Happy New Year 2012!

Best wished for 2012 from the bottom of my heart. I hope this year will bring you all joy and harmony, health and serenity, success and achievements. The best way to start the year is to treat yourself to a foot reflexology session. If you can do it yourself, then repeat the relaxing experience as often as you like.

Even if you don't suffer from the flu or other winter bugs, there's nothing better than to sit down and be pampered for an hour.


Well, I know, working on some reflexology pressure points won't bring a smile to your face but it's all worth it.

 And if you're feeling generous, why not make another person happy by offering a reflexology gift voucher.

Have you made any resolutions for the New Year? Well, I've decided to spread the word about reflexology to a wider audience than before so recommended this site to your friends!!

Reflexology and Cellulite

Summer is already here and I hear many women cursing their thights and buttocks: That horrible cellulite is still here!!! How can I get rid of it?

Well, I don't think there are any miracle cure to get rid of cellulite within 24 hours but it is worth trying reflexology to flush out the toxin and help the body eliminate faster.

First some facts:

Cellulite usually depends on both genetic and hormonal factors. It’s said to worsen with such things as altered blood circulation, incorrect eating habits, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking and excessive alcohol, high heels and tight garments. 90% of women have been said to confront cellulite, which increases as women age and their skin thins. So we are pretty doomed unless extremely lucky!
Cellulite is not a medical term, but is the name given by the French. Not my fault, I can assure you! For those 10% of women that have never seen cellulite, it describes a skin condition with dimply, orange-peel look above the fat on hips, thighs and buttocks. It results from compressed and stagnant plasma and lymph accumulating in surface adipose (fatty) tissues. In other words,

So how can reflexology help?

Reflexology can assist in reducing cellulite by working on the lymphatic system and digestive system. The session will activate the blood and lymphatic flow hence flushing out accumulated toxins. In the same way, by stimulating the digestive system, it will help get rid of unwanted fats.

Have a look at this short video to see some of the moves for the lympathic system. The digestive system is quite complicated for the untrained person, so it would be better to look at a book if you want to try it out at home.
Reflexology therapy is useful for thousands of problems or illnesses so if you have not undergone training yet, you should do so and treat yourself to a relaxing time!

Foot reflexology and Pregnancy

This is a message for pregnant women who want to try reflexology to ease the strain and pain of pregnancy.

Despite what you might read in papers, pregnant women can benefit from reflexology treatment. You can start the treatment from the end of the third month right until the birth. Once or twice a month is the recommended rate of visits but if you love it, you can have weekly sessions.

Pregnancy can be a wonderful time for the future mum, surrounded by loved ones, pampered by the future dad, blessed with childbearing wish, delighted to become a mum. However, pregnancy can also be a source of stress, discomforts and health problems: how to become a perfect mother, adjusting to body and hormonal changes, sleep disorders, heartburns, backaches, heavy legs, etc...

Foot reflexology brings many benefits for the future mum and can be of enormous support, in particular, it gets rid of stress and tensions, brings about deep relaxation, can regulate and improve blood circulation, eases backaches, provides a state of well-being during pregnancy and helps the mum to be more attentive to her baby. Reflexology can also be helpful in labour and delivery, some midwifes are using the treatment for pain relief during labour.

Foot reflexology is a natural holistic therapy which has been around for a long time, in various forms. It is mainly a preventive therapy which also helps chronic disorders. With foot reflexology, you can restore mental and physical equilibrium, eliminate toxins and disperse negative energies such as stress. 

It should be made clear that reflexology is not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions, and is not a replacement for conventional medical practice. In particular, you should consult your GP if you are at risk of pre-eclampsia or diabetism.

Reflexology therapists will often specialise or do extra training to deal with pregnant women. If in doubt, you should ask the therapist if he/she has received advanced training in this field, or has experience in treating pregnant women.

Reflexology and Cancer

Reflexology students are often told in training, do not treat any patients with cancer!
However, there are ongoing studies within hospitals which show the benefit of reflexology on these patients. Obviously, no claim to cure cancer, but a decrease in pain, anxiety, nausea. For a weak person, this relief is certainly well appreciated. So new trainees should be shown how to treat these patients with care. Also, the treatment should be adapted to the stage of the cancer and the state of the patient.

Read on these articles I found on the web and give your comments.

Article published on the NCBI in 2007
Partner-delivered reflexology: effects on cancer pain and anxiety.

Stephenson NL, Swanson M, Dalton J, Keefe FJ, Engelke M.
School of Nursing, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA. stephensonn@mail.ecu.edu
PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To compare the effects of partner-delivered foot reflexology and usual care plus attention on patients' perceived pain and anxiety.
DESIGN: The experimental pretest/post-test design included patient-partner dyads randomly assigned to an experimental or control group.
SETTING: Four hospitals in the southeastern United States.
SAMPLE: 42 experimental and 44 control subjects comprised 86 dyads of patients with metastatic cancer and their partners, representing 16 different types of cancer; 23% of patients had lung cancer, followed by breast, colorectal, and head and neck cancer and lymphoma. The subjects had a mean age of 58.3 years, 51% were female, 66% had a high school education or less, and 58% were Caucasian, 40% were African American, and 1% were Filipino.
METHODS: The intervention included a 15- to 30-minute teaching session on foot reflexology to the partner by a certified reflexologist, an optional 15- to 30-minute foot reflexology session for the partner, and a 30-minute, partner-delivered foot reflexology intervention for the patient. The control group received a 30-minute reading session from their partners. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Pain and anxiety.
FINDINGS: Following the initial partner-delivered foot reflexology, patients experienced a significant decrease in pain intensity and anxiety.
CONCLUSIONS: A nurse reflexologist taught partners how to perform reflexology on patients with metastatic cancer pain in the hospital, resulting in an immediate decrease in pain intensity and anxiety; minimal changes were seen in the control group, who received usual care plus attention.
IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Hospitals could have qualified professionals offer reflexology as a complementary therapy and teach interested partners the modality.


Another article related to cancer and reflexology

[The effects of foot reflexology on nausea, vomiting and fatigue of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy]

[Original article in Korean]

Yang JH.
Department of Nursing, Inje University, Pusan, Korea. jhyang@inje.ac.kr
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of foot reflexology on nausea, vomiting and fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
METHOD: The research was a quasi-experimental study using a non-equivalent pre-post design and was conducted from Jan. 26, to Mar. 20, 2004. The subjects consisted of 34 patients with 18 in the experimental group and 16 in control group. A pretest and 2 posttests were conducted to measure nausea, vomiting and fatigue. For the experimental group, foot reflexology, which was consisted of 4 phases for 40 minutes, was given by a researcher and 4 research assistants. The collected data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA using the SPSS WIN 10.0 program.
RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decrease in nausea, and vomiting in the experimental group compared to the control group over two different times. In addition, there was a statistically significant decrease in fatigue in the experimental group compared to the control group over two different times.
CONCLUSION: Foot reflexology was effective on nausea, vomiting and fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in this study. Therefore, foot reflexology can be usefully utilized as a nursing intervention in the field of cancer nursing for breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

How to do the Thumb Walk

Thumb walking is one of the most important techniques of reflexology. It's hard to achieve a good thumb walk without seeing an experienced therapist perform this. Also it seems to differ from one country to another! So I have found an extract from Teresa Rich's video (UK) to share with you. It is similar to the technique I use in France and illustrates it quite well on the shoulder area.

This thumb or caterpillar walk enables the therapist to feel any toxin deposits, cristals or jelly-like areas on the foot which indicates a sensitive organ or disorder. At the same time the forward movement pushes these deposits so they can be eliminated.

Notice that the nails are kept short and tidy so they don't dig into the patient's foot. No need to add displeasure to the reflexology session!

Unusual Reflexology Chart

There are many foot reflexology charts out there but I had never seen one quite like this one. I like the "realistic" drawing of the organs. It's helpful for students as they can immediately identify the reflex area corresponding to the organ, they don't need to refer to a list with numbers. It is somewhat different from Bayly's, Byer's or Kunz's versions to name a few and it does not seen to contain all the organs and glands. Nevertheless I like its looks and the fact that it is unusual.

For information, I've found it on a site about Bali (http://blog.baliwww.com/guides/609/). Apparently reflexology massage is becoming very popular with tourists to that area. I don't know how it compares with the Western reflexology we practice here, I would like to find out more so post a comment if you have done any comparative study.

Reflexology and Insomnia

Foot reflexology is effective in the improvement of many health conditions but is it useful for insomnia?

First what is insomnia? Well, if you are reading this article at 3 am instead of sleeping, you could be suffering from insomnia!
In fact, there are many types of insomnia and therefore various symptoms such as difficulty to fall asleep, not staying asleep, waking up frequently during the night, waking up early in the morning feeling exhausted...

Our sleep is divided in cycles. The REM cycle corresponds to active sleep, it's the period during which we make those strange vivid dreams. Sufficient REM sleep is crucial for memory storage, retention, learning and emotional balance. Therefore sleep deprivation can have devastating effects for the sufferer as insomnia reduces concentration, coordination, creates fatigue, irritability, stress and headaches.

Insomnia can occur in children as well as adults. Since sleep patterns changes with age, old people tend to need less sleep at night so they might believe that they suffer from insomnia when actually they don't.

Insomnia is not a disease but a symptom which can be due to stress, anxiety, physical problems, medication. Depression is actually recognised as one of the main causes of insomnia. In fact counseling would be the most effective treatment for depression in addition to or instead of medication. The same applies to stress related insomnia, the cause of stress needs to be addressed in order to cure insomnia.

Also insomnia can be caused by too much drinking, high caffeine intake, drug use, irregular sleep-wake cycle, shift working, jet lag, partner's snoring, financial or emotional problems. If this is to be temporary, eliminating the causes via a re-adjustment in one's life would solve the problem although this is not always easy to achieve. Many sufferers don't want to rely solely on drugs to deal with insomnia so they turn to alternative holistics treatments such as reflexology.

As far as I know there are no proven scientific link between reflexology treatment and insomnia improvement. Studies have been carried out on this topic but they don't always follow the scientific study rules to be recognised. However any reflexologist can vouch for the benefits of reflexology treatment in case of insomnia and will have many cases to back this.

Reflexology treatment on patients suffering from temporary or chronic insomnia can help them relax and cope better with stress. Reflexology cannot get rid of external causes but it can help the patient get a better rest at night. Most patients will find the treatment useful in improving their sleep patterns with longer sleep cycles, less interrupted sleep and deeper sleep. Since reflexology aims at restoring balance in the body and mind and freeing the flow of energy, it can have a beneficial impact on insomnia sufferers who suffer from imbalance in this area.

The treatment should last at least 6 sessions to see if it has any impact. The reflexes to be specifically worked on are the brain, solar plexus, spine, respiratory and circulatory systems.

When applying pressure to the solar plexus, use breathing exercice to enhance the relaxation effect. As you press on the reflex point, ask the patient to breathe in and as you release the pressure, tell him to exhale.

Each reflex point or zones should be worked on several times to help with relaxation and sleep disorders.

If you have any further information regarding this topic, leave a comment.

Reflexology and Acne

I've found an amazing article about treating skin disorders with reflexology. In particular this article gives great details of a case study involving a young woman with acne.

This article was written by Beryl Crane who is the founder and director of the Crane School of Reflexology, a Fellow of the Reflexologists' Society and a Fellow of the Association of Reflexologists.

Beryl Crane explains that eczema, acne and many other skin disorders are often the result of a malfunction in the internal organs. This imbalance can be made worse by poor eating habits.

So her treatment focuses on working the reflex points for liver, adrenal gland and kidneys. She also stimulates the endocrine system and calms down the sympathetic nerves. In addition she recommends a diet to change incorrect eating habits which exacerbate skin disorders.

If you are interested, read her article
http://www.positivehealth.com/article-view.php?articleid=288

Foot Reflexology Treatment for Sinus Infections

Many people suffer from terrible sinus pains. Reflexology can help this ailment and act as a preventive treatment.
The feet are the mirror image of the body, so the reflex points for sinuses are also found on the feet. In fact, they are on both feet at the tip of the toes, on the opposite side of the nails (yellow points on the picture). By pressing or massaging the fleshy part of each toe for 20 seconds, you can relieve the pain and breath better. Do this everyday as well as your usual sinus treatment.

If you suffer from sinus infections or sinusitis, check out this site which contains many articles on the subject:
http://www.postnasaldrip.net/index.htm

Topic 1- Post Nasal Drip/Sinus Infection/Sinusitis/Sinus Headache articles
Topic 2- Post Nasal Drip and Bad Breath
Topic 3- Sinus Operations
Topic 4- Sinus Related Book Reviews
Topic 5- Sinus Success Stories
Topic 6- Articles from Top ENT's
Topic 7- Sinus Irrigation and Treatment
Topic 8- Miscellaneous Sinus Articles
Topic 9- RSS Feed of Recent Articles from MedicineNet

How does Foot Reflexology work?

Reflexology is a holistic complementary therapy which helps balance the body and stimulate the body's own natural healing abilities. Reflexology does not claim to diagnose illnesses and it can be used safely alongside conventional medicine. Reflexology not only treats the symptoms but also the causes of the disorder to restore the body's natural harmony and equilibrium.

There are about 7200 nerve endings in the feet. These have interconnections through the spinal cord and brain with all parts of the body. The feet are the mirror of the body, each organ is represented on the foot. Some organs are found on both feet, for example the lungs, whereas others are on one foot only, for example the spleen is on the left foot. By stimulating a reflex area on the feet, balance is restored in the corresponding part or organ.

Foot reflexology also works on a system of energy zones throughout the body ending in the feet. It is possible to detect dysfunctions in these energy zones and to correct the flow of energy within the zone by applying pressure on the reflex areas. Foot reflexology unblocks energy flows and increases blood circulation, thus helping to restore health and equilibrium. Indeed, reflexology creates a deep state of relaxation and it releases stress and tension from the body.
Indeed, the first immediate effect after a session is a reduction in stress levels as Reflexology relaxes the mind, body and spirit.

Reflexology is ideal to ease most disorders such as headaches, breathing disorders, asthma, migraine, hormonal imbalances, menstrual problems and stress. The number of treatments required depends on the patient and the problem. Reflexology also acts as preventive medecine, so it is advisable to have regular treatments.

Self treatment is possible although it is easier on the hands rather than the feet.
Learn how to use it for you and your family !

When you discover the benefits of foot reflexology for relaxation, you will want to use it at home. In fact reflexology should be part of everyday life within a family, as a means to comfort, bond, and communicate with each other. Everyone can benefit from it - young or old.