What is biofeedback machine?

What is Biofeedback?Biofeedback is a learning process in which people are taught to improve their health and performance by observing signals generated by their own bodies. It is scientifically based and validated by studies and clinical practice. It is a highly effective way to control stress, realize true relaxation and help achieve important personal goals. Fear, over-eating,smoking,anxiety, and other problems are actually linked to, or aggravated by, stress. For some, stress is a stimulant to effective action, but for others it’s a barrier to self-fulfillment. The secret is knowing your reaction to stress, and using this new awareness as a springboard to a life in control. A life where you can release the powers of the mind for greater achievement and better health. Biofeedback is the widely-used and medically-accepted technique for teaching us to control stress, achieve relaxation, and channel talents and energies toward realizing our full potential. Our home biofeedback machines make you aware of your unconscious “involuntary” physical reactions to stress – “feeding back” subtle changes in stress levels. You’ll be able to hear or see changes in your stress level! The dangers of stress are well-documented. We have learned that stress has a real and significant effect on our health and our performance in life, work and sports. We all know how our hands become “sweaty” before a important meeting, or a first date. This is because when we are excited or anxious the sweat glands on the hands secrete small amounts of moisture. The secret of biofeedback is that the most minute changes can be detected and monitored using a Galvanic Skin Resistance Monitor (GSR). Biofeedback offers a unique, non-invasive window on your body’s stress level. It monitors and “feeds-back” how well you are succeeding at reducing your stress levels. Rest your fingers on the monitors two sensing plates and it emits a tone. Increasing tension is indicated by a rising tone. When you apply stress management techniques the tone goes down. The feedback of your success is instantaneous. This gives you the user instant understanding of what techniques are working and which are not. Biofeedback shows people how to use their mind to take voluntary control over their body. When using a biofeedback machine, your inner body’s signals are fed back to you in a tangible way. You can then make the necessary changes to achieve the results you wish.

How does biofeedback therapy work?

Researchers aren’t exactly sure how or why biofeedback works. They do know that biofeedback promotes relaxation, which can help relieve a number of conditions that are related to stress. But there is limited research on this treatment.

During a biofeedback session, electrodes are attached to your skin. These electrodes send signals to a monitor, which displays a sound, flash of light, or image that represents your heart and breathing rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, sweating or muscle activity.

When you’re under stress, these functions change. Your heart rate speeds up, your muscles tighten, your blood pressure rises, you start to sweat, and your breathing speeds up. You can see these stress responses as they happen on the monitor, and then get immediate feedback as you try to stop them.

A biofeedback therapist helps you practise relaxation exercises, which you fine-tune to control different body functions. For example, you might use a relaxation technique to turn down the brainwaves that activate when you have a headache.

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

• Deep breathing
• Progressive muscle relaxation – alternately tightening and then relaxing different muscle groups
• Guided imagery – concentrating on a specific image – such as the colour 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.

What Is Biofeedback Therapy?

Biofeedback is a mind-body technique that helps teach patients how to influence their autonomic nervous systems – the part of the body that controls involuntary physical functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and brainwave frequency. This is done by attaching an electronic “cue” (usually a “beep,” tone or visual image on a screen) to a measurable physiologic process. A person can thus monitor his or her internal responses and develop a sense of how to move them in positive ways. Biofeedback machines can detect internal bodily functions with sensitivity and precision, and allow involuntary physical functions to be translated in ways that can be understood. The information, or “feedback,” that the “cue” provides is used to monitor these functions and facilitate treatment for a variety of disorders, while moving the patient toward a more balanced internal state.