For the really Type A personality, here's a chance to measure how well you are relaxing. Makers of home biofeedback devices that monitor your heart rhythms say the devices teach you to combat emotional stress.

Psychologists and psychiatrists say the gadgets appear to help their stressed-out patients but warn that there isn't yet strong scientific evidence that they work. * * *

Biofeedback has long been used to treat stress in psychologists' offices -- with an expert who leads the patient in relaxing breathing exercises and monitors the result real-time.

The idea is that by tracking your efforts, you can instantly see which techniques bring your body to a more relaxed state.

Now, several devices promise to offer a similar experience at home, using a finger sensor to measure a feature of heart rhythm called heart-rate variability.

Heart-rate variability is a measure of the differences in the time between heart beats. In healthy people, the heart naturally speeds up and slows down in waves even while sitting still.

Breathing controls some of that rhythm, and stress tends to result in short, fast breaths. Relaxation exercises aim to establish slow, steady breathing, helping to bring the heart and nervous system into a better balance.

Several popular home biofeedback systems -- including the StressEraser, a hand-held device sold by Helicor Inc. of New York; the Freeze-Framer, a computer-based program sold by HeartMath LLC of Boulder Creek, Colo.; and the Journey to WildDivine, a computer game from the Wild Divine Project of Boulder, Colo. -- are designed to give you positive feedback when you have reduced your breathing to a slow, steady pace.

The Freeze-Framer software monitors your heart using a finger sensor inserted into your USB port. It focuses on a patented measure of the smoothness of your heart wave called "coherence;" you can choose a screen that shows graphs of your heart-rate variability and coherence or simple games such as flying an air balloon that rises as you relax.

The StressEraser gives you "points" on its view screen when you breathe in a relaxing way.

WildDivine is an elaborate fantasy-style game in which relaxing breathing levitates purple globes and lights fires.

Biofeedback with heart-rate variability has been shown by several studies to help a variety of stress-linked maladies, including depression and asthma -- but most of those studies used either office-based equipment or a combination of office and home training.

A number of rigorously designed major studies are now under way on the home devices, including their use to treat generalized anxiety, pre-exam jitters and insomnia, but none have yet been published.

Thomas Brod, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California in Los Angeles, says he thinks the devices are a "terrific" way to teach the basics of relaxation.

Other clinicians say they are fun but not really necessary. Calming breathing exercises can alleviate stress without any gadgetry, says Robert Carney, a professor of psychiatry at Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis.

You shouldn't spend the money on them, he adds, unless you enjoy the reassurance that you're doing well.

The devices cost $150 to $300 and are usually not covered by insurance. No serious side effects have been reported, but Helicor warns that a long session with the StressEraser could make you sleepy -- so don't overuse before you need to drive or attend a boring meeting.

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The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2006

This article is from The Wild Divine site.

The Freeze-Framer [from the Institute of HeartMath] is an interactive software program that displays your heart rhythms and shows you how stress may be affecting you.

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