Biofeedback, what is it?
Biofeedback can be described as:
1. The technique of using monitoring devices to furnish information regarding an autonomic bodily function, such as heart rate or blood pressure, in an attempt to gain some voluntary control over that function. It may be used clinically to treat certain conditions, such as hypertension and migraine headache.
2. A training program in which a person is given information about physiological processes (heart rate or blood pressure) that is not normally available, with the goal of gaining conscious control of these processes.
Biofeedback is a treatment where people are trained to improve their health by using signals from their own bodies. Tense and anxious patients have used biofeedback to help relax. Stroke victims have used biofeedback to help regain movement in paralyzed muscles. Many patients receive pain relief as a benefit of biofeedback.
One of the benefits of biofeedback is that people learn to control their body's reactions. This is accomplished by increasing or decreasing body rhythms, through various levels of breathing, relaxation, and meditation techniques.
Everyone has used biofeedback, whether in taking your temperature,
or stepping on a scale. The thermometer tells you whether you're
running a fever; the scale tells you if you've gained weight. Both "feed
back" (biofeedback) information about your body's condition. Now that you
have this knowledge, you can take steps to improve the condition. If
you're running a fever, naturally you'll go to bed and drink plenty of
fluids. If you've gained weight, you'll eat less if you want to lose weight.
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In the late 1960’s the word "biofeedback" described laboratory
procedures being used to train experimental research subjects to alter
involuntary bodily functions like brain activity, blood pressure, and heart
rate. We can "will" ourselves to be more creative by changing the
patterns of our brainwaves. Would biofeedback some day do away with drug
treatments that can cause uncomfortable side effects in patients with high
blood pressure and other serious conditions?
How is Biofeedback Used Today?
Today biofeedback treats the following types of conditions:
• •Pain like migraine headaches
• •Digestive disorders
• •High blood pressure and low blood pressure
• •Changes in heart rhythm
• •Cold hands/poor circulation
• •Epilepsy
• •Paralysis
Patients' Responsibilities
Biofeedback demands patients must examine their day-to-day lives to
learn how they contribute to their own distress. In recognizing they can
remedy their own physical ailments through biofeedback, they ultimately
take responsibility for their health and general well being. They must
commit themselves to practicing biofeedback or relaxation exercises
every day. They must change bad habits.
A goal of biofeedback is to change habitual reactions to stress that
can cause pain or disease. Some patients have forgotten how to relax.
With biofeedback, feedback of physical responses such as skin temperature
and muscle tension provides information to help patients recognize a
relaxed state. The feedback signal with biofeedback may also act as a
kind of reward for reducing tension. It's like a piano teacher whose frown
turns to a smile when a young musician finally plays a tune properly.
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