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Ear Trivia

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The colour of an egg depends on the colour of the hens ear lobe! Hens with white ear lobes lay white eggs. Hens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs. Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshires and Plymouth Rock chickens lay brown eggs. White Leghorns and Brown Leghorns lay white eggs.

The average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows.

Cats have amazing hearing ability. A cat’s ear has 30 muscles that control the outer ear (by comparison, human ears only have six muscles). These muscles rotate 180 degrees, so the cat can hear in all directions without moving its head.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus.

When a Hawaiian woman wears a flower over her left ear, it means that she is not available

The smallest muscle in the body is located in the middle ear, the stapedius is a miniscule 1.27 millimeters in length. It controls the tiniest bone in the body, the stapes or stirrup bone. The stapes and two other bones conduct sound vibrations through the middle ear. The stapedius is innervated by the facial nerve (VII).

Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time.

Your ear bones are the smallest bones in your body.

The ear bones are named the hammer, anvil and stirrup. You can see that a trip to the blacksmith was probably a common occurrence for the person or people who originally named the bones!

Tinnitus is a condition where a person hears sounds that appear to come from inside the head. In many cases no cause can be identified, and the sounds can be so distracting they keep the sufferer awake at night.

Many animals have muscles which can move the outer ear, so ears can point in different directions. This ability is virtually non-existent in humans.

Sound can also be conducted to the inner ear through your skull and its contents. Usually you hear your own voice partly through your head like this and partly through the air, which is why your it may sound strange to you on a tape recording in which all the sound will have travelled through the air.

Hearing impaired people may be assisted by hearing dogs, which will usually have a brightly coloured collar and lead.

The ear also contains semi circular canals, structures which help us to balance.

Snakes lack a middle ear and so ‘hear’ by sensing vibrations along the ground.

Understanding Holographic Principles

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One common way of explaining How Reflexology Works is based on holograms. So what is a hologram and how does it work?

The Short Explanation
Holograms are made by exposing a piece of film to laser light, which is then scattered by the object being holographed. The film is also exposed to light coming directly from the laser (the reference beam). The two beams of light interfere when they reach the film because they have taken different paths and are no longer in phase with each other. The film simply records this interference pattern, which is the hologram. To reconstruct (view) the image, the hologram is illuminated by a beam of light, which is diffracted by the interference pattern on the film. This reproduces the original surface pattern of the object in three dimensions.

Holograms are truly 3D. Certain holograms permit one to walk all the way around the projected image and see it from above and below, as if the image were real. The other remarkable property of holograms is that one can cut away a small piece of the holographic film, hold it up to laser light, and still see an entire, intact, 3D image of the photographed object.

A hologram when viewed under the illumination of incoherent light such as the light from an incandescent light bulb reveals nothing. The observer sees only a smoky haze, the result of the laser-produced interference pattern.

If the holographic film is viewed with illumination from a source of coherent laser light, it reproduces the reference beam that helped to create the original interference pattern, and the object being photographed is revealed with all it’s 3D characteristics.

If a small piece of that holographic film is now cut a way and examined under the illumination of laser light, a smaller, yet intact, original object can be seen. The reason for this is the fact that the hologram is an energy interference pattern. Within this pattern, every piece contains the whole. That is, if one could take a hologram of an apple, cut the film into fifty pieces, then each piece when viewed through the laser light would reveal it’s own miniature apples.

So how does the holographic principle relate to the human body? See article Applying the Holographic Principle to the Human Body for details.

Reflexology & Asthma

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Research has revealed that asthmatic children have benefited from reflexology treatment. (1) Reflexology is certainly an appropriate non-invasive therapy to help this condition and there are many reports from therapists of asthmatic patients being helped through reflexology. This may be because reflexology helps ‘balance’ organs and tissues throughout the body and, acting through the nervous system, it can actually help strengthen and normalize the circulatory and respiratory system. In this way, it can help activate the body’s own healing force to strengthen lung and bronchial tissue.

(1) [Foot zone therapy and bronchial asthma–a controlled clinical trial] Fodzoneterapi og asthma bronchiale–en klinisk kontrolleret undersogelse.
Petersen LN; Faurschou P; Olsen OT; Svendsen UG
Lungemedicinsk/allergologisk afdeling Y, Kobenhavns Amts Sygehus i Gentofte. Ugeskr Laeger Jul 20 1992, 154 (30) p2065-8

Indigestion

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Each month the UCR newsletter discusses a new disease or condition. These items are reproduced here for reference purposes.

Definition: Heartburn, gas or belching, mild nausea, vomiting, pain or discomfort in the upper part of the abdomen or in the lower part of the chest. Also called dyspepsia.

Possible causes: Gastritis, peptic ulcer, hiatus hernia, stomach cancer, gall bladder or pancreatic disorders, heart failure and diabetes. There is also nervous dyspepsia in which indigestion is brought on by psychological or emotional causes e.g. worry, anxiety, being highly-strung, tense or excitable.

General Signs & Symptoms: Pain in the abdomen, tension, heartburn, flatulence, sweating, weakness, palpitations and insomnia.

Primary Reflexology Target Areas: Stomach

Reflexology Areas of Assistance: Diaphragm (organic), Solar plexus (neural), Liver (organic) Thoracic spine (neural)

Holistic Advice: Avoid tea, coffee, spices, pepper, fizzy drinks, fatty foods. Avoid smoking, especially before eating. Drinking herbal teas of chamomile, fennel and peppermint can help. Relax after eating. Exercise diverts blood from the stomach, making digestion less efficient. If you frequently chew gum, stop for a while to see if your symptoms dissipate. It is common to swallow air when chewing gum, which can cause indigestion.

Extracted from the Master Reflexology Degree Diploma program part of the Universal College of  Reflexology’s continuing education program.  For more details click here.

Reflexology & Cerebral Palsy – a Case Study

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One of our Australian students emailed me that she was volunteering with special needs kids – this email inspired me to write the following article.

Several years ago in my West Vancouver, British Columbia clinic I experienced my first client with Cerebral Palsy (the British Columbia Association of Cerebral Palsy explains that CP is a term used to describe a group of disorders affecting body movement and muscle coordination developed during pregnancy, at birth or for up to three years following birth).

A lady phoned requesting weekly appointments for her twelve year old son, lets call him “Jimmy”.

He presented with difficulty in walking, severe speech impediments, and severe hearing difficulties coupled with involuntary muscle movements (spastic) and as with many kids a very limited attention span. He was relatively pleasant and surprisingly ready for a treatment. His mom stated she was incredibly stressed, a single mom with no support, a full time job and a lack of financial means. She appeared weary, drawn and exhausted but declined a treatment.

I requested Mom remain in the room during the treatment. Jimmy was wide-eyed and showed interest in the Reflexology wall charts.

He enjoyed playing and following me with a foot model. The session was short, primarily lots of gentle relaxations combined with thumb-walking techniques applied intermittently. Jimmy fidgeted occasionally, but was generally calm and relaxed and happy. Following the session and subsequent sessions I gave Jimmy a pack of baseball cards to open and keep.

A few days later Jimmy’s mom advised that he enjoyed the session, loved the cards and could hardly wait to return.

Thereafter Jimmy arrived with a case-worker as mom was at work. The case-worker advised he had to stay in the room for legal reasons. Jimmy’s mood was miserable. He was angry, yelled at the case-worker who simply ignored him and read a book during the treatment. I advised the mother of the stresses Jimmy had with the case-worker.

This situation was unacceptable and thereafter I arranged for the case-worker to be present albeit in the doorway out of sight. For the most part the working conditions improved with this change, but Jimmy was unhappy to be in the presence of the case-worker. It was obvious that Jimmy’s health had little if any improvement following several treatments. Finally, on what was to become the last session with the case-worker present, Jimmy became hostile insisting the case-worker leave the premises immediately. To continue was impossible and I sent them both home.

I explained to Jimmy’s mom that to continue was simply too stressful for Jimmy as long as the co-worker was present. I suggested she bring Jimmy in on her next day off.

Lauren Slade, founder of Universal College of Reflexology happened to join me in my clinic that day. I advised Jimmy’s mom that we were very lucky to have a world-renowned Reflexologist here today and she agreed for Lauren to join us. Lauren and I suggested she get up on the table for some stress relief following Jimmy’s appointment. She agreed. First we worked with Jimmy and it was a wonderful and miraculous Reflexology session. Lauren purposely softly whispered to him while working his feet, incredibly he responded and he heard every word she said – remember he was diagnosed with a severe and chronic hearing problem! His mom and I had never seen him respond to whispers before.

We worked on his mom next. She became extremely emotional – you can only imagine the incredible stresses this lady had been under for all of these years. Mountains were moved that day and the session ended with a sense of calm and well-being. Before leaving we taught both of them techniques that they could use on each other. This was their last session.

Several weeks later Jimmy’s mom called. She cried tears of joy when she told me how much better they both were. She said you have no idea how you have changed our lives. She thanked me from the bottom of her heart, and I remembered all over again why I do this work with the wonderful healing art and science that is known as Reflexology!

Jack Marriott CMR
Certified Master Reflexologist

Has Reflexology an Effect on Infertility?

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By Leila Ericksen, FDZ Research Committee, Denmark

To determine the effect of reflexology on infertility 108 women under 35 years with no previous children, and that had attempted to become pregnant for more than two years were selected from 260 applicants. Forty-seven of the 108 withdrew. The remaining 61 women were given sixteen 45 minute reflexology treatments over a 7 – 8 month period. Treatments were given 2 times a week for 4 weeks, then 2 treatments before ovulation. Nine women (15%) became pregnant within six months after starting treatment. Of two thirds of the women who had menstruation problems 77% experienced an appreciable improvement, with the majority totally getting rid of the problems.

Three quarters of all the women reported improvements in other ailments such as: muscle tensions, psychic imbalances, indigestion, poor circulation and general imbalance.