It is a therapeutic technique that works with pressure principle in specific areas of the feet corresponding to organs, glands and structures of our body, aiming to send stimuli to specific areas of the Central Nervous System through the nervous bundles so that it activates natural mechanisms of balance of the areas corresponding physical

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The stimuli perceived by the peripheral nerves of the feet are transmitted by afferent nerve bundles, passing through the spine until reaching the brain where they activate neurological "programs" that aim to measure and restore the balance of the stimulated reflex areas.

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These "programs" are in direct contact with the organs, glands and physiological structures through nerve sensors. The monitoring programs, when alerted by the discomfort of a pain perceived by the stimulus in the reflex areas in the feet, send neurochemical signals of response, changing the dynamics of its functioning.

 

All of this is based on the information that we have a standard of health, but due to mental, emotional and environmental factors (sleep, food, fatigue, etc.) these programs end up not acting in an assertive way anymore.

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As a result of the stimuli, the programming will act in order to sedate or tone the affected organ, in this way, it is possible to tone what is sedated and to sedate what is overloaded. By analogy, it is the same thing that occurs with a car engine that, through use, starts to spend more fuel due to the injection system having become unbalanced and needs an adjustment to return to the equilibrium point.

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Over the course of a few sessions, homeostasis is adjusted to the correct health standard.

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Reflexology is not intended to diagnose any type of illness, and even less, it can replace a conventional treatment, but it can contribute a lot to the recovery of health and can also act directly in the treatment of emotional problems. It also helps the therapist and his interactor to understand the causes of the disease through the evaluation of signs that are registered in the feet (spots, lines, flaking, blisters, calluses, skin color, nail health and the alignment of the fingers) and the verification of pain sensitivity of reflex points related to various organs, glands and physiological structures.

 

The initial information collected by the anamnesis form about the patient's complaint (interacting) and the analysis of the signs verified on the feet help the therapist to ask questions, where the answers given will say a lot about the reasons why the symptoms addressed originated. Through this analysis, the therapist sets up a therapy aiming to treat the cause and not just the disease and mitigate its symptoms, being, therefore, very important for the restoration of health and, consequently, of emotional peace.

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Recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization), and now approved by the Brazilian Government, Foot Reflexology is a natural technique of integrative medicine, highly effective, non-invasive health treatment that restores the body's balance and promotes physical and emotional health , acting to relieve pain and symptoms originating from fibromyalgia, low back pain, sciatica, muscle spasms, Alzheimer's, stress, insomnia, depression, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, sweating, anxiety, constipation, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), syndrome of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis panic, among others.

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Academic studies :

Some neuroscience studies, using magnetic resonance imaging, are validating the information that the stimuli given in specific reflex areas in the feet activate the related areas in the brain. In a study conducted at Tohoku University, Japan it was found that the relationship between cortical activity in the brain and reflexological stimulation is consistent. Reflexological stimulation of the eye reflex area induced significant activity in the area of ​​face representation in the primary somatosensory cortex, as well as in the area of ​​representation of the contralateral foot of the post-central gyrus. This activity was not affected by pseudo-information, that is, even when the participant was warned that a stimulus would be performed in the reflex region of the eyes, but received stimulus in another reflex region, the region of the face in the somatosensory cortex did not show activities in the images of tomography. Thirty-two healthy Japanese volunteers participated in this study ( Ref1 ).

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To learn more, click here to watch the video [Reflexology] How the feet signal the state of our health .

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References:

( Ref1 ) Miura, N., Akitsuki, Y., Sekiguchi, A. et al. Activity in the primary somatosensory cortex induced by reflexological stimulation is unaffected by pseudo-information: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. BMC Complement Altern Med 13, 114 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-13-114

Published: 27 May 2013

Article link: https://rdcu.be/b4xCX

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