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MIND-BODY
TREATMENT OF HIV
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Sometimes called psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), these approaches are based on the concept that the mind or brain can influence the body's ability to fight disease. Mind-body approaches such as meditation, visualization and guided imagery cannot probably help one will away HIV, but one can use any of them to make living with your condition easier, and maybe even reduce susceptibility to AIDS-related infections. Meditation Meditation uses deep breathing or other focusing techniques to enable a person to center his or her thoughts. Meditation may be used to reduce tension, fatigue, or anxiety and increase resistance to stress. Getting the stress out of your life may help you resist certain infections, and will enable you to handle any adversity that may come from living with HIV or AIDS. Yoga Nidra Yoga nidra is a hypnagogic state of psychic sleep reached by systematically inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. As in meditation, one emerges from yoga nidra feeling more rested and relaxed than after a good night's sleep. Visualization Visualization is the process by which a person is directed to see himself or herself in some other physical, emotional, or spiritual state. Patients might be guided to imagine themselves in a state of vibrant health and the disease organisms as weak and destructible. Through these mental images, patients might try to direct their immune systems to fight the virus. Other mind-body techniques for people with HIV/AIDS include hypnosis, humor therapy, biofeedback training, and listening to inspirational or relaxational audiotapes. Guided imagery describes a process where you are asked to focus on images selected to help you achieve certain goals. Common applications include relaxation, relieving pain and other physical symptoms, reducing distress from surgery and other medical procedures, increasing creativity, enhancing confidence, stimulating healing responses in the body, and enhancing memory and learning. Interactive Guided Imagery is a specific way of using imagery with particular applications in mind/body medicine. It is particularly effective in helping you to discover and improve your relationship to your health, to discover what role you can play in your recovery, and in helping you to use your resources most effectively. In this form of imagery, a trained guide helps you discover and work with your personal imagery about your illness and your healing, clarify any issues that may be involved, and learn to use your mind to support your own healing. Other mind-body remedies such as auto-suggestion, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), Bach Flower therapy, hypnosis, progressive muscle relaxation, laughter therapy, color therapy, DNCB (a color photography chemical that sensitises the immune system and balances it with minimal toxicity), biofeedback, sound and music therapy, oxygen/ozone therapy, neurotherapy (a form of acupuncture) and thymus therapy—could also relieve HIV/AIDS patients. Ultimately, the power of positive thinking simply cannot be overstated in the battle against a disease that first cripples the mind before felling the body. And bear in mind what doctors say: the majority of PWAs who survived for over five years are those who made drastic changes in previously unhealthy lifestyles. |
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