Positive Health Online

Originally Published in: thehimalayantimes.com

https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/mirrored-healing-all-about-biofeedback

It is not as bizarre as it appears to be on the surface. The human body and the ubiquitous chip have something in common – a palpable flair for self-regulation. Your electronic gizmo is a feat of technological excellence just as much, and more, the human body is with all its myriad feedback mechanisms, such as breathing, heartbeat, visual co-ordination and regulation of body temperature, among other infinite physiological processes.

The origins of biofeedback as a therapeutic tool emerged, thanks to the amazing relationship that exists between our mind and the body. To highlight a famous allegory, Narcissus, a character from Greek mythology, was, perhaps, the first real ‘proponent’ of biofeedback. His incurable allure for his own image may have epitomised the whole premise of ‘reflection’ – the mainstay in the fundamental workings of biofeedback.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biofeedback_en.svg

Title: Principle of Biofeedback

Biofeedback mirrors the fact that individuals can monitor, and learn, to control involuntary activities of certain organs and bodily functions, while learning to repeat, or recall, behaviour, or bodily states, that they find affable and agreeable. For instance, people with migraine can learn to ‘prompt’ the condition and, in so doing, reduce muscle tension and, subsequently, their pain. In simple terms, biofeedback encourages you to exert certain control over your body’s internal functions – by making you conscious of what’s happening inside, as it responds to various subjective, or behavioural, underpinnings. When you succeed in bringing about a change, biofeedback would present you with more than tangible information on them.

It was assumed for long that most human biological functions were not accessible to manoeuvring without the use of drugs, or surgery. The development and progress of biofeedback techniques ushered in a new area of psychological interest and turned the whole dogma from the inside out. This happened primarily because subjects using biofeedback could effectively control body functions – and, thus, their behaviour, which was not formerly believed to be ‘manoeuvrable’ by conscious management. This plausibility was akin to the formation of new cells and growth, including our electrochemical brain-wave catalogue that monitors our physiological activity and wellness.

Biofeedback first made waves in the medical community in the mid-1960s, when researchers in the US began to explore the likely effects of applying monitoring instruments into the mind-body feedback system – to determine whether, or not, one could learn to exert greater wilful control over it. The technique also enhanced its acceptance and credibility when Neal Miller trained laboratory rats to control certain glandular responses in his physiological and psychological laboratory at Rockefeller University. It did not, thereafter, take long for other findings to establish the proposition that one could manage and influence one’s somatic and behavioural patterns through biofeedback.

Research suggests that human beings can manipulate their EEGs, or electroencephalograph – an instrument used for recording electrical impulses produced by the brain – by changing their excitation levels. You can, for example, while viewing alpha waves – a slow ‘ripple’ that indicates normal relaxed brain activity – on an oscilloscope, modify them into high frequency patterns. The result is imminent. You become more alert and attentive. You can, likewise, prompt your heart to relax and, in the process, help release, or purge, your tensions. The inference is obvious – that one can, with biofeedback, help relax ‘oneself,’ including one’s heart muscles, while bringing down blood pressure levels over a period of time.

Clinical studies suggest that biofeedback is more than useful in people who have recently had heart attacks. This is how it works. It teaches them to ease anxiety and the fear of the future – a major barrier to physical and emotional recovery. 

It is also universally accepted that certain specific body functions that are controlled by the central nervous system can be measured hypothetically. In medical terms, such parameters are related to the contraction of voluntary muscles, skin temperature of the arms and legs, brain-wave activity, electrical conductivity of the skin, heart rate, blood pressure, and the rhythmic contractions of the intestine. This is what biofeedback precisely achieves through the use of small portable units and high-tech gadgets, while making it possible for a dialogue between the patient’s conscious mind and their physiology to synchronise and effect harmonious change with relative ease.

When biofeedback was comparatively a new technique, the recording equipment was often ‘hooked’ lightly to the area of one’s interest and connected to the biofeedback instrument by wires. This allowed the quiet electrical, or any other, activity to be evaluated – allowing for shifting numerical scores to emerge – all of them with the view of effectively measuring a sensation. A person, for example, would ‘visualize’ images that moved them for a particular purpose. Or, one could ‘connect’ to the sun warming them – while elevating the temperature of one’s hands made clammy by anxiety.

How does a typical biofeedback session work? This is, of course, subject to vary from one individual to the other – from 25-45 minutes, or more. The duration of treatment, likewise, is subject to differ. Most biofeedback practitioners suggest that treatment is best terminated, or suspended, when the patient has realistically worked, learned and promoted a habit strong enough to be incorporated into their self-image – one that has given the maximum benefit, or relief. They also aver that it would be more than helpful for the individual to understand when a ‘booster’ session is needed to derive better treatment outcomes, or results.

Biofeedback has, doubtless, proven its clinical efficacy in specific disorders, such as phobias, drug and alcohol abuse, headaches – especially migraines – sleep issues, torticollis, or wry neck, high blood pressure, pain syndromes, allergies and asthma, certain psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and depression, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), etc., where the treatment is a much preferred choice, not to speak of neuromuscular rehabilitation, particularly for early recovery following paralytic attack. What’s more, biofeedback has been successfully employed in space physiology. It helps astronauts to adapt themselves better to zero-gravity ‘blues.’

Acknowledgement Citation

Originally Published in: thehimalayantimes.com

https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/mirrored-healing-all-about-biofeedback

A version of this article appeared in the print on March 9, 2023 of The Himalayan Times.