Biofeedback
Maximize Your Potential
We use the latest equipment in the field to assess and train autonomic function physiological processes such as breathing, heart rate variability, peripheral temperature and skin conductance.
Through biofeedback training, you can learn how to down-regulate and optimize these physiological responses for increased wellbeing. This is accomplished by real-time feedback from the multiple sensors placed on the body and watching easy to understand graphics on a computer, which displays feedback that show your current physiologically activation in your body.
Being aware your physiological responses will help you to master them through regular training sessions.
Biofeedback training has been found to help in the treatment of:
Anxiety
Insomnia
Stress
Chronic Pain
Migraine Headaches
Fibromyalgia
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Reynaud’s Syndrome
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Chronic Fatigue
Chronic muscle tension
Skin Conductance
Skin conductance, otherwise known as galvanic skin response and electrodermal response, refers to the ability of skin to conduct electricity. Our equipment allows for real-time monitoring of skin conductance so you can learn how to relax the autonomic nervous system in order to reduce the amount of sweat produced by sympathetic-mediated (stressed) eccrine glands.
Muscle Tension
Most people are not aware of how stress impacts their muscle tension until pain is experienced. Surface Electromyography (sEMG) uses two sensors across a muscle to measure and train muscle activity. The clinician may train the frontalis or upper trapezius for overall relaxation or target specific muscles such as the masseter muscles to reduce jaw tension.
Temperature
Cold hands and feet may be an indicator of your body being in a state of flight or fight. When your body is in sympathetic mode, blood vessels constrict, blood flow decreases and so does skin temperature. We can measure your peripheral temperature (temperature outside your core body temperature) by placing a sensor on your finger. We train you on how to learn to turn off the sympathetic response which will raise your finger temperature. Our goal is to get your fingers to an average temperature of 35 degrees celsius.
Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as a general measure of adaptability. Diminished HRV is a sign of vulnerability to stress, whether the decrease arises from psychological or physical stress or from the ravages of disease.
HRV is a measurement of naturally occurring beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. It impacts the respiratory system, the autonomic nervous system, and the central nervous system.
Through training, you can enhance performance by regulating your breathing. For example, with each breathe, our heart speeds up when we inhale and slows down when we exhale. Variations in HRV tells us whether your body is in a sympathetic state (which occurs during a "flight-or-fight" response, and anxiety provoking situations) or a parasympathetic state (an optimal and relaxed state). Slow and steady breaths will take you from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state. This is why techniques like yoga and meditation have been proven successful through consistent practice and focus on the breathe.
High heart rate variability leads to increased self regulation over your body’s functions and low HRV compromises well being. Healthy bodies have high HRV so our goal is to find your baseline, address stressors that cause it to decrease, and then increase your HRV through breath training.
In summary, HRV biofeedback can help you:
• Instantly observe changes in autonomic function caused by changes in mental or emotional states or stress.
• Train your body to go from a sympathetic state (stressed) to a parasympathetic (relaxed) state
Respiratory Biofeedback
Respiratory training is one of the most useful biofeedback interventions in stress reduction. Many individuals diagnosed with anxiety have in effect an overbreathing issue.
At Mindful Pathway, we have specifically equipment to assess resonant breathing frequency (breaths per minute that promote the best autonomic state possible) and to monitor effectiveness of gas exchange during normal breathing.
Breathing chemistry includes not only the optimal level of oxygen but also appropriate levels of carbon dioxide. Hypocapnia (low CO2) can throw ph levels in the blood, lead to vasoconstriction and reduced levels of oxygen delivery in the brain.
Capnometry-enabled biofeedback allows us to observe breathing behaviors to train optimal respiration, which is associated with balanced pH levels in the blood and extracellular fluids. This process involves the use of a capnometre which measures CO2 levels during respiration.
These results would show clients how their current breaths per minute are affecting them both physically and mentally. We would then provide training that will allow them to effectively self-regulate their breathing behaviors.
Improvements that may be experienced through respiratory training include:
Reduced anxiety
Improved focus and awareness
Enhanced cognitive abilities and memory
improved behavior and emotion regulation
The ability to self-regulate pH levels, electrolyte balance, blood flow, kidney function, and hemoglobin chemistry
Good breathing technique is necessary for overcoming defensive behaviors, triggering emotions, reducing fear, and dissociating from trauma.
CO2 levels affect the pH levels in our blood and extracellular fluids. An ideal pH balance for humans is between 7.35 to 7.45, which is slightly more alkaline.
WHEN IS CAPNOMETRY USED?
During our initial assessment, we will observe breathing patterns and HRV to determine if you have a healthy breathing pattern. Overbreathers, mouth breathers, and those who breathe from their chest instead of their diaphragm will likely have capnometry included in their treatment, along with other recommendations that can be attributed to respiration problems.
HOW IS CAPNOMETRY PERFORMED?
Using a capnometre and an advanced software system, you would be given a breathing that is attached to a device that measures C02 during respiration. Our computer program will provide an accurate reading of your breaths per minute and gas exchange, then we will provide biofeedback training exercises to challenge you to lower your breaths per minute and find an ideal number of breaths needed to improve your heart rate variability.
RESOURCES
Litchfield, P. (2010). CapnoLearning: Respiratory fitness and acid-base regulation. Psyhophysiology Today, 7(1), 1–6.