Going barefoot on a gravel driveway will give a good idea of what reflexology is all about. Feeling sensations all the way to the solar plexus and above, you discover there are some very tender places on your feet that are connected with rest of you. The hands and the feet are two of the many microsystems that represent the whole body in small areas of the body.

Reflexology was depicted in the tomb for physicians in Egypt about 4,330 years ago. William Fitzgerald M.D., an ear, nose and throat doctor, introduced modern foot reflexology to the United States. Eunice Ingham, a physical therapist, took the zone therapy of Dr. Fitzgerald and expanded it to include all organs and glands. She used a press-and-release technique on the feet and the hands instead of clothespins and various other instruments to pinch fingers, and other parts of the body to create analgesia, according to reflexology.usa.net/history.

By pressing different points on the feet or hands with the thumbs, the reflexologist seeks out small crystalline-like places that need to be crushed. They correspond to needy places in the body. This treatment can be quite painful, but it is a physiological house cleaning. The benefits are increased circulation and stimulation of meridians that travel through the feet.

The Rev. Hilde Maria Frey, an instructor of reflexology relates this story about her teacher. Her teacher’s mother had a stroke. She pressed the middle of her mother’s big toe pad, the pituitary point, to keep her from becoming unconscious. She treated other points, but whenever her mother drifted off, she would go back to the pituitary. Of course, she took her mother to the hospital, where she received traditional treatment, but the doctor expressed surprise that there was no paralysis resulting from such a bad stroke. It is said that no paralysis will occur if the patient retains consciousness during a stroke.

In another instance, a baby kept putting things he found in his mouth. His parents and siblings were often engaged taking them out, but one day he swallowed something, which stuck inside somewhere, perhaps where the stomach empties into the small intestine, the pyloric valve. He ate, but couldn’t keep anything down. Then, he stopped eating. He just crawled around whimpering, looking unhappy. His mother had just taken a course in reflexology and wondered whether she could avoid taking him to the hospital. She held him and pressed across the arches of his feet following an uncomfortable spot that seemed to move. Finally, the baby relaxed with a sigh of relief and his appetite returned.

To get an idea of where the reflexes are located, an interactive chart of the foot showing all the reflexes is available online at uk.dk.com/reflexology.

The above are specific and acute instances that would probably require a trained reflexologist. Most treatments are of the whole foot and have been found to give pervasive benefits. A study done in China — reported in A Preliminary Study on the Mechanism of Foot Reflexo-Massage, Shouging, et al at the 1996 China Reflexology Symposium — found that free radicals, thought to be precancerous, were diminished in the blood in both the healthy controls and ailing patients that had foot reflexology every day for 10 days. In another study published in the International Journal of Neurology, foot reflexology was found to synchronize the right and left hemispheres of the brain, leaving 90 percent of the recipients with harmonious feelings of well being.

Reflexology is a wonderful modality to exchange with someone. With the feet of the recipient on a pillow in the lap of the giver and both comfortably seated with some relaxing music, you can explore the foot, stretch each toe then swivel it, press with the thumbs from the big toe to the heel, along the arch, roll the fist up the whole foot, rotate the whole foot one way then the other, These are just some ideas. Reflexologists usually start with the big toe pressing in the pituitary region. After smoothing out the pain, they go under each toe pad getting into the eye, sinus and ear reflexes. They go down the foot pressing across with their thumbs finding all the sore spots. The top of the foot is also important. Lotion can be used, but then it is hard to feel those little crystals. It is recommended to take a workshop, or go to a professional if there are health issues.