Academy graduate, Ken Cook, has published a case study he conducted with a 55-year old woman suffering from Marfan Syndrome (MFS), an uncommon inherited disorder that affects the connective tissue of the body.
Since MFS weakens the body’s connective tissue, it can affect almost any part of the body, causing a wide variety of symptoms. The most severe complications result from pathologies in the aortic root and ascending aorta, affecting the heart, eyes, blood vessels and skeleton.
People living with MFS tend to be tall, slender, flat-footed, and possessing disproportionately long arms, legs, and digits. However, there are over thirty signs and symptoms associated with MFS thus making it difficult to determine whether a person has the disorder by appearance alone. Signs and symptoms vary greatly even among members of the same family. While some experience only mild effects, others develop life-threatening complications. In most cases the disease tends to worsen with age.
Ken became aware of and interested in the condition through a neighbor who suffered from complications of MFS. After extensive research of all major medical and alternative medicine journals, he discovered that no previous studies involving reflexology and Marfan syndrome had been conducted. That was enough for him, and he set out to see how foot reflexology might affect his neighbor. Read what happened.
Go Ken! Good job!