BETTER WELL-BEING BIOFEEDBACK PROVIDES BASELINE FOR HEALTH

By Hunter Harrell

Ever walk into a room and notice the vibes are off? Humans often recognize subtle changes in our surroundings, especially if we are familiar with them. This innate awareness of our bodies and environment also allows us to recognize problems with our health if we train ourselves to be mindful of it.

To improve personal health, patients first have to identify barriers to wellness. This involves a deep dive into activity, diet and lifestyle. As a board certified physician and naturopath, John Partenope uses a noninvasive technology to gather data and biofeedback training to determine the root cause of various health problems at his health clinic in Durango.

“Our body is giving electrical signals all the time,”Partenope said. “We can’t see them or touch them, but we can feel them.”

During a biofeedback session, a provider may attach sensors to the ankles, wrists and forehead, which connects to a terminal to read the data. The sensors monitor brain activity, breathing and heart rate, measure skin temperature and evaluate muscle tension. Partenope uses Individual-Frequency Interface Technology (I-FIT), but there are a variety of emerging clinical and personal-use biofeedback devices on the market today.

“This software measures organs, glands, pathogens, environmental toxins, vitamins, minerals and hormones,” Partenope said. “So, everything has a frequency. This technology allows me to look inside the body and see what frequencies are high, which are low, and which ones are just right. So, it is very specific to the individual’s body.”

A better understanding of those signals grants individuals the opportunity to learn how to control the body’s involuntary functions, such as breathing, heart rate and muscle responses. Practitioners will ask a series of questions related to symptoms that patients described, and compare the data gathered to determine paths that patients can take to address specific areas of health.

“The frequencies I see usually relate to the symptoms that people come in here with,” Partenope said. “It gives me a baseline of where your body is at – we fix and adjust.”

Biofeedback training is an avenue to supplement primary care, and can be useful in addressing a variety of mental and physical conditions. For example, patients use biofeedback to manage asthma, anxiety, depression and ADHD, chronic pain, constipation or incontinence, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and side effects from cancer treatments. Biofeedback also appeals to patients that want to cease medications due to side effects.

Partenope said that results typically match the patient’s effort since biofeedback is a tool to measure progress. If a patient takes the appropriate actions, they often feel the difference before they return for another session and see those results.

“I usually see people once a month, and the average is about three visits,” Parentope says. After three months, he gives patients a maintenance protocol and checks in every six months or once a year to be sure patients aren’t experiencing any new issues, and the results they attained.