WHAT IS BIOFEEDBACK?
Biofeedback is a system for monitoring aspects of your body's physiology. Sensors are attached to your body and the signals produced are sent to a control unit and displayed in real time on a computer monitor.
This information provides a visual display of your heart and breathing rate and skin conductance. The biofeedback training provided shows how you can influence these functions in a positive way through a monitored breathing program.
Other functions that can be monitored by biofeedback are brain wave patterns, skin temperature and muscle tension.
HOW CAN BIOFEEDBACK HELP ME?
Some of the conditions that have been helped with biofeedback are;
Anxiety, Depression, High Blood Pressure, Stress, Panic Attacks, Back ache, Blushing, Clammy hands, Headaches, Phobias, Sleep problems, Stammering ...,
More comprehensive information and conditions helped by biofeedback can be found on Health World Online: http://www.healthy.net/scr/Article.asp?Id=451&xcntr=1
HOW WILL A MONITORED BREATHING PROGRAM HELP ME?
As we breathe in our heart rate increases and as we breathe out it decreases. This effect is controlled by the cardiac vagus nerve. You may have noticed in stressful or emotional situations you may tend to breathe more rapidly, more shallowly or even hold your breath. Holding your breath may raise your blood pressure.
Biofeedback training increases the Heart Rate Variability. HRV is the beat to beat variation of the heart as shown on the electrocardiogram. The greater the HRV variation the better it is for our overall health. As we age this interval tends to decrease.HRV is also affected by stress, depression, the air we breathe and diet.
The goal of biofeedback training is to teach you how to synchronise your heart and breathing rates to increase your HRV and general wellbeing.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING A BIOFEEDBACK SESSION?
After your personal details are recorded and a more detailed discussion about biofeedback and what it can do for you sensors are applied to the forearms to record your heart rate (EKG), sensors to two finger tips to record your skin conductance and a breathing sensor is placed around the abdomen to record your breathing rate.
During the first session, you will go through a seven stage stress assessment. This gives feedback on how you respond to stress and how effectively you can relax and reduce your stress levels compared with the pre-stress base line.
The report is reviewed and discussed with you.
Although stress may not be an issue for you the assessment is an excellent indicator of how your physiology is influenced and responds to events in your life, your emotions and your thoughts.
(This seven stage stress assessment is run again at the final session to illustrate the gains you have made during the biofeedback training).
You will then have the opportunity to see how your heart rate and breathing interact in real time on the monitor. Learning how to breathe correctly, whilst being monitored, is the basis of the follow up sessions.
During these training sessions you will be asked to visualize or imagine concerns or issues. The effect this visualisation has on your physiology is displayed by changes, if any, on the computer monitor. This gives you immediate feedback on how well you are doing.
HOW MANY SESSIONS WILL I NEED?
Naturally this will depend upon the presenting problem and your individual progress. It does take time to learn the correct breathing technique and to fully demonstrate to yourself that you can control the monitored aspects of your physiological processes body by correct breathing. If you practice twice a day, for five to ten minutes, you will notice a cumulative calming effect that remains with you throughout the day and longer.
This will vary from patient to patient, according to the nature and duration of the condition and the patient’s age and overall health status. As a general rule, the longer the patient has suffered a condition, the more treatments will be required but there are exceptions to this rule.
