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BIOFEEDBACK
A NATURAL WAY TO RELIEVE HEADACHE
INTRODUCTION
 There are 25 natural ways to relieve headaches and they are;
 Put your finger on the headache triggers,
 Eliminate headache foods,
 Purify your environment,
 Reduce stress,
 Biofeedback,
 Inhale oxygen,
 Get your eyes and teeth properly checked,
 Improve your posture,
 Exercise,
 Fight headaches with supplements,
 Meditate,
 Use the Qi Gong mechanism,
 Use hot and cold therapies,
 Herbs,
 Cleanse the colon,
 Massage therapy,
 Acupuncture and Acupressure,
 Chiropractic,
 Korean hand therapy,
 Homeopathy,
 Magnets,
 Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation(TENS),
 Bach flower remedies,
 Aromatherapy,
 Get the right amount of sleep.
TYPES OF HEADACHES
 There are almost 150 different diagnostic categories of headaches but all these or most of this types of headaches fall into one of the three categories;
 Vascular headaches- Caused by either the narrowing or widening of the brain's blood vessels, or by neurotransmitter abnormalities.
 Muscle contraction headaches- Caused due to tensions.
 Organic headaches-Caused due to various health problems.
DEFINITION AND EXPLANATION
 Biofeedback is a way to learn to control what’s going on inside your body.
 It literally means “body” (bio) “knowledge” (feedback).
 This can be achieved by using a biofeedback device to monitor certain involuntary body processes like heart rate, brain activity, muscle tension, blood flow, skin temperature, rate of digestion, and sweat gland activity.
 The device converts these bodily functions or responses into visual or auditory data.
 Then, by using a simple relaxation technique such as meditation, progressive relaxation, or visualization, you can actually see or hear the difference as you alter those bodily functions.
 By using this biofeedback techniques, you will know if a certain relaxation technique is working and how well it is working.
HEADACHE PRODUCERS THAT YOU CAN CONTROL
 Biofeedback can help you identify and modify 3 major producers of headaches;
 THE STRESS RESPONSE,
 THE FEAR OF PAIN,
 LOW FINGER TEMPERATURES.
THE STRESS RESPONSE
 This can also be regarded as hot-under-collar-feeling or flight/fight response. An example is, assuming someone cuts you in a traffic, anger generates in you which floods your body, your breathing becomes rapid and shallow, your face gets hot and suddenly, you have got more energy than you have had all day and it looks like as if you want to beat the tar out of Goliath.
 But in such situation, powerful stress related hormones have been released into your blood anyway.
 Because you are not going to use up these hormones for physical activity, they will probably present you with a pounding headache instead.
FEAR OF PAIN
 The fear of pain can often be worse be worse than the pain itself and can make it settle in sooner or make the existing pain even worse.
 Unfortunately, this fear and frustration would probably make your headache appear even faster and hit you harder than it would have if you had stayed calm and relaxed.
 A lot of people end up on a medication merry-go-round because of their pain which equals more pain and lads to greater anxiety leading to chronic daily headaches.
LOW FINGER TEMPERATURE
 Most migraneurs have extra cold hands and feet, while normal people have finger temperatures of about 85F, that of the migraneurs are closer to 70F.
 Its not surprising that in the migraneurs’ fingers, the blood vessels have the inability to properly control themselves, thereby instead of widening, they tend to stay constricted-thus icy fingers.
HOW BIOFEEDBACK HELPS CONTROL HEADACHES
 The biofeedback techniques for the control of headache is usually taught by psychologists who focus on reducing stress response, relaxing the muscles, and increasing the blood flow.
 Two kinds of feedback may be used;
 1) Electromyography (EMG)-This monitors the electrical activity of the muscles.
 2) Thermal-This monitors the flow of blood and skin temperature
EMG BIOFEEDBACK
 This type of biofeedback is used for those whose muscle tension is a significant cause of their headaches (you clench your jaw or tighten up the muscles of your face, neck, and shoulders in response to stress).
 During EMG, the machine sensors that identify muscle tension are placed on the skin directly over certain muscles, to detect muscle tension and tell you just how tense you really are in those areas.
 The psychologist will help you to relax and release the tension in those muscles, and you will practice these techniques while hooked up to the machine.
 EMG biofeedback may be particularly helpful for those who tense up in response to the fear of pain.
 Tightening the muscles (particularly in the neck and shoulders) causes constriction of the blood vessels, which in turn deprives those muscles of their full quota of oxygen and glucose.
 Waste products, like lactic acid, tend to build up and irritate nerve fibres, causing even more pain.
 But by becoming aware of the tension in your “stress” muscles and consciously relaxing them, you can often ward off a headache and decrease overall pain levels.
THERMAL BIOFEEDBACK
 This kind of biofeedback is a real boon to those who suffer from migraine headaches. (Studies have shown that as many as three out of four migraineurs can reduce the frequency of their headaches by at least 50 percent simply by practicing thermal biofeedback twice a day).
 The idea behind this mechanism is that by consciously redirecting the flow of blood to the finger and making its temperature rise, you can ease your body into a more relaxed state and the more relaxed you are, the warmer your finger temperature, so it’s easy to gauge your level of relaxation.
 This is achieved by a tiny finger thermometer.
 The tiny finger thermometer is tapped to your finger while relaxing in a comfortable position either sitting or making use of a relaxation material (music, tape) or just meditating, practicing visualization, or breathing deeply.
 When you are finished check your finger temperature which should have increased if truly relaxed.
DOES BIOFEEDBACK REALLY WORK?
 Research studies have confirmed that the vast majority of headache sufferers who get biofeedback training will experience at least some benefit.
 Many learn to prevent headaches while others decrease their length and intensity.
 It is powerful, safe, completely natural and drug-free.
 In fact, this technique is a definite must-do for anyone with headache.