Biofeedback?

[mkoven]

Anyone ever try biofeedback? I have started as part of my migraine attack plan. The person has never worked with anyone with my multiple weirdnesses before, but it's interesting as the basic goal is to get you to control your autonomic reactions. Hmm. Migraine-wise, I guess it's supposed to help you to normalize blood flow. And it sounds like it has some effectiveness, without negating that migraines are neurological events.

What was interesting is that when I went in, I felt awful. Not just headaches, but dizzy, faint, nauseated. He had me hooked up to skin conductance, hr, muscle tension, breathing, hand temperature. My hands were icey and stayed that way at 71 degrees. Each time I had a wave of wanting to pass out, my skin conductance shot up. I got it down by putting my head between my knees.

After 20 minutes of breathing, I did feel somewhat better, headache wise. But my hands were still freezing. and as soon as I stood up, my hr went up. So I don't know how much I can learn to control-- but I guess if deep breathing can help at least the migraines, that's something...

I know this is controversial-- to think I might have some control doesn't mean this is "in my head." And the biofeedback guy has never seen anyone as "autonomically unstable" as me, but I'm willing to give it a go. Even if this only teaches me to stay centered when things are wacky... I dunno... what do y'all think?

[flop]

I've never heard of biofeedback - how is it supposed to work?

[mkoven]

In some ways, it seems like technologized yoga! I believe it's used for a variety of conditions-- from pain control, to hypertension, to migraines, etc... You are hooked up to various gizmos that give you info on various autonomic funcitons- breathing, muscle tension, heart rate, hand temperature, skin conductance, and probably other possibilities.

Of these, only some can you directly control, like breathing, but i think if you get into the "zone" with deep, abdominal breathing, along with various types of visualization, people can alter other dimensions of autonomic response. It is approved by my insurance for migraines-- with the understanding, I guess, that migraines are an altered autonomic response. So I guess that means it has been shown to be of benefit. When you have a migraine, for example, hands are often very cold. I'm supposedly going to learn to warm my hands through breathing and imagery, to calm down all the weirdness that my body does in migraine mode. I don't think practitioners believe this means that people don't have "real" (aka organic) problems, but that we can maybe learn to settle down our autonomic responses somewhat, and shortcircuit the migraine. I don't know how or if this will be at all useful for my other ans problems. I don't think the practitioner does either. But then I was referred just for migraines-- so that's the focus. But since I'm so autonomically out of whack, I wonder. He has never had anyone before who needs to RAISE their bp.

It was interesting, though, to see all that was going on when I became presyncopal. My skin conductance started shooting through the roof. He said he'd seen that with anxiety attacks. But I wasn't anxious, and it went down when I put my head between my knees.

So who knows... but any improvement on any front is welcome! I need to practice every day, and I'm not good at tuning things out. When I try to focus on my breathing, I end up focusing on everything else. But I'll keep trying. A non-drug trick in my bag is a good thing. And if it otherwise mellows me out, that's not a bad thing.

[pat57]

Its a great idea.

[lloppyllama]

I have done it before, and honestly I wasn't a huge fan. First off my psychiatrists who was helping me with it was a total jerk, so I then just got some CD's to do it at home. So I guess I haven't done a lot of the real in the office biofeedback (I have done some though) but I have done it at home. It didn't really work for me, but I have my own techniques that I use that I just taught myself, that are helpful to me, most of it is just breathing stuff. So I suppose you could call it biofeedback, but I didn't really like the stuff they taught me, but I have come up with my own that works well for me.

I used the CD's for a few weeks every day two times, and they did help me relax, but didn't make my migraines go away, just made me more tired and out of it, haha.

So I guess my advice would be to go ahead and try it, but if it doesn't make a huge difference, don't spend tons of money going in to the clinic to do it, and just teach yourself breathing techniques at home to get your HR down.

Good luck, I hope its helpful for you!

Mary

[icthus]

Going out on a limb here...

Mayo suggested biofeedback for me but I never went down that road. At the time, I was a lacto-ovo organic vegetarian trying desparately to figure out what was wrong with me and doing the best I could to not deteriorate any further. Adding biofeedback was just too much with everything else going on.

Last January, my physician said the only hope for me was acupuncture. Coincidentally the next month, an acquaintance heard about my condition and offered (free) to do TKM, a type of manual acupuncture in which you place your hands on certain meridians to relieve "congestion". It's helped. After she administered TKM almost daily for 3 months (no charge), I went to Ohio to get training so I could continue the therapy. I now do it on myself and see results. In fact, I have three friends come for 60 minutes/time (3 different days) to do it to me also. If you want to know more, please contact me but not at my e-mail address because that address is now used by other family members.

[Guest tearose]

I discussed biofeedback with an osteopath who said we can practice a type of "biofeedback" on our own. He said to use self guided mediation techniques usually with any cd that brings you a sense of relaxation. The guided ones can be annoying so you may just choose soothing instrumentals or nature sounds, etc. Since I have a heart rate monitor I let that read out help try to "get in touch" with any relationship between my breathing and heartrate. I found listening to classical music makes me I breath deeper and that does lower my heartrate about 5 beats per minute. I think anytime we can sit and breath deep and clear our minds and hearts of all the noise and stuff of life, we reconnect with our body and bring on a natural calm. It is all good, give it a try.

best regards,

tearose

[yogini]

There are articles (written by Dr. Grubb) showing that biofeedback does help with dysautonomia. I looked into it a couple of years ago, but my insurance didn't cover it. I am also on beta blockers, which affect HR and BP and limit the effectiveness of biofeedback. Even so, I'd gladly go if it were covered - I may get around to paying out of pocket for it someday. For now, I have the Resperate machine, which helps you to learn to breath more deeply and slowly over time. I also have Dr. Weil's breathing CD, which has various yoga-like breathing techniques. The effects are somewhat subtle, but I have found both of these really useful - they help with my symptoms and with relaxation - one of the few things that helps w/o any bad side effects.

[pamyla]

I've tried biofeedback before, but not specifically for pots. Years ago I was seeing a therapist and she put these sensors on my fingers that tracked your body temperature. Well, my fingers were probably about 70 degrees - there's the Raynaud's for you I guess When the temperature rose the thermometer would beep. She had me close my eyes and relax and my only instruction was to try to imagine my hands getting warm. At first, nothing happened, but at some point I figured out how to do it and I was able to raise the temperature of my hands to the normal 98.6 by just thinking about it. It was a neat experience, but I've been less successful doing this on my own unfortunately. I think it takes a lot of practice.

For Christmas this year my husband bought me that biofeedback game from Deepak Chopra - Journey to the Wild Divine. This I could see being helpful for pots symptoms because it really does force me to relax.

Pam

[dsdmom]

Rita,

Do you know where we could find copies of Dr. Grubb's articles concerning biofeedback?

[Mrs. Burschman]

It might have helped me somewhat WHILE I was doing it, but unfortunately, it didn't do much during the rest of the week. I quit doing it after a while.

The doctor who helped me with biofeedback also said my readings were really abnormal, which I think would be expected with dysautonomia.

Amy

[pat57]

http://www.eplabdigest.com/article/7165

Medical treatment strategies are reviewed, from increasing salt and water intake, to beta blockers, disopyramide, fludrocortisones and the ?older medications? for neurocardiogenic syncope, to midodrine and serotonin reuptake inhibitors, among others. As well, non-medical treatment strategies are addressed, and the basis for their use is explained; for example, tilt training, biofeedback and support stockings (with one of the easiest explanations I have read about the hydrostatic reasons for how they work) are addressed. Once again, this is an introduction to the subject, not a guide to treatment with specifics, doses and approaches tailored to a unique situation. For that, you will need to read further, probably starting with Grubb and Olshansky?s text on syncope. A meaningful wrap-up statement that is so characteristic of Grubb?s commitment to patient care and the glossary finalize the book.