Biofeedback: The emergency brake your pain cycle has been looking for.
Most of us have experienced periods of prolonged pain for one reason or the other and can relate to the distressing experience. Often times, the root cause of pain is closely linked to stress due to the physical changes stress imposes on our body. Even if stress is not a factor in the onset of your pain symptoms, it is definitely a factor while your experiencing pain as the presence of pain will elicit a physiological stress response, driving that never-ending cycle of pain.
Biofeedback is clinically proven to reduce symptoms of pain, addressing both your physical and physiological health, to provide you with lasting relief. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the benefits of biofeedback with many of my patients and have experienced it first hand myself. Keep reading to learn more about the pain cycle and how biofeedback acts as the emergency brake we didn’t know we needed to reduce symptoms and get back to our lives.
The Pain Cycle: Let’s pretend that stress is not a factor in the onset of your pain (although, if I was a betting woman, this is not a bet I would take). Instead, we’ll start at the onset of pain symptoms to get a better picture at what is happening inside of your body.
Onset of pain triggers a physiological stress response. During a flare up of pain, your breath become rapid and shallow, your pulse quickens, your blood vessels constrict and your muscles tense. Your body is detecting danger!
Decreased physical activity occurs to limit movements that contribute to pain symptoms resulting in loss of flexibility, muscle shortening and rigidity, all of which, will contribute to the pain experience.
Increased muscle tension and posture guarding throughout the day is a result of the physiological stress response acting to compensate for pain symptoms, causing further musculoskeletal imbalances, muscle and joint stiffness.
Prolonged tension and a physiological stress response contributes to decreased circulation (ever notice how cold your finger tips and toes get?).
Increased muscular inflammation begins to occur due to excessive tension and poor circulation, intensifying the pain experience and further reducing the capacity for movement.
Thus, the pain cycle was born. Repeat from the top.
It is easy to see how the pain cycle can be difficult to stop and worsens as it gains some momentum. You’re in pain, so you stop moving and rest, only to wind up in more pain from lack of movement…it feels like you can’t win, right?
Luckily, current literature suggests you may have found your ‘Hail Mary’ in the name of biofeedback therapy. Biofeedback is a stress management tool that changes your body’s physiological response to stress. Biofeedback increases self awareness and gives you the self regulation tools your body needs to regulate otherwise “subconscious” processes that result in muscle tension, poor circulation, inflammation, etc.
The kicker is that not only will you increase your self awareness and learn self-regulation skills to dampen the pain experience, you will experience long-lasting physiological change. The feedback you receive during the sessions actually works to rewire the way the brain perceives stress and pain so you can put a stop to that vicious cycle once and for all!
One of the reasons I personally find biofeedback to be so successful is that it address both the physical and psychological systems together instead of separately. If I have learned anything from my practice and educational background, its that the “mind-body” connection is a real thing, with real science behind it, not something yogis just gab about.
