Without question the notion of utilizing the feet for medical diagnosis and/or treatment is nowhere near new. The ancient Egyptians, Indians, and Chinese therapeutically worked with the feet, as did (evidently) the Inca, Maya, and Japanese later on [1]. And some form of zone therapy has been practiced in Europe for the last few hundred years.
It is commonly stated that each foot houses approximately 7,200 nerve endings which possess correspondence with components throughout the body [2]. Even though a reflexology treatment can have some overlap with acupressure and periosteal massage, reflexology or zone therapy exists as a distinct modality. Reflexology seeks to bring balance and harmony to the body through stimulation of reflex areas, improving blood circulation and neural flow, the releasing of inappropriate tension, and the breaking up or releasing of crystalline deposits in the feet (commonly purported to be calcium or uric acid crystals) [3]. We know that modern reflexology can shift autonomic outflow to a state of parasympathetic dominance, increasing vagal tone and heart rate variability [4]. Furthermore, specific improvements in organ perfusion as a result of reflexology treatment to corresponding reflex areas upon the feet have been empirically demonstrated [5] [6]. However, we have to move beyond mechanical biochemistry to understand the composite mechanism through which reflexology works, as well as how the human body truly functions at large. The universe is not a sea of mostly empty space, and the physical body is not a bag of water housing a gamut of randomly colliding molecules. There are multiple layers to the reality of the body, some of which lie within the parameters of classical electromagnetic fields, others lie beyond in the realm of nonclassical quantum fields. Conventional medicine refutes the validity of energy medicine modalities because of its enslavement to the incorrect and vastly inadequate arena of Newtonian physics. But ask any practitioner of energy medicine and they will assure you that the foolishness and ignorance of traditional academia have been of no impedance to the success they've experienced in improving the health of their clients. Morphogenetic fields, biophotonic fields, and endogenous electromagnetic fields have been well described in the research literature, but the term 'biofield,' even though its definition varies, is arguably more well known in the reflexology community. The biofield can be viewed as a conglomerate integrator of the body's physiological processes, but psychological and emotional stressors or imprints can disrupt the biofield's role and promote imbalance or disease [7]. Such stressors or imprints may be accessed through particular reflex areas or zones upon the feet for the biofield can be said to holographically link the elements of the body [8]. The human body has been defined as a quantum system comprised of quantum domains which can generate and respond to potential and nonclassical fields [9]. The biofield then, is a global and holographic lattice of quantum domains which store and transmit information throughout the body [10]. Nonclassical fields can mediate the transfer of information between two quantum systems (like a zone therapist and his or her client), and through the biofield higher-dimensional or "inner" blueprint- or template-level information can be cascaded into the pattern of the physical body so that healing or realignment with the body's blueprint can be induced [11]. It's also important to understand that the body's 'living matrix' or network of crystalline, semiconducting connective tissues provides a physical means for the instantaneous delivery of energetic interventions (like reflexology) to every cell in the body [12]. Again, hormones, neurotransmitters, and neural impulses are not the only communication mediums available to the physical form. Accordingly, when a reflexologist touches his or her client's feet, he or she touches their entire body. Also note that the simple intention employed by a zone therapist can improve the harmony of the client's resonance, nudging the client's body toward system-wide balance [13]. We know that illness may present itself within the biofield long before its concrete, physical manifestation, and as Dr. Valerie V. Hunt has proclaimed, "All diseases are caused by a break in the flow or a disturbance in the human energy field" [14] [15]. So, no longer can zone therapy or reflexology be delegated to the fringe of unsubstantiated medical therapies by anyone. If someone doesn't believe you when you tell them that zone therapy is an incontrovertibly valid system of healing that has been exhaustingly vindicated in the medical literature, tell them they have some research to do. Have an excellent weekend. P.S. There's some more to the story behind the scientific basis of Foot Zone Therapy, but I'd like to keep that material exclusive for the students of Vanguard Health and Fitness's certification program. I just thought this short article might be of some use to those who'd like to communicate reflexology's legitimacy to other medical professionals. References:
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AuthorDenton Coleman is an Exercise Physiologist and Medical Researcher. Archives
October 2023
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