Pain Management: Biofeedback

What is "biofeedback"?

Biofeedback therapy is very good to help relax the body and the mind. The way biofeedback works is by using electrodes in certain parts of the body. As an example, to show me that I am not relaxed, I may place electrodes on my face. Then I may listen to a certain noise coming from the electrode into the machine to let me know that there's contraction taking place in the muscles of my face, even though I'm not aware of it. This could also be done on the back, if someone has low back pain.

How does biofeedback work?

The way it works is very simple. We hook electrodes onto different muscle fibres, different muscle groups, and we attach those electrodes to some feedback mechanism. It can be sound, it can be light that actually shows us; allows us to see how those muscles are actually contracting or relaxing. When we watch that, we can actually learn how to control our muscles better.