Biofeedback

Simply stated, Biofeedback is the process of learning how to change your body responses to conditions you may experience regularly, such as pain, stress, anxiety, etc.

Learning occurs when information about your body, such as muscle tension, the amount of sweat, heart rate, etc., is ‘fed back’ or reflected to you by means of a biomedical instrument, something like taking your temperature.

The biofeedback process is painless, allowing you to use the information to correct or adjust uncomfortable conditions or behaviors, similar to the use of a mirror when applying makeup or combing your hair. It can also be a pleasurable experience, as well as an acknowledged and safe means of treatment

The basic Biofeedback treatment plan is to identify where conditions of discomfort come from and then gain effective skills to control or ‘self- regulate’ a new, positive behavior, ideally minimizing reliance on instruments and medication.

Regularly practicing specific biofeedback skills can certainly help improve your health by making you more aware and helping you change how your body responds to damaging and unhealthy conditions, such as stress.

Much like learning about good nutrition and diet, the biofeedback process can increase your awareness, which, in turn, can put you in control of better health choices.

Since the 1960’s, there has been extensive research in Biofeedback, which was quickly applied to many psychological conditions and used in other health-related areas, in fact, there have been many positive outcomes from Biofeedback research in a wide variety of medical fields.

In some cases, the biofeedback approach has become a treatment of choice for conditions such as migraine and tension headaches.

Biofeedback has applications in a number of neuromuscular, neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, psychological and psychiatric conditions. Some of the treatment areas may include Acute and Chronic Pain Management, Anxiety, Panic Disorders, Depression , as well as poor breathing patterns, Heart Rate Variability Training, Migraine, Muscular Tension, Muscle Rehabilitation, Vascular and Muscle Tension Headache, Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMJ orTMD)) to name a few.

Biofeedback can be used to calm, as well as stimulate the body. It can help reduce pain or discomfort, such as decreasing muscle tension, in the case of relaxation training, however it could also be utilized for the opposite effect of activating body movement, balance and function (increased muscular activity),as in the case of muscle atrophy.

A specific example of how it works would be:
1) A painless sensor is used to measure muscle tension, skin temperature, heart or breathing rate, etc.
2) The individual learns how to control the factors, which are being displayed by the Biofeedback instruments.
3) Having the experience of learning how to adjust to a more comfortable condition and understanding how to manage the condition that produced the discomfort can become a unique insight.
4) After a period of practice, desired results can be mastered.

A standard Biofeedback procedure may be the use of ‘Respiratory Training’ where learning to breathe more effectively increases awareness of unintended muscle tension throughout the body, reflected back by use of standard biofeedback instruments (sometimes computerized for convenience).

Because many systems of the body (neuromuscular, circulatory, respiratory, cardiovascular, etc) can be ‘trained,’ any number of seemingly unrelated symptoms can be treated and positively affected, for example, cold or sweaty hands, teeth grinding, tension headaches, migraines, nervous stomach, insomnia stress-related disorders and many others

There are a number of commercial Biofeedback providers and vendors who sell devices that claim to provide quick or temporary relief from discomforting symptoms with no real comprehensive instruction on how to regulate your own body.

Well- designed video games can partially help an individual learn new things but there is more to it.

Important questions are: Does the game help train you to become more aware of what is going on in your body (and brain); are you building new skills, does it challenge you for the level that you are at? Do you feel better or differently when you are finished?

Good biofeedback instruction, with or without the video games, should do all of this.

When choosing Biofeedback training make sure that it includes this process to improve your over-all health and make you feel better.

The basic Biofeedback treatment should help answer some basic questions, such as 1) are you more aware of what caused the discomfort or symptom in the first place 2) have you learned to control or regulate what has caused it and 3) do you feel better? Sometimes, this is not completed in a quick session and it may take a little time to learn. That is normal.