The Benefits of Biofeedback

Biofeedback has proven to be a safe and powerful healing process that is increasingly gaining popularity in the professional medical community because of its comprehensive approach to treating a wide range of physical and mental disorders. Unlike prescription drug treatments or invasive surgical procedures, biofeedback therapy is a multi-dimensional learning progression which helps the patient gain control of his or her responses to stress, anxiety, physical strain, and emotional stimuli. Because biofeedback is fundamentally an instructive method that targets the intricate relationship between the mind and the physical body, the benefits of the treatment are instilled in the person undergoing treatment. Hence, the positive effects of biofeedback have been proven to be more long-lasting and complete than drug-centered methods, which primarily focus on the symptoms of a disease or disorder rather than its root causes.

Medical doctors, psychiatrists, and scientists are just now beginning to unravel the complex design of the human brain, and new research specifically points to the close relationship between neurological connections formed through lived experiences and one's overall physiological health. Biofeedback proponents recognize this important connection and are developing techniques and technologies that will utilize ongoing neurological research in the manner most beneficial to patients. As opposed to methods in which the patient is treated merely as a collection of symptoms to be "fixed," biofeedback providers enter into a partnership with their patients in which the main goal is to provide them with the tools they need fully understand and control their psychological and physical responses to stress, pain, and other stimuli.               

Biofeedback essentially "teaches" people to manage their physiological responses to environmental or internally received stimuli (such as stressors or physical pain).  By providing patients with split-second information via devices designed to track brain signals, the therapy makes them conscious of connections between their thoughts, behavior, and emotional state which they previously may have ignored.  Reaction responses measured by sensitive electro encephalography (EEG) machines include muscle tension, skin surface temperature, brain activity, blood pressure, and heart rate. Through the combination of remedial coaching and practice, the feedback indicator enables patients to turn into lively participants in the therapeutic process.  

Biofeedback has evolved exceptionally quickly as a respected and widely-used therapeutic cure to a variety of health conditions since its nascent development by researchers and healthcare clinicians in the 1960s. Since then, healing procedures have been refined to incorporate the latest discoveries in brain science and behavioral therapy. Of course, the accuracy and sensitivity of the technology used in biofeedback treatment is advancing by leaps and bounds, encompassing new machines that measure surface electromyography (EMG), galvanic skin response (GSR), electrodermal response (EDR) and thermal feedback throughout the body. These devices also track and analyze factors such as muscle tension, heart-rate, blood pressure, peripheral blood flow, skin response, perspiration, and pupil dilation.

The primary function of biofeedback is to reflect symptoms and other aspects of ourselves that we would otherwise not understand through common perception. By combining the analysis of the detailed feedback obtained firsthand by the patient and the physician, they are able to pin-point exactly what factors are causing problems, and hence know exactly what type of treatment would most benefit the patient's overall health.