By Mae Lee Sun
TNAZ Regional Correspondent

The quest for optimum health and wholeness is an ages old endeavor. Throughout the centuries, seekers have journeyed far and wide to enlist the aide of shamans, spiritual gurus and herbalists who would prescribe everything from eye of newt to consulting the stars. As medicine and science took root, and gained power, that changed. Formalization and professionalization required different mediums and tools in which to address bodily issues and illnesses and treatment often came in the form of pills and surgeries.

The more things change however, the more they stay the same. We've come full circle in our knowledge of what total health represents and how to best address it. It's simple, sort of. And involves something as old as life itself- heart rate and breath-although now measured through the use of hi-tech monitoring devices-otherwise known as "biofeedback."

Ann Linda Baldwin, University of Arizona Professor of Physiology and Psychology and director of Mind-Body-Science, however, has taken biofeedback to another level. Through the application of sophisticated video game software, she along with Dr. Gulthan Sethi, a heart transplant surgeon at University Medical Center in Tucson is hard at work treating Parkinson's disease and heart transplant patients.

"Treatment for Parkinson's disease is not ‘one size fits all.' Some patients respond better to short periods of relaxation aided by Biofeedback, and some respond better to short periods of concentration, or focusing, aided by Biofeedback techniques. However, in all cases the patients significantly improved their performance of memory and fine motor control tasks," says Baldwin, who tapes a stretch sensor around the patient's chest to monitor respiration frequency and depth, and a heart rate variability sensor onto their middle finger.

They practice the two tasks – memory and fine motor control – until they reach a constant score and show no further improvement. They then place the three finger sensors for the Wild Divine, a fantasy-based biofeedback game, on their other hand and are instructed to play for 10 minutes. Such a game could be breathing in time with a tree that grows and shrinks. A bridge forms across a chasm if they can regulate their breathing and HRV to stay within the desired range. They repeat the memory game to see if performance improves and if they are less stressed than they were the first time. The whole process is repeated using a fine motor control task instead of the memory task. The experiment is repeated but they are instructed to play one of the Wild Divine games that requires focusing and concentration instead of relaxation.

Developed with the help of leading experts in the field of mind-body medicine, including Deepak Chopra, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Andrew Weil and Joan Borysenko, Wild Divine is not the only software on the market however, that Baldwin employs. She also uses BioGraph Infiniti Physiology Suite made by Thought Technology, Montreal Canada.

"This suite is designed to include all the clinical tools, such as heart rate variability and respiration rate, that you need for monitoring and assessing cardiovascular physiological functions and performing biofeedback sessions. I also use the EEG suite to measure, and help people regulate, brain waves. Thought Technology runs online courses to help people gain proficiency in the use of the software packages. And emWavePC made by the Institute of HeartMath, Boulder Creek, California, is a small, inexpensive device that measures heart rate variability and introduces the concept of ‘coherence.'' Coherence is a state of synchronization between the heart, brain and autonomic nervous system which has numerous physical, mental and emotional benefits. The software package includes games, a coaching session and other information and can be used easily by people without a scientific background," she says.

Cindy Bryant is one of those people. She leads a support group of 30 people with an average age 60 with Parkinson's in Payson, Arizona, and cares for her 47 year-old husband, Daniel, who has had the disease since he was 38. He progressed rapidly from onset and couldn't drive, couldn't prepare his own food and couldn't bath himself. As a certified natural health practitioner, she wasn't willing to accept the allopathic medical model toward the disease that dictated medication or surgery, especially since Daniel was younger than most who develop it. She started experimenting with sound therapy and complimentary medicine techniques that would help the body heal itself.

"Medication for treating Parkinson's typically gives someone five hours of what's called ‘on' time, meaning before the body slows down to the point of not being able to move or shaky movements start and then having to take more medication," Bryant says.

"Daniel is still taking the same amount of medication but hasn't had to increase it which is typically the case. Like when you look at Michael J. Fox, he has to keep upping the medication to get more ‘on' time," Bryant says. "Playing the Wild Divine game where the person has to be focused and practice breathing to get a certain response from it has enabled Daniel to bring his respiration down and give him more ‘on' time. I can't say it's 100 percent related to biofeedback alone but it has improved the quality of his life," says Bryant.

Baldwin's research with patients like Daniel Bryant is being funded through a grant from The Technology and Research Initiative Fund (TRIF) that was designated for new projects throughout Arizona and is a collaboration between UA and ASU. Other projects, funded from other sources in which Baldwin is engaged, include measuring heart rate variability (HRV) in humans and horses to explore the human-horse bond and the Laughter Yoga project funded by Dr. Sethi to reduce stress and improve the psychological well being of heart transplant patients.