What is bioenergetics and why are you reading about it right now? You’ve probably stumbled upon the topic while looking for a less conventional solution for what ails you. But topics like bioenergetics can be confusing. We know that, so we’ll break the explanation of bioenergetics down to help you understand why it’s essential to our wellbeing.
Bioenergetics 101
Breaking down the term, we get: Bio: life, living. Energetics: the study of energy. And putting it together, we get: Bioenergetics is the study of energy in living things.
But before we move on, let’s put on a pair of curiosity glasses and consider a few things we usually take for granted:
- Why do plants need sunlight?
- Why do living things give off heat?
- Why do we need to eat?
And why are we asking these questions?! They’re all to do with the field of bioenergetics. Biochemists find answers to these and other similar questions by studying
- how energy is transformed and
- the efficiency of energy transfers between different organisms.
This is how they discovered that every living thing uses energy, but each uses it in different ways. For example, when plants use energy, they release oxygen as a waste product. Animals, on the other hand, require oxygen to survive. That’s why it’s so important that we have plants in our environment. They give us oxygen to breathe.
With that under our belt, let’s take a look at how bioenergetics work within our bodies. We’ll start with bioelectricity and bioimpedance.
Our bodies have electrical properties. They rely on electrical flow, or bioelectricity, to function. It may surprise you to learn that we can easily measure the flow of bioelectricity in our bodies.
How so? It’s done using the idea of bioimpedance. This measures how well your body impedes electric current flow. Practitioners measure it using a pair of electrodes to apply a small electric current to your skin and then pick up the resulting small voltage with another pair of electrodes.
This is a useful indication to professionals. They use bioimpedance analysis broadly in healthcare assessments, including body composition measurements and tissue health.
So – what happens if your internal electrical system gets clogged up? You get physically ill. That’s where bioenergetic therapy comes in.
Bioenergetic Therapy
Bioenergetic therapy stems from the theory that your physical and emotional health are connected –when one suffers, the other suffers. We all recognize that when we’re physically healthy, we’re better able to cope with stress and emotions. And if you’re emotionally healthy, your body is better able to function correctly.
For this reason, bioenergetic therapy aims to improve the flow of the body’s electricity in support of both emotional and physical issues. Acupuncture, too, is based on the same idea.
Both help clients release physical and emotional tension that may be causing problems. They can help people suffering from emotional issues like anxiety, depression, stress, anger, and trauma. And also help improve physical health.
Crucially, bioenergetic therapies help people heal on a cellular and energetic level.
Which is probably why you ended up here reading about bioenergetics to understand it better as a non-traditional possibility to help you!
At Intellbio, we have years of experience in bioenergetic therapy, so do get in touch for a discussion on how we can help.