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Research on Visualization As a Cancer Treatment A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used (CAM), what was used, and why it was used in the United States by adults age 18 years and over during 2002. According to this recent survey, visualization, or guided imagery, was the 10th most commonly used CAM therapy (2.1%) in the United States during 2002 ([1] table 1 on page 8) when all use of prayer was excluded. Unconventional cancer medicine is a multibillion dollar industry in the United States.[1] It has been estimated that the majority of all post-diagnosis cancer patients seek alternative medicine in conjunction with regular treatment, and that as much as eight percent seek unconventional medicine alone in the United States.[2] Results have shown that breast cancer patients who visualize their cancer cells dying report less stress and higher quality of life in self-reported surveys.[3][4] The main issues arising from these studies is that it is difficult to find a control group (a group which does not seek conventional medicine), and that those administering the treatment may not have received any formal teaching training, or visualization techniques.[5] Many online sources report false results, concluding that visualization techniques allow prolonged survival and healing properties for cancer.[6][7] These sources should not be considered legitimate considering studies have repeatedly proven that prolonged survival and cures for cancer do not result from visualization therapy.[8] Despite this research, many celebrities such as David Seidler [9] regularly advocate visualization as the sole cure of their cancer. In Athletics The use of visualization in athletics has been proven to ameliorate athletic performance across many different sports.[10] Studies have shown that visualizing an athletic outcome results in better results during actual performance in basketball, trampoline, field hockey, gymnastics and golf.[11] Despite these results, claims that there is no difference between visualizing success and achieving success,[12] are entirely false.[13] Although visualization of success in athletic outcomes fosters more success than not visualizing, and/or not practicing, it is not as great a predictor of athletic success as practice alone, or practice mixed with visualization techniques.[14] Therefore for better athletic success, a combination of visualization and practice is ideal. |
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