressful period as a young man. His partner of four years left him in the mid-eighties and soon after, his father died, leaving him to care for his arthritic mother.

Soon enough he stopped leaving his Ipswich home and began consuming an average of 20,000 calories a day (10 x the daily recommendation), which came at a cost of £75 a day in food deliveries. The troubled man stopped sleeping, choosing instead to binge on Chinese take-aways, kebabs and fish and chips right through the night.

Mr Mason has, for the last decade, relied on carers for survival.

Mason told the BBC: “Anyone can come up to me and argue about ‘why should you get that help and why have you got that?’ We live in a free country. When I talk to them and explain what my problems are they are more understanding. It’s an illness.”

Illness or not, Mr Mason is costing the tax payers thousands for his food addiction.

The skin-removal surgery is not as simple a snipping off a few bits of skin, it involves complex plastic surgery and will prove costly for the NHS.

Doctors have decided that Mr Mason must lose more weight to qualify for the costly surgery, as patients must reach a sustainable weight before undergoing the procedure.

If you are suffering from weight problems or food addictions, you may wish to consider Gastric Band Hypnotherapy. It is far cheaper, far less intrusive and less risky than surgery and has proven results. To find out more about how it could help you, please visit our Gastric Band Hypnotherapy page.

View and comment on the original BBC article.

The hospital serving residents of the London borough of Chelsea has the highest rate of caesarean sections in England, inevitably beckoning the question – Are some women just too posh to push?

According to figures, a third of births that take place at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital are by caesarean section. The hospital is top of the leader board in terms of the percentage of caesarians for the forth year in a row and has an average rate of caesareans which exceeds the national average by some way.

A spokesman from the hospital has said that much work is being done in a bid to reduce the rate of caesarean sections in their hospital and hospital officials are unsure as to why the rates have remained consistently high.

At the other end of the spectrum at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust where caesarean rates are at their lowest, head of midwifery Cathy Smith explains that she believes part of the reason the rates are so low is thanks to the department-wide ethic of natural childbirth. She goes onto explain that all techniques in maternity care are also explored within the hospital.

The past 20 years has seen the rate of caesareans double with them currently coasting at a level of one in four births. The World Health Organisation previously had a target of a 15 per cent caesarean rate but this is no longer applicable.

Only recently the National Institute for Clinical Excellence established new UK guidelines, stipulating that all women now have the right to have a caesarean if they can’t be dissuaded, even in cases where it is not medically necessary.

If you are pregnant and are concerned about natural birth for whatever reason then you may benefit from hypnotherapy for childbirth. This process is a tool that helps expectant mothers to prepare for the birth by addressing any fears and concerns they may have. In some cases it can also help to reduce the pain and length of labour.

To find out more about hypnotherapy for childbirth, please visit our fact-sheet for further information.

View and comment on the original Independent article.

Experts claim that sex addiction is on the rise across the pond, with more than 9 million Americans currently suffering from the condition- that’s a staggering 5% of the US population.

Just like drug addicts and alcoholics, sex addicts are driven by habitual compulsions that subconsciously distract from deeper troubles. Instead of drugs and alcohol, however; sex addicts crave sexual encounters or pornography.

Robert Weiss, of the Sexual Recovery Institute in LA, explained that sexual addiction is about “chasing that emotional high: losing yourself in image after image, prostitute after prostitute, affair after affair”.

People suffering with the disorder can end up catching diseases, losing jobs and ruining friendships and relationships.

Not long ago, sex addicts were mostly older men between the ages of 50 and 60. Today, more and more young people, very elderly people and females are admitting to their problems.

According to Newsweek, who conducted the investigation, the rise in sexual addiction can be attributed to the liberation of online pornography and the disintegrating taboos that once lent structure and discipline to our innate desires.

40 million Americans log in to 4.2 million pornographic websites every day, suggesting that ease of accessibility only adds weight to the problem. Technologies such as Skype and Facebook make it far easier to conduct extramarital affairs across the internet, and could go some way to explaining the new phenomenon.

It is unclear whether ‘sex addiction’ itself is on the rise, or if we have simply attributed a pejorative label to a natural occurrence.

If you are suffering from an addiction of any kind, you may be able to treat it with hypnotherapy. To find a hypnotherapist, please use the search tool on our home page.

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article.

According to figures from the European Union, England has the highest percentage of obese women in Europe.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union has found that of 19 European countries England has the highest number of obese women.

The data shows that between 2008 and 2009, 23.9% of UK women were recorded as being obese. These figures are based upon data from England, although many surveys suggest that the percentage of obese adults in the rest of the UK would push this figure up to 28%.

Obesity is the term used to describe anyone who has a Body Mass Index (BMI) that is above a certain level. The calculation used to determine BMI takes into account a persons height and weight and is intended to estimate the percentage of body fat they are carrying.

Health secretary Andrew Lansley recently spoke up about the rising obesity rates in the UK, and said that he hopes to see these percentages reduced by 2020.

Lansley has said that individuals should be more aware and honest with themselves about what they are eating and drinking and said that overall, Britain needs to be eating five billion fewer calories a day than at present.

Winter is a notoriously difficult time to lose weight. With Christmas treats now filling the shelves of supermarkets, special offers on unhealthy foods at every turn, and dark winter nights making comfort eating all the more appealing – it can be a struggle to get motivated.

If you are looking to lose weight but are struggling to do so alone then it may be worth considering hypnotherapy as an option. For information about weight loss hypnotherapy and gastric band hypnotherapy, please visit our fact-sheets to find out more. Alternatively, if you would like to discuss this matter directly with a hypnotherapist – visit our homepage and use the search tool to locate and contact a professional in your local area.

View and comment on the original BBC News article.

According to a recent report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, whilst alcohol consumption throughout most of Europe has declined, Brits have been drinking more than ever.

The results of the study show that British adults are now drinking 9 per cent more than they were in 1980, making the UK the ninth biggest drinking country in Europe.

During the same period, the alcohol consumption of France fell by 37 per cent whilst decreases were also seen across Germany, Spain and Italy.

Britain is already home to the most overweight male adults and the third most overweight population of children behind Greece and Italy, which in combination with our gradual increase in alcohol consumption makes us one of the unhealthiest countries.

Doctors from the Royal College of Physicians have recently recommended that drinkers take three days off from drinking alcohol each week in a bid protect their liver.

If you or someone you know has a problem with excessive alcohol consumption and you are becoming concerned about the possible health implications, you may want to look into hypnotherapy as a method of overcoming your drinking habit. For more information about how hypnotherapy could help excessive drinking or alcohol abuse, please visit our fact-sheet to find out more.

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article.

At the age of 25, Helena Cameron weighed 20 stone and couldn’t walk to the car without her feet throbbing.

Helena first started piling on the pounds as a teenager. Anxiety problems caused her to binge eat junk food and gorge constantly on chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks. She admits that she’d often eat a large pizza to herself during the night.

She would often feel reluctant to go out in public in case people stared or laughed at her.

Helena’s life changed in December 2008 when her grandmother became concerned and took action by contacting a personal trainer called David.

Along with David’s personal training regime, Helena went to psychotherapy and hypnotherapy sessions to help stop her binging.

By December 2010, Helena had lost a staggering 5 stone and quit her job as a child support worker in order to concentrate on losing weight.

Helena now works full time for David’s fitness firm Rapid Hypno Fitness and says: “Thanks to my grandmother, I feel amazing.”

If you would like to find out more about how hypnotherapy could help you to lose weight, please visit our page on Weight Loss.

View and comment on the original Daily Record article.