I am wondering if using biofeedback to control eye pressure would be a viable option for those of us that struggle to keep our IOP down. I wonder if anyone has tried that and if so, what was the outcome.
Thanks for asking this question. For me, self-tonometry is a form of biofeedback. I have been using techniques of biofeedback for the entire 15 years I have been doing self-tonometry.
Biofeedback is a type of therapy that uses physiological sensors to measure key bodily functions. Biofeedback helps you learn more about how your body works. This feedback helps you to develop better control over certain body functions and address health concerns.
This tonometer is a sensor and the feedback it provides absolutely can be used in that way. It has been one of the main ways I have used self-tonometry. However, if someone has no experience with meditation or biofeedback, it may not be obvious how self-tonometry is a type of biofeedback. I think it will be very helpful for us to discuss this in a lot more depth.
Many people just "monitor" IOP. That's fine. It's also simple. But I do two additional things with my tonometer.
1. I experiment with treatments. Those treatments range from medications to dietary supplements to exercise to many other things.
2. I do biofeedback. I usually speak of it more in terms of meditation. But it fits the definition of biofeedback.
Here's a definition from Psychology Today magazine:
By harnessing real-time information on one’s bodily state and demonstrating how it connects to conscious behaviors—such as thinking about certain images, breathing in a certain way, or relaxing muscles—biofeedback therapy is designed to help patients take more control over the functioning of their bodies. In the course of therapy, they may learn to better manage symptoms linked to the observed physiological activity.
If you review my various posts over the last 15 years, I think you will see that theme consistently running through my descriptions of my own practice of self-tonometry. One of my top goals has always been to enable myself (to empower myself) to manage my IOP through my thoughts, breathing and relaxation.
In formal biofeedback training, the subject is taught techniques for relaxing, breathing, visualizing, etc. And often the software is designed to assist the subject in those things. I believe meditation is a better training method for biofeedback skills, so when I discuss this subject, I don't usually call it biofeedback even though it certainly can be discussed in that way. Also, meditation and biofeedback can be complimentary.
When first exploring this, I would spend long sessions (an hour or more) exploring the biofeedback from my tonometer while monitoring my thoughts, my breathing, my muscle relaxation, and all the other factors that are commonly incorporated into biofeedback.
The technique I use is to explore one thing at a time, such as consciously relaxing the muscles around my eyes (to give one of many examples). As I relax the muscles around my eyes, I take a series of measurements with my tonometer. The Reichert 7CR with the FitEyes software is best for this. (I think you could also do it with other tonometers, although I don't because the Reichert 7CR with the FitEyes software frees me of all distractions and allows me to do pure biofeedback.)
I have done with with relaxing my glute muscles, for example. Or relaxing my shoulders & neck. Breathing is another example of a very profound connection between a consciously controllable physiological process and IOP.
I have done lots of experiments with thoughts too. In short, the more active or agitated the mind, the higher my IOP. You have probably seen me frequently write about the synergy between self-tonometry and the Serene Impulse meditation practice.
I do have biofeedback lab equipment, including EEG, EKG, EMG, feedback thermometer (high sensitive), EDG (electrodermograph, also called skin conductance) and others. But in my experience, I have not needed to combine any of those with the tonometer. I simply use the tonometer alone as the biofeedback device.
However, I have used my feedback thermometer to help me learn how to increase blood flow to my hands (and thus warm my hands) while meditating. I found that very interesting and useful. That's an example of a commonly used biofeedback technique that I approached via the meditation paradigm.
More about doing biofeedback with my tonometer
With the FitEyes software, I turn on the audio feature so that I can get audio feedback of my IOP immediately, without even taking my head or eyes away from the Reichert 7CR tonometer. With the FitEyes software and the Reichert 7CR, I get the real-time feedback that is essential for good biofeedback. I also have the ability to conduct my biofeedback without any distraction. If any of you are doing the same with an Icare, please let me know. In the future, if there is demand for it, and support for it, we could develop the FitEyes software to support biofeedback even better.
You may find this interesting:
The Different Ways To Perform Home Eye Pressure Monitoring | FitEyes.com
http://www.fiteyes.com/the-different-ways-to-perform-home-eye-pressure-monitoring
You can now find an updated version of that blog post here: https://ask.fiteyes.com/p/955/#960
Please let me know what other questions or thoughts any of you have regarding biofeedback with a tonometer.
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The FitEyes software has other features that are useful for biofeedback-like training. You can choose to hear -- via spoken audio from the software -- different IOP values (IOPcc, IOPg), you can choose to hear either each measure immediately or an average of multiple measures. You can choose to hear the quality score instead of IOP. You can change the number of puffs and the timing between puffs too.