Hypnosis and Blood Screenings For All, Down on Main Street

WINSTED — John Parisi, director of the Northwest Connecticut Diabetes Center, doesn’t have diabetes. Nevertheless, he has devoted much of his life to helping people live and cope with the disease.

He recently reopened his diabetes center in a new building and has added services to his repertoire. In addition to diabetes screenings and maintenance, Parisi now tends to those who want to lose weight or quit smoking through hypnosis.

Parisi, the former owner of Ivery & Dudley Pharmacy on Main Street, has become a certified clinical hypnotherapist in private practice in the six months since his pharmacy closed at the end of last summer. You’re Getting Sleepy

"Hypnotherapy isn’t like what people think when they see it in nightclubs or on television," he said. There is no swinging coin on a chain; no swirling, black-and-white whorl magically triggering a journey into the subconscious like in those old Scooby Doo cartoons. Instead, Parisi said he employs his voice to literally "bore" his patients into a hypnotic state.

"I’m basically boring them to death," he said.

Patients will put on earphones, through which they are subjected to Parisi droning in his soothing, monotone voice, talking them into a trance.

"The patient is hypnotized for roughly 15 to 20 minutes of a one-hour session," he said.

But getting the patient to relax and become hypnotized is only the first step.

"Once the patient is hynotized, I’m basically talking to their subconscious," he said. "The subconscious is where habits are formed. I can’t make them do anything they don’t want to do."

Most people seek out Parisi’s help to quit smoking or lose weight. He said positivite thinking is his greatest ally in helping people change those habits.

"You don’t want to tell somebody not to smoke — that never works," he said.

The reason for that is because the subconscious essentially picks up on tangible concepts, such as a cigarette, and links them to places or experiences. If Parisi were to simply tell a hypnotized patient, "You will not smoke cigarettes," it’s quite possible they will come away from the session with only the words "smoke cigarettes" repeating in their heads.

Well, maybe that’s an oversimplification, but nonetheless, Parisi has a better way.

"You put them in a scene where that kind of behavior is going on, and give them alternatives, ideas for other activities to fill that space," he said. "In my world, smoking is never going on."

Parisi said even with hypnotherapy, the chance of successfully quitting smoking is still pretty low — but it’s much higher than trying to go it alone. He said individuals trying to quit without assistance have roughly an 11 percent success rate; taking a class, he said, doubles that.

Patients undergoing Parisi’s hypnotherapy have had a comparatively high success rate of 35 percent.

"I’ve taught hundreds of people to quit smoking," he said.

Parisi himself quit smoking some 30 years ago.

These days, Parisi is also hired by corporations to give on-site assistance to employees trying to quit smoking, through the XHALE stop-smoking program, also housed in his office. But while this and the hynpotherapy sessions are starting to take off, the diabetes center still commands much of his attention.Fighting Diabetes

"My dad was a diabetic and he developed some of the severe complications, such as loss of feeling in his legs and loss of eyesight," Parisi said.

Apparently that was enough to get Parisi involved in the treatment and prevention of diabetes, a disease that affects 20.8 million children and adults in the United States alone.

Diabetes is a condition in which the body is unable to produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into the energy required for daily life.

There are two main types of diabetes: Type I, in which the body rejects its own pancreas, usually appears during childhood. Parisi said diet has no effect on Type I diabetes, and the cause for it is unknown.

Type II diabetes, long referred to as "adult-onset diabetes," usually hits later in life. Parisi described it as the pancreas simply "getting tired with age," and failing to produce, or properly use, enough insulin. However, due to the poor diet of the average American child today, Type II diabetes is becoming more prevalent in teens and young adults, so the "adult-onset" moniker isn’t entirely appropriate anymore. Of the two types, Type II is far more common.

Beginning in 1985, Parisi ran the Northwest Connecticut Diabetes Center out of his pharmacy. In 2002 it was recognized by the American Diabetes Association, and today is one of only 26 such clinics in Connecticut to have been nationally recognized by the ADA.

When Ivery & Dudley closed in August, Parisi moved the practice a few doors down toward Northwestern Connecticut Community College, into the Northwestern Real Estate office building. The new site officially opened for business with the start of the new year.

"I do miss the wonderful people that I worked with, but I don’t miss the insurance company headaches," he joked.

"The transition has been wonderful," he continued — which is a good thing for the 150-odd patients Parisi has served over the past two years.

There is no cure for diabetes at this point; instead, those afflicted by the disease need to learn to live with it. This involves a variety of lifestyle modifications, such as controlling one’s diet and, if necessary, taking insulin supplements.

"We call it disease management training," Parisi said. "Doctors prescribe medications, but people have to learn how to eat right, learn to deal with the stresses of diabetes, learn to use insulin if that’s necessary."

Parisi also provides screenings to find out whether a patient has diabetes in the first place. the fasting plasma glucose test is quick — the newest screening machines can give readings in under five seconds, down from four minutes when Parisi first started using them — and relatively painless, involving a tiny prick of the side of a finger to draw a drop of blood, which sounds more painful than it actually is. This reporter subjected himself to the test at the conclusion of this interview, and can attest to the fact that there is indeed very little pain involved.

Parisi, who sees patients three times weekly, is offering a four-part seminar for diabetes patients, beginning this Saturday, Jan. 20, from 10 a.m. to noon. Patients with Medicare are covered at no cost, and many other types of insurance are accepted. Parisi will teach several of the classes, and will be assisted by registered dietician Frances Herman at one of the sessions.

Symptoms of Diabetes

— frequent urination

— increased thirst

— unexplained weight loss

— increased fatigue

— blurred vision