Gregg D. Jacobs

“Marilyn came to me for biofeedback treatment of Raynaud’s disease, which is characterized by painful episodes of cold hands caused by constriction of blood vessels, especially during cold weather. When she began biofeedback treatment, she was connected to a thermal biofeedback machine that measured her hand temperature and displayed it as a vertical bar on a computer monitor. When Marilyn’s hands cooled, the bar fell; when her hands warmed, the bar rose. Over a series of sessions, Marilyn learned that when she thought about mental images of warmth, her hands became warmer. However, if she tried too hard to warm her hands, they became colder. Soon she learned to increase the temperature of her hands from 70 to 95 degrees in as little as ten minutes. With practice, she was able to warm her hands without the biofeedback machine. Eventually, she was able to use her mind alone to keep her hands warm and abort a Raynaud’s attack. The results of biofeedback research were so impressive that many scientists began studying other mind-body techniques such as meditation and relaxation, which scientists found could also be used to gain more control over the autonomic nervous system.”
― Gregg D. Jacobs, Say Good Night to Insomnia: The Six-Week, Drug-Free Program Developed At Harvard Medical School