Columbia University has physicians trained by other physicians how to use hypnosis to help provide anesthesia for burn victims who's lungs cannot take traditional forms of anesthesia for operations. Dentists also classically have been able to use hypnosis for their operations instead of laughing gas. The uses of hypnosis for pain control are many, and backed by psychological and scientific studies. It is natural from this standpoint to then take it to the next stage which is the use of self hypnosis to provide relief from pain for such things as headaches.
Self hypnosis can be an effective tool for relieving stress and controlling headache pain.
Headaches basically occur when stress comes upon the person and capillaries, small blood vessels or riverways of blood constrict when under pressure or get smaller. Then later when the stress lets up, these small capillaries, or riverways open up and blood flows faster causing the pounding effect of a headache. In many cases the headache occurs after the initial stress has already happened. There are more common migraine headaches which may have other causes and may be blindingly painful. In many cases these have to be treated with ongoing medication or injections of powerful pain killers.