What Is Biofeedback Therapy?

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Biofeedback is a non-drug treatment that teaches the patient to manage involuntary body processes such as blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate.

A patient experiencing chronic pain, urine incontinence, high blood pressure, tension headaches, and migraines may benefit from biofeedback therapy.

There is less chance of adverse side effects because the therapy is non-invasive and does not involve medicines, making the therapy acceptable for people who choose not to take medications or who cannot do so, such as during pregnancy.

Let's get in-depth and understand biofeedback and its different kinds of therapies.

Meaning

Let’s first understand what is biofeedback therapy.  Biofeedback's mechanism and mechanism of action are unknown to researchers. But they know that biofeedback promotes relaxation, which can aid in relieving various stress-related disorders.

Electrodes are placed on your skin during a biofeedback session. These electrodes/sensors send impulses to a monitor, which displays a sound, flash of light, or image representing your heart and breathing rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, perspiration, or muscle activity.

These functions change when you're stressed. Your blood pressure increases, your muscles tense up, your heart rate quickens, you start to sweat, and your breathing quickens.

On display, you can watch these stress responses as they happen and get quick feedback as you try to stop them. Biofeedback sessions are usually held in a therapist's office. However, computer programs allow you to connect the biofeedback sensor to a computer.

A biofeedback therapist guides you through relaxation exercises to fine-tune to control various body functions. The therapist may adopt a relaxation technique to reduce the brainwaves activated when you have a headache.

Common types of therapies

The three common types of biofeedback therapies are: 

- Thermal biofeedback measures skin temperature
- Neurofeedback focuses on electrical brain activity
- Electromyography measures muscle tension

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addiction, seizures, anxiety, depression, and other brain conditions may benefit from EEG biofeedback.

The biofeedback therapist places electrodes on the patient's skin during a biofeedback session, relaying data to a monitoring box.

The therapist looks at the data on the monitor and, via trial and error, comes up with a list of mental exercises and relaxation techniques that can assist the patient's body processes to be more in control.

Patients eventually learn to control these processes independently, eliminating the need for monitoring.

Benefits of therapy

According to recent research, it is unclear why or how biofeedback works, but it appears to help people with stress-related disorders.

Internal systems, such as blood pressure, can become erratic when a person is stressed.The therapy teaches relaxation and mental exercises, which can help ease discomfort.

Migraine

Although studies on their usefulness have yielded inconsistent findings, biofeedback and relaxation techniques frequently treat headaches and migraines.

The therapy reduced the frequency and severity of symptoms in persons with migraine headaches, according to a Japanese study published in 2015.

Other studies, however, observed in 2009 that while relaxation tends to help persons with migraine headaches, combining ease with biofeedback does not appear to provide any extra benefits.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may benefit from some types of such therapy.

According to a study, integrating heart-variability biofeedback into traditional PTSD treatment did not improve outcomes.

However, in 2016, researchers found that using EEG biofeedback "substantially improved PTSD symptoms" in 17 PTSD patients.

Raynaud's disease

In response to cold weather or emotional stress, Raynaud's illness causes various body portions to feel numb and chilled. It gets caused by an issue with the skin's blood supply.

Thermal biofeedback therapy has been shown in studies to help with Raynaud's disease symptoms.

According to the Raynaud's Association, 80 to 90% of Raynaud's patients observed improved circulation and a lower frequency of symptoms after treatment.

Urinary incontinence

People with problems regulating their urge to go to the restroom may benefit from biofeedback therapy. The pelvic floor muscles that control bladder emptying can be found and strengthened with biofeedback. 

After many biofeedback sessions, women with incontinence may minimize their urgent need to urinate. 

Children who wet the bed and those with fecal incontinence can benefit from biofeedback (the inability to control bowel movements). Biofeedback, unlike medications, cure incontinence without side effects.

High blood pressure

The evidence for using biofeedback therapy to treat high blood pressure is inconsistent. Although biofeedback appears to lower blood pressure marginally, it isn't as effective as medicine in controlling blood pressure.

Chronic pain

Biofeedback may help decrease the discomfort of diseases such as low back pain, abdominal pain, temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJ), and fibromyalgia by assisting you in identifying tense muscles and learning to relax them. 

Biofeedback can help people of all ages reduce pain, from children to the elderly.

Other biofeedback uses include:

- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- High blood pressure
- Injury
- Asthma
- Constipation
- Epilepsy
- Rheumatoid arthritis

To Conclude:

If biofeedback therapy proves effective, it may help you manage your symptoms or lower the quantity of medicine you take. You will be able to try the biofeedback techniques you learn on your own at some point. However, don't stop medical treatment for your ailment without consulting your medical team. At advantage health group, you get the right treatment that suits your need and conditions.