All About Biofeedback

What is Bio-feedback?

When you talk about bio-feedback, most people usually have this image of being hooked-up with sensor pads or wires to some electrical device or monitor as part of some new-age treatment or mumbo-jumbo.

To be fair, bio-feedback is a lot simpler than that.

Chances are, you’ve probably used biofeedback yourself.

In fact, if you’ve ever used a thermometer, weighing scale or even a mirror, that’s also biofeedback. After all, you’re using a device to gather some information or "feedback" about your body (temperature, weight or even how you look).

So, isn’t that also "biofeedback", right?

Anyway, the more usual definition of bio-feedback is "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."

In simple English, that says that biofeedback is a treatment technique where people are trained to improve their health using signals from their bodies.

For example, bio-feedback is used by physical therapists to help stroke victims to regain movement in their paralyzed muscles, psychologists help their patients to relax and cope with stress while other patients learn to cope with pain using biofeedback.

History of Bio-feedback

In the last 1960s, researchers began experimenting on whether people could be trained to alter their brain activity, blood pressure, heart rate and other bodily functions that are normally controlled subconsciously or involuntarily.

At that time, most people thought that this was one more of the "hippie", new age mumbo-jumbo that was going around. However, the researchers eventually proved that many people could actually alter their involuntary responses by being "fed back" information about what was going on in their bodies.

This meant that people could be trained with techniques for living a healthier life, regardless of whether they had a medical condition or not.

Imagine, lowering high blood pressure or regaining movement in paralyzed limbs just by thinking about it.

Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?

This area of research was subsequently called biofeedback.

Today, biofeedback is an accepted part of medical treatment. It’s commonly used for treating a variety of medical conditions; ranging from headaches, migraine, other types of pains, digestive system disorders, hypertension, high & low blood pressure, heart problems, anxiety, ADD / ADHD, Raynaud’s disease, seizures / epilepsy, depression, paralysis and other movement disorders, and many others.

Medical practitioners who have used biofeedback in addition to their normal treatments range from psychiatrists, psychologists to dentists, nurses and physical therapists.

Before you get the wrong idea, biofeedback is not a magic bullet or miracle cure. If you have a medical condition or have a broken leg, don’t go off your medication or anything silly like that.

Biofeedback is an additional self-help technique that you can use to help improve the quality of your health without the side-effects of drugs or pills. It’s great for certain medical conditions, especially if you’re prone to stress and hypertension.

However, if you’ve broken your leg, don’t be silly and try to cure yourself with some biofeedback device.

Go see a doctor and get your leg fixed up.

How Does Biofeedback Work?

If you’ve ever gone sailing or hiking in the woods, you’ll know how important a compass is. It’s a simple tool, just a little needle perpetually pointing north. However, if it wasn’t for the compass, we would have never been able to cross oceans, explore jungles and mountains, navigate around the world, etc.

Now, imagine going sailing without a compass. Without any feedback or guide, it’d be pretty difficult to get where you want to go to? Before long, it wouldn’t surprising if you got totally lost, right?

The same thing applies to bio-feedback.

Patients who’ve benefited from biofeedback are usually trained to relax and modify their behavior. I’m sure you can clearly see how useful this would be for someone with hypertension or high blood pressure.

Knowing how your body is reacting, e.g. blood pressure, muscle tension, pulse rate, etc., gives you some measure of control over your involuntary responses. This way, you get to train yourself to relax and control your involuntary responses.

It’s like sailing a boat. Every time you go off-course, you use the compass to slowly align your boat in the right direction again. Same thing with bio-feedback. Knowing how your body is actually reacting allows you to consciously relax and learn to alter your involuntary responses.

Another way that bio-feedback helps is by motivating patients and giving them a target to strive for. It’s a lot easier to strive for a target if you could see your progress on a real-time monitor screen instead of a vague target such as "lower your blood pressure".

In fact, it’s quite similar to a computer game. The only difference is that instead of blasting virtual aliens away on a computer screen, you’re actually achieving your online objectives using your own body. Too understand better what I mean, see this demo of The Journey to Wild Divine. It’s the only bio-feedback program that I know of that features Deepak Chopra and is recommended by the Dalai Lama.

Biofeedback Techniques

Most biofeedback techniques typically monitor a variety of involuntary body responses such as:

• Brain activity
• Blood pressure
• Muscle tension
• Heart rate
• Skin conductance level

Once you learn to control these involuntary responses, you can use the same techniques, not just for any mental and physical health problems, in your normal everyday life.

Imagine being able to stay relaxed and calm even when the sky is falling down and the situation around you is chaotic.

Picture yourself being able to stay in control of the situation no matter what happens.

Or keeping calm and even-tempered when you’re facing an angry customer, or in an argument with one of you colleagues.

Wouldn’t all that help you to be a better person or even get promoted at work?

And it gets even better. What if you could do all that, AND enjoy yourself at the same time?

Wouldn’t that be fantastic?

Well, one way is to go to a bio-feedback therapist. One good source for more information about biofeedback professionals is the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. There’s lots of information about biofeedback techniques there.

The problem with going to a therapist is that it’s rather pricey. Sessions usually last for about 30 – 60 minutes and it can take up to as much as 20 – 40 sessions (Although most patients see results after about 10 sessions).

Another way is to purchase your own bio-feedback program, such as the Journey to the Wild Divine biofeedback software, that you can use in the comfort of your home. The game itself gives you information about whether you’re progressing or not, by measuring a player’s Skin Conductance Level and Heart Rate Variability.

Personally, I like it 'cos it has lots of relaxing and calming pictures. It’s easily one of the prettiest programs that I’ve ever seen. The articles on the website are also quite interesting.

Check it out and see if you agree.