While there may not be a precise definition for biofeedback, the following example may demonstrate how we all use biofeedback at one time or another. You may not have given much thought as to how you learned to ride a bicycle, and yet you employed a form of biofeedback in the learning process. If you had to consciously think of all the steps it takes to ride a bicyqle, you may not have gotten past the first one. As you pedaled the first few shaky feet, your brain was processing the feedback it was getting from your body as it sought to balance on the bike. Your brain made automatic adjustment in your body's weight in order to achieve the balance necessary so you could keep pedaling and stay on the bike.

The application of biofeedback to health disorders is not new. In the ancient world, especially Eastern cultures, Yogis were able (and still are) to control involuntary body reflexes such as respiration and heart beat. By slowing down body functions, they were able to induce conditions that a more active or conscious body could not.

Biofeedback has found acceptance in the psychological profession as practitioners seek alternative methods to drug therapies. For many people, living with pain and stress has become the price for living in the modern worId. While drug therapy might be effective, there are many people who are concerned about drug side effects.

Biofeedback holds out promise as being one way of helping people cope with chronic pain and deal with stress. It should be pointed out that biofeedback is not a cure, but a method for dealing with symptoms of illness.

The techniques used to train someone in the use of biofeedback have become very sophisticated. It is now possible to monitor brain impulses and make them audible to the person using biofeedback. By monitoring this electrical activity, and listing to the series of "beeps," the person employing biofeedback will learn how to control the situation.

Some people use biofeedback to contro1 their body temperature or increase the flow of blood to certain body parts. Treatment using biofeedback for stress headaches, back pain, temporomandibular joint pain (TMJ), migraine headaches and nerve damage has been reported.

Anyone interested in learning how to use biofeedback should contact a Certified Biofeedback Instructor. The concept of using biofeedback to control the involuntary workings of the body is new to Western medical thought; therefore, you may not find every practitioner open to discussing its use.