
Reflexology Massage – What Is It?
Reflexology Massage, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medicine technique in which massaging, stroking, squeezing, pressing, rubbing, and pushing on very specific areas of the feet, hands, and ears is used to promote or stimulate beneficial effects to other corresponding parts of the body (remotely accessed, via the nerve network of the body) such as the vital internal organs (heart, liver, brain, stomach, bladder, sinuses, spleen, gall bladder, pituitary gland, adrenal gland, pancreas, kidneys, and more).
The goal is to improve the subject’s mental and physical wellbeing in ways that are not normally achieved due to limited access to those organs or body parts.
Reflexology Massage, according to the American Association of Reflexologists, improves blood circulation, detoxifies metabolic wastes, reduces tension, and helps the body heal itself. Reflexology Massage is also said to help with back pain, migraines, infertility, arthritis, and a slew of other mental and physical issues, according to the Association.
Because targeted studies and research on the effectiveness of Reflexology Massage have failed to achieve solid clinical conclusions, many medical professionals of the mainstream Western Medicine persuasion have frequently expressed worries that belief in the practice could dangerously delay treatment of potentially significant health disorders.
They’ve even gone so far as to term reflexology’s claim to maneuver energy (gi) as pseudoscientific, claiming that there is no scientific proof for life energy, crystalline structures, or routes in the human body. Those same medical critics and others (usually supported by Big Pharma and other critics of the centuries-old practice of Reflexology) in the United States are critical of the lack of medical training and its short duration.
They also criticize the lack of a centralized accreditation and licensing system for Reflexology Massage professionals. That being said, most countries require that those who desire to practice Reflexology become fully trained and certified medical practitioners with a solid understanding of anatomy and physiology. This includes various European nations, including Switzerland.
Reflexologists, on the other hand, argue that the human body includes an invisible energy field known as the life force or the gi, and that a blockage or obstruction of this life force prevents or delays the body’s natural predisposition toward self-healing and improved health and wellness. In the end it comes down to, for many, science vs. medicine, as perceived and practiced for thousands of years in Asian countries – for many, with astounding, health-furthering results.
In 1913, ear, nose, and throat physician Dr. William H. Fitzgerald and his partner Dr. Edwin Bowers are credited with being the first to introduce reflexology to the United States. Drs. Fitzgerald and Bowers stated that applying pressure to specific areas of the body produces analgesic and anesthetic effects in other sections of the body, referring to their idea as “zone treatment.”
Eunice D. Ingham, a nurse and physiotherapist, said that the hands and feet are especially susceptible, as her studies and practice in the 1930s and 1940s showed, and went on to diagram the entire body into corresponding impulse or “reflex spots” on the feet. Ingham’s recorded reflexes are still used today, and he later went on to alter the term “zone therapy” to “reflexology” or “reflexology massage, which is now widely used worldwide.”
In our opinion, it is less crucial, scientifically, whether Reflexology Massage achieves the exact effects it claims to achieve (and which are to some degree still non-discernable). One of the most significant points made here, is that a strong hand and foot massage feels so nice, especially after a long day at work, that it MUST be therapeutic in some way. If this were not so, then those tens of thousands who flock to massage centers across the USA, which help bring relief to pain and stress, would be clearly avoided by those same people!
However, it appears that quite the opposite is true, and that these visits support the fact that Reflexology does indeed calm the body, mind and spirit.
To schedule YOUR next massage, visit us here:
Vancouver Massage Center
3021 NE 72nd Drive, Suite 5,
Vancouver, WA 98661
Phone: 360-869-0212