REFLEXOLOGY

noun (Health and Fitness) A complementary therapy based on the application of pressure to specific points on the feet and hands. Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -ology 'subject of study' to reflex, the term used for the pressure points on the feet and hands which are used in this technique (because each point has a corresponding effect--a secondary manifestation or reflex--on a particular part of the body). History and Usage: Reflexology is also known as zone therapy of the hands and feet; like acupressure, it is an ancient oriental therapy whose techniques date back thousands of years, but which has only this century been taken up and widely practised in the West. It was rediscovered in the twenties by William Fitzgerald, an American ear, nose, and throat specialist, popularized in the US by Eunice Ingham, and brought to the UK in the sixties by a student of hers named Doreen Bayly. However, it was only in the eighties, with the growth and success of alternative and complementary therapies, that reflexology was taken up by significant numbers of people. The underlying principle is very similar to that of acupressure, except that an entire 'map' of pressure points affecting the whole body is found in the feet, and it is mainly these reflexes (together with occasional use of a corresponding set in the hands) that are worked on to produce an improvement of circulation to the corresponding part of the body, a relaxation of tension there, and eventually a return to balance. A practitioner of reflexology is a reflexologist. For the reflexologist, there are 10 channels, beginning (or ending) in the toes and extending to the fingers and the top of the head. Each channel relates to a zone of the body, to the organs in that zone--the big toe relates to the head, for example. By feeling patients' feet in certain prescribed ways, reflexologists can detect which energy channels are blocked. Brian Inglis & Ruth West The Alternative Health Guide (1983), p. 112 Apparently, the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of York and others are advised... on a form of...reflexology, and it keeps those treated healthy, young and beautiful. New Scientist 23 June 1990, p. 112