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EAST LANSING, Mich. – Researchers at Michigan State University are finding that many women who are receiving chemotherapy while in the late stages of breast cancer are turning to a complementary therapy known as reflexology to help them cope.In a pilot study, researchers from MSU’s College of Nursing tested three different complementary therapies – reflexology, guided imagery and reminiscence therapy, in which women recall times in their lives when they’ve met and overcome challenges. Of those three, reflexology proved to be the most effective.“Reflexology is the one people stuck with the most during the eight-week protocol,” said Gwen Wyatt, a professor in MSU’s College of Nursing who headed the project. “It’s also the one that had the most positive outcomes.”Women who are receiving chemotherapy for late-stage breast cancer face myriad physical and emotional issues. Reflexology – which is a specialized foot therapy that applies firm pressure to certain parts of the sole of the foot – helps women adjust better to their treatment. Reflexology can be used to support patients through treatment such as chemotherapy or for enhancing well-being for cancer-free individuals.“We see things like a decrease in depression and anxiety, and improvements in spirituality and emotional quality of life,” Wyatt said. “Overall, they have an improved quality of life.”
Reflexology and the Bald Eagle
A group of us attending a monthly Reflexology meeting nearly fell off our chairs when one of our members entered carrying
a cage holding a magnificent Bald Headed Eagle.
The Reflexologist was a volunteer working with rehabilitating injured wild animals at a nearby sanctuary. She told us this poor fellow had been severely injured and they were nursing him back to health at the sanctuary.
Her daily routine included Foot Reflexology on this bird of prey.
Well, not actually Foot Reflexology, let’s call it Talon Reflexology. She claimed this raptor looked forward to its daily stress relief sessions that appeared to help speed up its healing process.
Bet you’re wondering like the rest of us did. How do you perform Talon Reflexology on this beautiful animal? After all aren’t the talons hard and rough? I’m no expert on avian anatomy, but I have heard that the reason birds survive cold weather is that they have minimal nerve endings in their feet (talons) and legs. Perhaps so, and he still looked forward to his daily Reflexology and he was recovering nicely thank you.
Well, I guess Reflexology is going to the birds.
History of Ear Reflexology
Is Ear Reflexology new? No! It has a rich history that is much older than foot Reflexology. Foot Reflexology has more recently become accepted in China because of it’s long and very favourable responses to working with the Ears.
China
Acupuncture and acupressure are two of the most ancient methods of healing currently in use. The Nei Ching or Yellow 
Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine is the earliest known text on acupuncture. It is believed to have been written during the reign of Emperor Huang Ti between the years 2697 BC and 2596BC. In this book, 14 important channels within the human body were defined, 6 of which travel to or from the foot. All these channels link internal organs with sensitive points spreading over the skin. While this book mainly deals with acupuncture, there are also several paragraphs referring to massage. The ancients in China had in common with the ancient Arabs, Gypsies, Hindus and Europeans, the practice of needling a point on the lobule of the ear to treat eye troubles such as pinkeye, myopia and cataract.
In the latter cases, gold earrings were often prescribed and were deemed to provide a continuous stimulation of the visual centres in the brain. As a matter of fact, may modern European doctors still recommend gold or silver earrings to patients suffering from eye deficiencies. Gold is said to have a strengthening or tonifying effect (yang), while silver is said to have a sedating, or soothing effect (yin).
Hippocrates
Hippocrates a Greek physician of the 5th century BC, is referred to as the greatest physician in antiquity. Considered to be the father of modern medicine, his ability to make accurate clinical observations led him to the concept of preventative medicine.
We know that Hippocrates spent several years studying medicine in Egypt. Whether it is there that he learned of treating diseases by the ear, or whether it is an ancient Aryan heritage is a matter of speculation. However, four centuries before Christ, which may even be before the Nei Jing (Internal Classic of Chinese Medicine), mentioned above, Hippocrates speaks of a treatment to induce sterility in men by making a small incision behind the auricle. This intervention allowed a couple to have a normal sex life, but reduced the sperm content in the seminal fluid.
Europe
Moving to more recent times, for the past few centuries and even persisting to this time in France and Italy, Europeans have cauterized a point on the antihelix of the auricle to treat sciatica. The effectiveness of this cure when orthodox methods were not successful led various schools of medicine to look into the matter, resulting in a large number of related articles which have been published since the 17th century.
Modern Times
Modern Auricular Acupuncture or “auriculotherapy” is a very sophisticated scientific procedure, which owes much to the studies and research of Dr. Paul Nogier. In the late 1950s, Dr. Nogier, a French acupuncturist and neurosurgeon, was the first to explore the ear both scientifically and according to Chinese medical principles, and he has done much to revive this almost forgotten branch of Chinese medicine. He published his theories in 1972.
His discovery of the physiological links of the ear to the inverted foetus shape or human embryo sparked a wave of intensive research in China, leading to further developments in this fascinating field. To date the vast research undertaken in China has led to the discovery of approximately 200 points on the auricle itself, many of which differ from Dr. Nogier’s locations.
The modern practitioner of “auriculotherapy” uses a combination of Dr. Nogier’s theory and the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, which incorporates the use of meridians for the treatment and diagnoses. The popularity of this safe, simple method of treating the body is continuing to grow and become more precise and successful.
World Health Organization (WHO)
In 1982 the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to standardize the ear points. Together with the Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Association, a number of standard points were formulated. These International Standard Auricular Points (ISAP) of which there are 90, are grouped into four types.
- Group 1 – Sixty one Points Named after various anatomical parts of the body
- Group 2 – Twenty Points Named in Accordance with Auricular Anatomy
- Group 3 – Five Points Named in Accordance with Orthodox Medicine
- Group 4 – Four Points Named according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
The Universal College of Reflexology world class Ear Reflexology training program utilizes the WHO ISAP points.
Easier Births using Reflexology
By Gabriella Bering Liisberg, “Tidsskrift for Jordemodre”, No. 3, 1989.
Of 593 women who gave birth at Gentofte county hospital in 1988, 103 chose reflexology as an alternative to both pain killing drugs and to labor stimulating and inducing drugs.
Of sixty-eight women who chose reflexology with no analgesic drugs, sixty one( 89.71%) stated that reflexology had helped reduce pain,Read Full Article…
Reflexology & Kidney Stones
A few years ago, researchers at Glostrop hospital, Copenhagen, demonstrated that reflexology can help relieve the acute pain suffered by patients with kidney stones. 30 patients participated in the study and were divided equally into three groups: one group received reflexology treatment, one group received placebo treatment and the remaining groups were used as controls.
If no pain relief was experienced within 5 minutes, the treatment would end for analgesic medications, but those who experienced a benefit within 5 minutes, treatment was continued for a further 10 minutes. The results showed that 9 out of the 10 patients in the reflexology group experienced complete pain relief after the treatment which lasted for over an hour and in 5 of the patients pain was relieved for 4 hours.Read Full Article…
MRI Proves Reflex connections to Brain
Somatotopical relationships between cortical activity and reflex areas in reflexology: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
Nakamaru T, Miura N, *censored*ushima A, Kawashima R.
Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; Department of Functional Brain Imaging, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
We examined the somatotopical relationship between cortical activity and sensory stimulation of reflex areas in reflexology using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Three reflex areas on the left foot, relating to the eye, shoulder, and small intestine were stimulated during the experiment. A statistical analysis showed that reflexological stimulation of the foot reflex areas corresponding to the eye, shoulder, and small intestine activated not only the somatosensory areas corresponding to the foot, but also the somatosensory areas corresponding to the eye, shoulder, and small intestine or neighboring body parts.
Thus, the findings showed that reflexological stimulation induced a somatosensory process corresponding to the stimulated reflex area and that a neuroimaging approach can be used to examine the basis of reflexology effects.
PMID: 18938220 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]