02/28/2002

Meg Farris, Medical Reporter

"I've tried the miracle pills that you can get over the counter, and I've tried injections that you get from a doctor," said Gene Cottingham. "I've lost weight, but as soon as I stop it just comes back."

Those days are over for Gene and several others who've tried a unique way of controlling their diet. Gene has lost 35 of the 85 pounds he plans to lose and Marion Chauvin is at a slim 140 pounds after she once weighed 212. She's kept the weight off for years. What those two people have in common is their weight loss method - both use hypnosis.

Gene is 49. He started the hypno-therapy in October. He wasn't as skeptical as some because he'd seen hypnosis work on stress in the emergency services field.

"To me it feels good, very relaxing. By the time we come around, I feel relaxed and I have a lot of energy and I'm ready to go tackle the world."

Marion, who is 43, was so satisfied with the hypnosis that she got the self confidence to leave her secretarial job and become a trained hypnotist.

"What we actually do is help folks replace those old behaviors that they have in their subconscious with the behaviors of a naturally thin person," said Debbie Guin, the sales director at Positive Changes.

Positive Changes just opened in August of 2001, but because of its success, more are anticipated to open soon. Guin says that since the 1960's, more than 85% of the company's customers across the U.S. and Canada are satisfied. She says that weight loss is a slow process and that clients need to come in twice a week.

"The difference is that our business here is permanent weight loss," said Guin. "We have such fabulous results with our clients that we are not afraid to publish our results."

Dabney Ewin, a general surgeon at both Tulane and LSU, has been teaching medical hypnosis for more than 30 years. He has been president of two national hypnosis organizations. He says hypnosis can change learned ideas.

"It's pretty much a shift to daydream type thinking," he said. "We can daydream good things and we can daydream bad things."

He says many overweight people have learned a bad behavior that is hard to change, even with hypnosis.

"The imprint that so many of us have is that it's almost sinful to waste food, that you must clean your plate."

Ewin says he is not familiar with Positive Changes, but medically he says the power of suggestion in the subconscious can help you change behavior. But Ewin cautions that there are no studies that say hypnosis helps keep the weight off long term. He says there is no way to tell if it will work on a certain individual, but that person should know right away whether or not it will help.

Ewin says hypnosis likely works best for those who began to gain extra weight as an adult, not as a child. He says that for some all you need is a good exercise trainer to spark the power of suggestion to the conscious mind.