BIOFEEDBACK EDUCATION
 

                                                    Introduction

   Because of a marvelous system that has evolved over millions of years in all animals, you don’t need to think about how to do the many things that your body does day in and day out.

      In human physiology, we refer to it as the autonomic nervous system; the flow of blood to the various organs, the rate that our hearts beat, the rate of our breathing, the tensing
      and releasing of countless muscle groups throughout our bodies and so on.

       In most cases, these systems work beautifully for their hosts. However, the design is having trouble keeping pace in the human species.  It seems we have gone far beyond the basic
        survival skills they were designed for.  Today’s human is constantly bombarded by input that has been created by society itself.  We end up making 'un-informed' decisions about the way
          we deal emotionally and physically with day to day issues.

        Biofeedback researchers have found that, by providing information in the form of a sound or visual feedback to a person about what some of these systems are doing, control of some of these
          systems can be learned.

             Now think about that. We have reached a point in our evolution as a species where we know how to use the higher portions of our brains (the cortex) to consciously control some of the primitive
               impulses of the older parts of the brain that get us into so much trouble.


                Perhaps if we make use of that knowledge, future taxonomists will see this as the dividing line between humans and all other animals.

                     But for those who have this knowledge yet don’t use it.....in what category would future taxonomists put them?

                                 It is highly dishonorable for a reasonable soul
                                              to live in so divinely built a mansion as the body she resides in,
                                                                   altogether unacquainted with the exquisite structure of it.

                                                                                                                                                     Robert Boyle, 1627-1691

                                                        

WHAT IS BIOFEEDBACK ?

              "Bio" refers to life; in this case, your body.                   
 
      Over a century ago, western scientists brought back word from the Far East about people who could control, with their wills, certain body functions such as heart rate, skin temperature, and respiration. Back in the western world, researchers built machines that could monitor some of these body functions and "feed-back" information to the subject about what was going on.

        It wasn't long before it was discovered that a certain amount of control over some body functions could be learned through the use of the feedback process.  Feedback is something we all use all the time. Our eyes give us feedback for everything we do while awake. When we throw a dart at a target or kick a soccer ball towards a goal, we see where it goes so that we can adjust our next throw or kick accordingly.  If we hear a noisy bird in a tree, we can use our hearing feedback to locate it's position. In much the same way, we can take the physiological information fed back to us about our bodies and with trial and error, can learn some control over body functions previously considered “involuntary”.  From the firings of a few muscle cells to the accumulated activity of countless brain neurons or the incredibly sensitive changes in our skin conductivity and blood flow, the biofeedback machine turns subtle signals from the body into audio or visual information that we can learn to use.

   For a number of years now, the use of biofeedback has been spreading into many areas of human interest. In the field of Medicine just some of it's uses would include; treatment of migraine and tension headaches, high blood pressure,
incontenance, stress, sleep disorders, epilepsy and more including neuromuscular "re-education" for stroke victims.  Skin temperature feedback is used to treat Raynauds disease, a condition where hands and feet can become very cold. 
Neurofeedback uses brainwave feedback specifically to address several different medical conditions. 
 
    But biofeedback is also very useful for getting more personally involved in one's own health management strategies, fine tuning dance and athletic performance, reducing student's "test-taking anxiety" and just plain old learning how to relax. It is a marvelous tool to get to know yourself better.  

  WHAT IS THE FIGHT-FLIGHT RESPONSE ?

       We have evolved over millions of years on this planet.  Our early ancestors, with much smaller brains, didn't have the capacity (or the time) to think about the consequences of being threatened by a predator. The DNA evolved a nervous system with a built in mechanism that modern day humans refer to as the "fight or flight response".  When threatened, our nervous systems shift gears with remarkable speed.  The nerve centers of the brain gather information from our various sensors faster than a semiconductor company executive can even dream about and the pituitary gland begins releasing hormones into the blood stream.  But as this is going on, other physiological changes are also taking place.  Nerve cells communicate signals rapidly;  the heart is beating faster, the blood is shifting away from the extremities back to the larger muscle groups, the lungs, and the brain where it is needed more. The brain's activities shift to the faster "beta" ranges. The adrenal hormones, being supplied by the slower delivery system, the bloodstream, arrive in time to recharge the various tissues as they use their initial fuel supplies. 

    These rapid changes are necessary if the organism is going to be able to either fight off it's enemy or flee from it.  If one of our early ancestors was walking around a rock and came face to face with a saber-toothed tiger, he didn't have time to stop and think "oh, that's a dangerous animal, maybe I'd better do something".  By then, he'd be an easy dinner. Of course, those genes would no longer be available to the gene pool.

     Although these functions of our nervous systems evolved millions of years ago, they are still with us. These same kinds of physiological responses happen to us every day in various degrees. When you wake up with a start to find out that the alarm didn't go off and there is only 30 minutes to get up and get to work or school; or when you are about to pull into a parking space and someone else gets there first; or some guy, who just had a fight with his wife decides to communicate with you through the use of sign language because you were driving just a little too slow.  Then there are the times you get to work and see that your boss doesn't look happy. Sometimes that's all it takes to activate the response. The problem is that when we allow these stress responses to mount up, it's like running our cars in passing gear all the time; things wear out faster.

     Everyday, we have experiences that cause, to varying degrees, the same type of physiological responses that our ancient ancestor experienced when he or she was cornered by a saber-toothed tiger. But a major difference to keep in mind is that our ancestor, if he or she survived, used all those adrenal hormones in the blood stream to fight off the tiger and get away. The physical activity "used" the excessive hormones and the extra fuel they made available. When we get cut off by some jerk on the freeway, we can't get out to run or fight the person (although some folks have regressed to that point), we have to do something with that extra fuel our glands have produced so we sit in our cars and tense our jaws and foreheads and put a few extra knots in our shoulders; we develop tension headaches, high blood pressure and weaken our immune systems.   Ah, but that's where those learned skills of bio self regulation come in handy,  if we use them.

   

 HOW THE BRAIN COMMUNICATES WITH THE BODY

     The main unit of the Nervous System is the neuron or nerve cell. Neurons communicate with muscle tissue, glandular tissue, and with each other through branches called "axons" and "dendrites". This is how our brains tell the various parts of our bodies what to do.  These "communications",  being electro-chemical in nature, create small amounts of measurable electrical activity. This is what allows us to "listen" to what is going on.
     Electro-chemical impulses travel at great speed in our bodies. Imagine a neuron 100 meters long and a "world class" sprinter racing the impulse. The runner would reach the finish line 100 meters away in around 10 seconds. The nerve impulse would be there in less than a second, waiting for her. Our toes are a long way from our brains. Signals have to move fast.
   Picture of a motor nerve ending in muscle tissue.

    The Endocrine System is another way that communications are carried out in the body but at a much slower pace. Although some hormones act on neighboring cells, in most cases this system relies on the blood stream to deliver it's messages. Various glands in our bodies release compounds into the blood for delivery to distant places.
      A major difference between the two systems is that nerve impulses come and are immediately gone whereas bio-chemicals produced by the endocrine system stay in the bloodstream for longer periods of time until processed.  By actively applying biofeedback education in stressful situations, we can reduce the amount of our own "stress chemicals" in the bloodstream. The "key" is remembering and actively Intervening. This can have important implications in health since it has been shown that some stress chemicals that we produce in our own bodies can and do kill nerve cells.

REAL OR  IMAGINED STRESS TRIGGERS

       When using the term "stress triggers", I'm referring to anything that has the potential to activate the "fight-flight response" (like the guy using sign language) but many sources of stress triggers come from within.  Our own thoughts and memories can become stress triggers.  Perhaps you had an argument with a friend or loved one the day before. Going over the argument in your mind can cause some of the same physiological changes that the original argument caused. Have you ever taken a long drive and had someone cut you off or tailgate you and then you find yourself sixty miles down the road thinking about the incident?  I'm willing to bet you that even though the incident took place an hour or more before, your hands still gripped the steering wheel a little harder and your heart rate picked up a bit just by thinking about it.
     Once we can remind ourselves that it isn't "real time",  then we can slow or reverse the stress response much easier.

 
    Biofeedback education, with practice, can provide some valuable personal insight for better managing one's own stress responses by teaching awareness of very subtle changes in our bodies. After using biofeedback equipment a few times and learning to recognize these changes, many people find they don't need to use the equipment anymore to continue with the practice of biofeedback in their lives.
   If addressing specific medical conditions, the number of sessions needed with the equipment will vary.

 Workshops - Individual Training.

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