Biofeedback & Meditation

Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a therapeutic technique that claims to teach you how to control physical responses, such as breathing, hand temperature, muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure, which are not normally controlled voluntarily.

The way you achieve this control is by learning how to focus on and modify signals from your body. For instance, in the case of asthma, biofeedback could help you to learn to control your breathing and bring down your anxiety level when your symptoms start to flare up.

Chances are you have used biofeedback yourself. You've used it if you have ever taken your temperature or stepped on a scale. The thermometer tells you whether you're 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.

Several different relaxation exercises are used in biofeedback therapy, including:

Deep breathing: Deep breathing is a simple but very effective method of relaxation. It is a core component of everything from the "take ten deep breaths" approach to calming someone down, right through to yoga relaxation and meditation. It works well in conjunction with other relaxation techniques such as Progressive Muscular Relaxation, relaxation imagery and meditation to reduce stress.

Progressive muscle relaxation: Progressive Muscular Relaxation is useful for relaxing your body when your muscles are tense. 

The idea behind PMR is that you tense up a group of muscles so that they are as tightly contracted as possible. Hold them in a state of extreme tension for a few seconds. Then, relax the muscles to their previous state. Finally, consciously relax the muscles even further so that you are as relaxed as possible.

·         Guided imagery : concentrating on a specific image (such as the color and texture of an orange) to focus your mind and make you feel more relaxed

·         Mindfulness meditation :focusing your thoughts and letting go of negative emotions

As you slow your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and ease muscle tension, you'll get instant feedback on the screen. Eventually you'll learn how control these functions on your own, without the biofeedback equipment.

Meditation

Meditation is a mental discipline often described as deep thought or contemplation of a single thing (such as a symbol, sound or object). The practice aims to produce a state of inner calm, peace and heightened awareness, bringing physical, emotional and spiritual benefits.

For people with asthma, meditation can be a valuable adjunct to medication in terms of helping you to cope with stress in your life that could exacerbate your condition.

What the studies show One study of 20 children with non-steroid-dependent asthma who received either biofeedback for facial tension or were in a control group found that the perception of asthma severity decreased significantly in the biofeedback group as compared with the control group, although there was no effect on lung function.

Precautions None; biofeedback is safe when performed properly.

Biofeedback may help you to control stress, which tends to make people more aware of any chronic illness. There is little good evidence that it improves asthma or reduces the need for medications.

Biofeedback is a treatment technique in which people are trained to improve their health by using signals from their own bodies. Physical therapists use biofeedback 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.

How is Biofeedback Used Today?

Clinical biofeedback techniques that grew out of the early laboratory procedures are now widely used to treat an ever-lengthening list of conditions. These include:

·         Migraine headaches, tension headaches, and many other types of pain

·         Disorders of the digestive system

·         High blood pressure and its opposite, low blood pressure

·         Cardiac arrhythmias (abnormalities, sometimes dangerous, in the rhythm of the heartbeat)

·         Raynaud's disease (a circulatory disorder that causes uncomfortably cold hands)

·         Epilepsy

·         Paralysis and other movement disorders