Biofeedback therapy is a novel treatment method aimed at curing certain conditions like migraines by taking control of involuntary body processes. The feedback from different sensory inputs of the body is measured and studied using advanced equipment.
It is used to modify and control certain bodily functions that can help prevent or treat incontinence, blood pressure, or chronic body pains. Although biofeedback therapy is still being developed, people have already established its effectiveness.
The doctors receive signals from one’s body using electrodes fixed on their body parts. Such electrodes feed relevant data regarding one’s bodily functions to computers, analyzing them and showing visual cues on the monitor.
The human body is an incredibly complex and intricate arrangement of different systems that work in tandem to keep one alive. Studying biofeedback has shown prominent results in studying the reflexes of people as their situations change.
It is a known fact that human beings start showing specific symptoms like heavy breathing and sweating when they are going through stressful situations. Likewise, when someone detects a possible danger, the adrenaline level in their body is found to shoot up.
Even though the responses by people’s bodies to identical stimuli are in similar categories, it is also fairly common to find people with starkly different feedback either due to their personalities or due to certain conditions.
People are known to have symptoms like a lack of pain, which could potentially lead to even death. Biofeedback therapy aims at tuning people’s feedback to standard stimuli, thereby enabling them to lead a perfectly normal life like any others.
Conditions curable by the Biofeedback method
Table of Contents
Anxiety or Stress
Although one may rightly believe that anxiety and stress are fundamental to human beings, they are found to affect people’s lives in modern situations. This condition largely affects people working on deadline-based sectors, and this condition makes them trigger a fear of underperforming even when they are doing just fine.
Such people’s personal and work lives would be significantly affected, and biofeedback can help them analyze and, with certain exercises, keep the anxiety or stress at bay.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
ADHD is a situation in which an individual has trouble being alone. People diagnosed with ADHD are found to be generally restless, constantly fidgeting, and are even found to be having issues in patiently waiting for their turn.
This condition can cause the patients to be branded as being miscreant in general, and it can affect the personal lives, whether the patient is a child or a working professional.
Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence is a serious problem that people generally avoid. People affected with this condition usually have an uncontrollable urge to urinate now and then.
This therapy is particularly useful in treating this condition because the urge to urinate can be controlled by controlling the pelvic muscles in charge of releasing the urinary bladder. Patients with this condition will have extreme difficulties when traveling or attending an examination or a meeting.
Types
Breathing or respiratory biofeedback is used in treating conditions with loss of breath or too much deep breath. Brain waves can be studied and manipulated by electroencephalogram (EEG) to identify and treat ADHD, addictions, and depression.
Galvanic Skin Response testing can recognize when an individual has emotional arousals by measuring the amount of electrical resistance on the skin. Experts can use mobile devices connected to the patient’s head, fingers, or torso region to identify the feedback coming from the respective areas.
They can also use these tools to send external prompts to establish certain things, which can ultimately help the patient achieve a normal state of mind or body. Wearable devices are available that can precisely identify skin resistance, oxygen saturation on the blood, and even heart rate.
Such devices can help predict abnormal situations like the change of blood pressure, increased heart rate, or even reduced oxygen concentration. Corrective actions can then be taken to neutralize the situation.
Why choose this method?
As mentioned above, biofeedback therapies are mostly non-invasive techniques that help tackle several situations for people of all age groups. There are little-to-no known side effects for this mode of therapy, thereby making it a holistic way of looking at one’s insides, literally and figuratively.
Biofeedback theory excels in clearing conditions that are challenging to treat by conventional treatment methods involving drugs and other procedures. It can help alleviate the struggles that certain situations cause people. It changes their lives and helps them live the good and fulfilling life they deserve.
