What is Electromyographic Biofeedback?

Electromyographic biofeedback is a technique that uses precise instruments to measure electrical activity in muscles. This information can be used to help patients learn control over muscle tension, which is normally an automatic and unconscious process. By using electromyographic feedback through numerous sessions, a patient learns to consciously control muscle tension in order to relieve pain. It is especially effective for pain that is associated with stress, such as tension headaches.

What Conditions Can Be Treated with Electromyographic Feedback?

Electromyographic biofeedback is effective for treating a number of disorders. Therapeutic applications of EMG biofeedback include:

·         Chronic headaches, especially tension headaches

·         Temporomandibular and dental pain

·         Tender point pain in fibromyalgia patients

·         Stress-induced tension in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

How is Electromyographic Biofeedback Carried Out?

During an electromyographic biofeedback session, surface electrodes are placed on the skin over the relevant muscle areas. These electrodes act as sensors, detecting the action potentials that appear when muscles are contracted. The EMG machine provides “feedback”, in the form of a representation of the action potentials’ strengths and patterns. Using this information, electromyographic biofeedback sessions train patients to learn to control muscle contraction.

Learning to relax the muscles at will can be a difficult process. Electromyographic biofeedback therapy is generally carried out in a series of 10 to 24 sessions. The initial session is often kept short, with subsequent sessions increasing in duration. After a session is completed, doctors ask the patients to give a self-report of perceived relaxation, muscle tension, and pain, generally on a scale of 1-10.

In order for electromyographic biofeedback therapy to be effective, it is important for a patient to feel relaxed. During EMG biofeedback sessions, patients are coached to use relaxation strategies, including:

·         Imagining relaxing scenery

·         Repeating relaxing phrases

·         Slow, deep, rhythmic breathing

·         Focusing on, and becoming more aware of, the particular sensations of tightness versus relaxation in the muscles

·         Clearing the mind completely

Electromyographic biofeedback therapy has been shown to effect lasting changes within the brain that persist long after the treatment is completed. Over time, the patient can develop the ability to increase and decrease muscle tension at will, even without feedback from the EMG equipment. 

Electromyographic Biofeedback

What is Electromyographic Biofeedback?

Stress is a hallmark of our modern lives. We feel stress from work, from school, from social gatherings, from our children and spouses – and the stress we feel only sets up even more stress. For many people, it can feel like there is a constant contest being waged between their will and their stress levels, and it is only a matter of time before something has to give.

When we finally do buckle under the pressure – and almost all of us do at some point – stress can lead to long-term disorders such as anxiety, hypertension and chronic pain, especially if it isn't caught and treated early on. The reason this happens is often due to the involuntary movements of our nervous system – our blood pressure, our muscle tension and more.

Luckily, electromyographic biofeedback is a technology-driven alternative medicine therapy that is helping countless patients with a host of stress-related afflictions, including the above mentioned, as well as headaches, back pain and even incontinence. The technology is not new – scientists have been using it for over 130 years – but this particular therapeutic method just sprung up in the last few years.

Here is how it works: electromyographic biofeedback collects information about your physiological responses to stress (or other disorders) from your skeletal muscles, and displays it back to you in a format that is easy to read and understand. Then, usually with a game of some kind, the device teaches you different strategies you can use to respond to muscle tension. Essentially, the device trains you to train yourself, so that you are the one wielding power over your body – not the other way around.

There are many kinds of electromyographic biofeedback devices. The most complicated are usually found in therapeutic and clinical settings, and are administered with the help of a doctor or other healthcare professional who can help you get the most out of it. But there are also smaller, less powerful (but still helpful) devices that you can purchase and use as part of a daily regimen to help you train your body to overcome your unconscious muscular reactions to the stress and anxiety of modern life.

The uses of electromyographic biofeedback aren't limited to just stress and stress-related conditions. They also help those suffering from chronic migraines, and assist with psychological therapies such as mindfulness meditation. There are even athletes who have been experimenting with electromyographic biofeedback therapies to help them achieve new heights of physical fitness.

If you are suffering from an overabundance of stress and you feel it is negatively affecting the quality of your life, consider looking into electromyographic biofeedback treatments. It is a perfectly safe, non-invasive, drug-free therapy that has already helped countless patients get the relief they deserve.

Electromyographic Biofeedback