Chaya Rao - Reflexology: The Ultimate Guide to Reflexology to Relieve Tension, Treat Illness, and Reduce Pain

Reflexology

The Essential Guide for Applying Reflexology to Relieve Tension, Eliminate Anxiety, Lose Weight, and Reduce Pain

Table of Contents

Reflexology is an alternative type of medicine, a form of healing which involves the application of pressure or the massaging of certain points on the hands, feet and often ears, usually without the use of oil, lotion or other lubricants. This is achieved with a few specific thumb, finger and hand techniques using a recently developed modern practice thats roots are ancient, with its origins being found in many diverse cultures.

It is very difficult to determine exactly where reflexology was first used and by whom, but the first known instance of if being recorded was found in the Egyptian tomb of Ankhamor dating about 2550-BC, in the form of a pictograph. The Physicians tomb also found in Egypt dating from about the same time shows hieroglyphics that have physicians applying pressure or massaging the feet or the soles of their patients using their hands or fingers. Another example, if early reference to reflexology, can be found in a chapter in The Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine, a Chinese medical text book written about 1,000-BC, titled Examining Foot Method that is about the connections between areas on the feet and a person's life force. Other Chinese medical texts, some dating as far back as 400 BC, touted the health benefits of stimulating the hands and feet with various forms of massage, ointments, and heat. Ayurveda, a vast body of medical knowledge that originated in India, practices a type of treatment similar to reflexology. The ancient Egyptians also used a form of reflexology as far back as 2300 BC. The aboriginals of Australia a culture that has not changed for thousands of years, estimated to have first evolved 60,000 years ago also practiced their own form of reflexology. Ancient cave paintings suggest foot massage was often used to treat ailments, they claim the teachings to do this came to their medicine men through their Dreamtime a type of meditation and spiritual trance reached through chanting, dancing, song and other rituals. There is evidence to suggest that the native peoples of North America who had an advance form of natural medicine also engaged in foot massage to cure various ailments.

The renowned Italian world traveler Marco Polo in the 1300s translated a Chinese book that mentioned several different forms of massage including foot massage. This introduced the theory of how different parts of the body could affect others for the first time into European medicine. Doctors Adamus and Atatis published their book called Zone Therapy in 1582 it is believed this is the first published European written account of what in later years would become modern reflexology Dr. Bell of Leipzig, Germany published another book on this subject about the same time.

The first time the word Reflexology was used was when it was made up by a Russian psychiatrist in the 1800s. Physicians in Russia and many Middle Eastern Countries were widely used the application of pressure or the massaging of certain points on the hands as well as different parts of the body including the ears and head to relieve pain, discomfort, general body tension as well as for its psychological benefits. Dr. Ivan Pavlov and Dr. Vladimir Bekhterev were pioneers in the early Russian research into reflex responses in the body and their benefits. Sir Henry Head a Medical Doctor and research Scientist demonstrated that there was a link between the skin and the other body organs in the 1890s.

In the 16 th century, Europe again began expanding its trade and military influence into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In doing so, European doctors started learning more about other forms of healing, and began incorporating a number of them into their growing repertoire of medical knowledge.

It was around this time that books were written in German and Hungarian about the topic of healing through hand and foot massage. Some of these were translated into the English language and become a fad in Britain, till they fell out of fashion due to ongoing medical advances.

Reflexology was nearly forgotten about in the English-speaking world until it was rediscovered at the turn of the last century by an ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr. William Hope Fitzgerald, he introduced it into the United States in 1913. In 1915, a Dr. Edwin F. Bowers wrote an article for Everybodys Magazine entitled To Stop That Toothache, Squeeze Your Toe.

Dr. Bowers claimed to have been studying the drug-less therapy of Dr. Fitzgerald, and praised his mentor for advancing medical science. Dr. Bowers, published a very well read articles in which he told everyone that by applying pressure to one part of the body, it was possible to ease the pain in another part. People tried Dr. Bowers recommendations, found that they worked, and Zone Therapy became an immediate hit.

Fitzgerald called the system Zone Therapy, because he believed the body has certain zones that connected organs to specific areas of the body. Two years later, he co-authored the best-selling book, Zone Therapy or Relieving Pain in the Home with Dr. Bowers and Dr. George S. White. The publishers couldnt keep up with the demand, however, so in 1919, they came up with an enlarged and updated edition called Zone Therapy or Curing Pain and Disease .

It is important to note that Dr. Fitzgerald was no snake oil salesman. He earned his medical degree in 1895 from the University of Vermont, and practiced medicine at the Boston City Hospital for several years before moving to Europe.

There, he continued his medical practice, first in London, and later, in Vienna, where he worked under Dr. dm Politzer and Dr. Otto Chiari, the leading medical experts of their day. Returning to America, Dr. Fitzgerald became a senior surgeon at the St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, and was an active member of several American medical societies.

Vienna was, and still is, a leading city for medical research, having given us the likes of Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, among others. It is therefore believed that Fitzgerald rediscovered the art of Zone Therapy during his stint in that city.

Dr. Fitzgerald had already published a number of treatises in various medical journals before portions of his work on Zone Therapy was published in Everybodys Magazine . Many doctors believed that his information had to be made accessible to everyone. None of them could have possibly foreseen how popular Dr. Fitzgeralds work would become, or what it would eventually lead to.

Other people took up and expanded on Dr. Fitzgeralds work, the most notable being Dr. Eunice Ingham, a trained Nurse as well as a physiotherapist. She devoted forty years of her life to the study and application of Zone Therapy, subjecting it to scientific experimentation, Dr. Ingham believed that a persons hands and feet were especially sensitive and each specific area on the hands and feet, had a direct connection with other parts of the body. Her working knowledge and experience lead her to map out what parts of the hands and feet correlate to different parts of the body, and develop the hand and foot diagrams that all Reflexologists still use today.

The first use of the word reflexology can be traced back to Dr. Ingham. She coined that term based on the bodys involuntary reflex responses to certain stimuli. The methods she pioneered as well as similar techniques and methods developed by another reflexologist Laura Norman are used by many of todays Reflexologists. DR. Inghams work was continued by her nephew, Dwight Byers, who set up the International Institute of Reflexology to preserve her work.

There is a large amount of controversy around many Alternative Medical techniques or health ideas. Conventional or mainstream medicine mostly refuses to accept just about all alternative forms of medicine and lobbies strongly for governments not to recognize these treatments, including reflexology. They demand that scientific evidence and physical proof be presented first, almost always refusing to accept anything outside their preferred idea of germ theory medicine and evasive practices. Despite the fact that huge numbers of people find comfort and relief using reflexology and other associated therapies that use a passive approach that considers that our body is a complete unit with all parts interconnected and working together, as well as being equipped and able to cure all ailments it would encounter in a natural world if we allowed our bodies to live naturally. Our body evolved using a wide range of naturally available foods in its hunter gather lifestyle; these foods not only nourished the body, but provided the raw materials needed for self-repair.