What is traditional biofeedback?

Biofeedback training is a technique in which people are trained to improve their health by using signals from their own bodies. Physical therapists for example, 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 fields use biofeedback to help their patients or clients cope with pain.

Chances are you have used biofeedback yourself. If you have ever taken your temperature or stepped on a bathroom scale, you have received "biofeedback" information. The thermometer tells you if your body temperature is normal or not, and the scale tells you if you have lost or gained body (bio) weight. With this information, you can take the necessary steps to correct this condition.

Clinicians rely on more complicated biofeedback devices in somewhat the same way in order to detect a person's internal bodily functions with far greater sensitivity and precision. For patients, the Biofeedback device acts as a kind of "sixth sense" to allow them to "see" or "hear" activity inside their bodies.

Biofeedback Beginnings: The word "biofeedback" was coined decades ago to describe laboratory procedures being used to train experimental research subjects to alter brain activity, blood pressure, heart rate, and other bodily functions that normally are not controlled voluntarily. This early research demonstrated that biofeedback can help in the treatment of many diseases and painful conditions. Some believe that biofeedback will one day make it possible to do away with drug treatments that often cause uncomfortable side effects in patients with high blood pressure and serious conditions.

Biofeedback Today: Clinical biofeedback techniques that grew out of the early laboratory procedures are now widely used to treat an ever growing list of conditions; migraine and other headaches; digestive system disorders; high and low blood pressures; cardiac arrhythmias; circulatory issues; epilepsy; paralysis - movement disorders, and many other maladies.

Specialists who provide a variety of forms of Biofeedback range from Psychologists, Medical Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors, Internists, Nurses, Physical Therapists, Naturopaths, Veterinarians to Energy Medicine Practitioners, and many others.

The Benefits of Biofeedback