Archives for 2012

… was just three days old, when he stopped breathing. His life was saved by quick-acting paramedics, who whisked him to the hospital after connecting all kinds of electronic gadgets that took over the respiratory function of his young lungs.

I met the child two days later, when his parents asked me to visit in the hospital. The medical personnel wanted to keep the baby on life support for 30 days. The parents didn’t. (There are unwelcome side effects to doing that.) They wanted to give his little lungs another chance – while under the careful observation of the pediatric ICU team.

At the parents’ request I performed a very short reflexology session. Seeing the immediate results on the high-tech monitor was – well, jump-for-joy elating.

As I explained to the eager parents, the brain, not the lungs, regulates breathing. It was the young boy’s brain that was just a little “slow” to assume its responsibility of communicating with the diaphragm, the primary muscle that allows the lungs to draw air into the body. (We later learned that this is not uncommon with newborn infants.)

Using my baby finger – the fifth digit – I gently made contact with the brain, diaphragm, lung and bronchial foot reflexes, with a focus on the brain. The increase in the baby’s intake of air was remarkable. I showed the parents where to touch their number one son’s feet and left them with instructions to do so for five minutes at a time, several times a day. They brought their beloved boy home two days later.

Have you ever had the joyous privilege of giving reflexology to a newborn?

One reflexology session ends a young 5-year-old’s scary and regular runs to the emergency ward of his local hospital.

I got talking yesterday to a colleague/friend, and she shared this story with me. Her son has suffered with severe asthma for a couple of years now, so much so that runs to the hospital have become almost normal for the family. One night last year, the young boy’s asthma really acted up. He could barely breathe, and it looked like a hospital visit was inevitable. Having just learned how to work the lymph and lung reflexes in class with me, she decided to apply what she knew, before resorting to pediatric emergency procedures one more time. Her son’s breathing resumed normally and he has had no asthma attacks since.

I find that children respond very quickly and positively to reflexology. Why do you think that would be the case?

I read a thought-provoking article this afternoon, adapted from the book Reflexognosy: A Shift in Paradigm. In it, the author, Christine Issel, argues that reflexology is more closely aligned with osteopathy than massage therapy, because of their common interpretation of and focus on reflexes and the reflex arc.

In the practice of osteopathy, reflexes are considered useful for three purposes, two of which are shared with reflexology:

• Influencing the motion of fluids, especially lymph, and
• Influencing the functioning of the organs through the nervous system.

There also seems to be a common recognition by both disciplines of the communication that occurs between reflexes of the soft tissue and the endocrine system and the necessity of relaxation of the musculature to promote balance in the body.

Anyway, it’s a very interesting article, with ideas well worth entertaining. I expect that the book is equally engaging. Information on how to pick up a copy is listed below.

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Reflexognosy: A Shift in Paradigm by Issel & Rogers © 2000.