Research

Reflexology research

Recent pilot trials undertaken by the Northern Ireland Primary Health Care trust lend backing to what Complementary Therapists have known for years: that complementary therapies such as reflexology can help relieve symptoms and improve health and wellbeing. Some of the statistics are given below:

CAM Pilot Project in Northern Ireland (2008)

80% of patients recorded an improvement in the severity of their main
symptom, with 73% recording an improvement in their level of activity associated with their main symptom (source, MYMOP);
67% of patients recorded an improvement in their wellbeing (source,MYMOP);
81% of patients said that their general health had improved, with a similarly high proportion of patients (82%) reporting to be less worried about their symptoms following treatment (source, MYMOP);
81% of patients reported an improvement in their physical health, with 79% reporting an improvement in their mental health (source, patient survey);
84% of patients directly linked the CAM treatments to an improvement in their overall wellbeing (source, patient survey);
62% of patients were suffering less pain, with 60% having more control over pain (source, patient survey)
There was a 14 percentage point reduction in the proportion of patients using medication between the pre and post-treatment stages (i.e. down from 75% to 61%) (source, project monitoring data);
44% of patients who were taking medication prior to their treatment, had reduced their use of medication (source, patient survey)
Among patients using pain killers prior to treatment, 55% said that they use fewer pain killers following treatment (source, patient survey)

MRI research

A trial was done in Japan in 2008, showing relationships between cortical activity and reflex areas using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to validate reflexology. In three separate studies, researchers explored with fMRI what happens in the brain when pressure or technique is applied to specific reflex areas of the left foot.

A person was put into an MRI scanner and had Reflexology applied to their eye, shoulder and small intestine reflexes. The outcome was that brain activity was recorded for not only the parts of the feet that were being stimulated, but also for the corresponding areas. A PDF of the trial can be downloaded here.

Research into blood flow

In 1999 an Austrian research study studied reflexology working on the kidney reflex and found that it affected the blood flow to the kidneys.

In 2001 they went on to demonstrate that reflexology applied to the intestine reflexes also increased blood flow to the corresponding organs in the body, in this case the intestines.