Jennifer Mathews: Every day, Jay Butler goes through the same routine.
Jay Butler: I imagine a room with a really, really comfortable chair. The room is usually a blinding white and I usually do deep breathing and then I start trying to re-color the room.
Jennifer Mathews: It's how she deals with chronic headaches, 20-a-month, some severe.
Jay Butler: Those feel like someone is stabbing my eye from the inside, and that really hurts.
Jennifer Mathews: When headache specialists couldn't help, she took an alternative approach.
Male Speaker: You can just close your eyes and your eye lids will fall down --
Jennifer Mathews: University of Iowa Anesthesiologist Sebastian Schulz-Stubner uses hypnosis to ease chronic pain.
Sebastian Schulz-Stubner: Hypnosis is effective probably in the range of 65 to 70 percent.
Jennifer Mathews: Recent research suggests hypnosis may work by changing the way the brain receives impulses.
Sebastian Schulz-Stubner: When I pinched Ms. Butler, you would expect an activation in the so-called pain network, and if you would do an MRI under hypnosis, you don't see that activation in those areas, and you see other areas lightening up.
Jennifer Mathews: Doctor Schulz-Stubner even uses hypnosis as an alternative to anesthesia for regional pain blocks.
Sebastian Schulz-Stubner: We actually did some studies looking at that, you know how effective it is, and it proved to be a rather successful method.
Jennifer Mathews: For Jay, hypnosis means she's no longer a prisoner to her pain.
Male Speaker: Three, you will open your eyes --
Jay Butler: It helps me control the migraine, so I get it when I can deal with it as opposed to at work.
Jennifer Mathews: So, while it's not a cure, it's a drastic improvement, Jay will take. This Jennifer Mathews reporting.
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