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Reflexology & Back Pain

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A study conducted at the Hospital of Beijing College of Languages investigated the effect of reflexology treatment on acute lower back pain. Twenty patients between the ages of 35 and 55, all of whom were teachers or office workers, and suffering from lower back strain participated in the study.

The reflex points on the patients’ feet were treated for a maximum of ten treatments and the results analyzed. All of the patients reported that the treatment had effectively eliminated their pain; 5 of the patients obtained complete relief after only one treatment, 10 after 3 to 4 treatments and a further 5 after 5 to 7 treatments. No analgesics or other medications were used throughout the course of treatments.

Although a small scale study, it adds to the growing body of evidence confirming that reflexology has extensive therapeutic value beyond the realms of mere relaxation and stress management.

– Xiao Zhenge, Hospital of Beijing College of Languages

 

Reflexology in the workplace

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Research Studies of the Benefits of Employing Reflexology in the Workplace

Here is a selection of Reflexology Research projects all related to the workplace.

 

  1. STAFF STUDY SEEN WITHIN WORCESTER HOSPITALS.
    By Anne Jordan, First European Conference.
    Twenty-eight subjects (22 females & 6 males, aged 22 to 66 years) were reported on in this study. Subjects received one 40-minute reflexology session per week for six weeks. Response to reflexology was measured after each session on several parameters including: pain, mobility, lassitude and psychological stress.All subjects reported some improvement after six sessions, with significant improvement being reported by: 74% of the 23 subjects experiencing pain, 53% of subjects concerned about mobility, 62.5% of subjects concerned with lassitude, and, 55% of subjects concerned with psychological stress. It is concluded that reflexology is a cost effective treatment for companies and institutions concerned about absenteeism and sick leave.
  2. MUNICIPAL REFLEXOLOGY
    By Leila Ericksen, The FDZ Research Council
    This paper reports that employment of a reflexologist by Ishoj Health Department to serve 57 home helpers resulted in 2,499 less sick hour leaves in a six month period – compared to the same period the prior year. This was calculated to correspond to a savings of DKK 214,914 (approximately U.S.,000). The number of reflexology treatments during this six-month period was 863. The reflexologist was subsequently permanently employed.
  3. A CLOSE UP VIEW ON COMPANY REFLEXOLOGY! – AN ANONYMOUS USER SURVEY
    By Leila Ericksen, The FDZ Research Council
    Telecom Taastrup hired a reflexologist 3 days a week for it’s 7-800 employees. In this survey 156 employees, who had received a total of 1025 reflexology treatments during a one-year period, were sent a questionnaire. The return rate was 75% or 116: 87 from women, 19 from men, 10 blank. Treatments had been for back pain, muscle tension, headache/migraine, and stomach/intestinal problems (60%) a further 20% for common problems related to movement. 56% responses indicated that the reflexology treatments helped. 29% indicated that the reflexology provided partial help. The remainder of respondents indicated that the reflexology treatments did not help (7.5%) ,or, that they did not know (7.5%). In addition, 40% indicated that the reflexology treatments received had reduced their number of sick days. It was concluded that there was a direct economical benefit as well as increased well being and productivity of the employees.
  4. COMPANY REFLEXOLOGY
    By Jonna Nielsen, Danish Reflexologists Association.
    This paper summarized the reports from Ishoj Heath Department and Telecom Taastrup.
  5. POSTAL REFLEXOLOGY – EXCERPT OF THE ODENSE REPORT NOVEMBER 1993
    By Synnove Madsen and Jette Andersen
    This report presents the effects during a 3 year period of employment of a reflexologist by the postal district of Odense which has 1450 employees. A total of 235 employees, 142 women and 93 men, received reflexology treatments. 72% (170) employees reported a good effect, 26% (60) employees reported some effect, and 2% (5) reported no effect.. During the 3-year period the average number of sick days per employee per year is shown to decrease from 11.4 days to 8.5 days. It is estimated that this decrease in sick days saved expenses of DKK 1 million (Approximately 110,000 pounds sterling).

Doctor doesn’t always know best

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Source Daily Telegraph
By Dr James LeFanu (Filed: 28/05/2006)

Complementary therapies can certainly be pretty half baked, both in theory and practice, or as a group of “prominent doctors” put it earlier this week in refreshingly robust prose: “unproven treatments of no demonstrable benefit”. And while they conceded it was important to keep an open mind (“we must remain open to new discoveries”), it should not be so open that our brains fall out.

Fair enough, but the view from the coalface of the doctor’s surgery is rather different, where it is not unusual to encounter patients who insist that they have been much helped by homeopathy or acupuncture or whatever.

What is more, most family doctors over the past 20 years, have incorporated several principles of alternative medicine into their own practice – the first and most important being that there is not necessarily “a pill for every ill”.

The singular virtue of “the alternatives” is that its practitioners are not permitted to prescribe drugs, so must resort to non-pharmacological means of treatment.

Thus, whereas the family doctor will hand out the standard regime of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs for their patients with acute back pain, they would acknowledge that osteopaths and chiropractors can do a lot better: correcting the underlining defect in the vertebral column with a vigorous clunk-click of spinal manipulation.

It is a similar story with gut disorders, such as irritable bowel, long dismissed as psychosomatic by orthodox medicine, whose standard therapies of anti-depressants and a high fibre diet not infrequently compound the symptoms of abdominal discomfort and bowel disturbance.

Now, family doctors hopefully know better, recognising – as naturopaths and others have long maintained – that the cause may well be intolerance to some food or other where a change of diet can bring near instantaneous relief.

The complementary therapies have the further virtue of being a cautionary reminder that Western science does not have all the answers.

How can it be that twiddling an acupuncture needle between the toes can cure a migraine headache – an effect that so clearly defies any physiological or anatomical explanation?

And then, of course, they have the opportunity to practise “old-fashioned” medicine, talking and listening to their patients, rather than staring at the computer screen on their desks.

From all of which, one might reasonably conclude that those “prominent doctors” might usefully take to heart the Biblical admonition about motes and beams.