What is biofeedback?
Biofeedback is one type of Behavioral Medicine using information gained by monitoring skin temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and other body conditions to promote control over the normally involuntary nervous system through conditioning and relaxation. There are three types of biofeedback: thermal, muscular (EMG), and neurological (EEG). All employ some type of computer or monitoring device, along with electronic sensors to give information about what is going on in the body.
Through biofeedback, individuals can take control of their autonomic nervous system (the system that controls the automatic function of the body like heart rate and digestion) and in many cases restore health. By measuring processes of the body with equipment such as electromyography, electrocardiography, galvanic skin response meters, and thermometers, patients are provided with important physiological information with regard to blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate, skin temperature and sweat gland activity. Biofeedback may be used for a variety of conditions such as headaches, hot flashes, Raynaud’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, TMJ disorders, ADD, epilepsy, and muscle disorders. Patients with conditions that are exacerbated by stress (which most conditions are) such a diabetes, heart disease, or chronic fatigue syndrome may be well-served through a course of biofeedback. Additionally many performing artists and elite athletes use biofeed
Biofeedback is a treatment technique in which people are trained to improve their health by using signals from their own bodies. Physical therapists use to help stroke victims regain movement in paralyzed muscles. Psychologists use it to help tense and anxious clients learn to relax. Specialists in many different fields use biofeedback to help their patients cope with pain. Chances are that you have used biofeedback yourself. You’ve used it when you have ever taken your temperature or stepped on a scale. The thermometer tells you whether you are running a fever, the scale whether you’ve gained weight. Both devices “feed back” information about your body’s condition. Armed with this information you can take steps you’ve learned to improve the condition. When you’re running a fever, you go to bed and drink plenty of fluids. When you’ve gained weight, you resolve to eat less and sometimes you do. Clinicians relay on complicated biofeedback machines in somewhat the same way that you rely o
