Reflexology Effect on Spinal Cord Injury

Dear Sir:

I'm not sure if you will be able to help me. I would like to know if you have any info on the effects of reflexology and people who have had severe spinal damage. I have a client who has been in a wheel chair for 16 years. He was healthy until the accident. His spinal cord was not severed but badly crushed and he has had 2 operation to fuse together his T12 and L1 and also some work done on his 3rd and 4th L. I have been working on his feet since the end of December, 2007 once a week, but he has had, right from the first treatment, tingling, twitching and burning sensations in his legs. At first they only lasted an hour or two but lately they are continuing to last almost up to the next treatment. Many times the sensations are in the same area as before, but many times they seem to be in different places. Before working on my client he said he had never felt anything below the knee except for in his feet, but he has had burning and tingnling in his calf muscle on the right the leg.

Do you have any research or any information that can help me understand better what might be happening with my client, if there are areas I should be concentrating on or techniques that would be more effective? Any information would be a great help I'm sure.

Thank You.
Sincerely,

Susan
Certified Reflexologist

Sue

Try www.reflexology-research.com/paralysisreport.htm Pay particular attention to the eye-ear reflex area at the base of the toes. Functional MRI studies now show that this is an integrative area that brings a lot of areas together. It was a critical area with activating the "crossover effect". This is when working on one foot makes the other foot move. In the case of quadriplegia it can be the opposite hand.

We aren't sure that the "crossover effect" is present or if necessary for progress in all paralysis cases. But the movement became more sophisticated overtime implying some type of programming was going on.

There may be periods of increased spasming. He may be disturbed by this and want to quit. But it does seem to be part of the process.

Our points of emphasis list includes the eye-ear, head-neck and spinal reflex areas. The area along the spinal reflex area at the point of the injury (in this case T12 and L1) can be quite rough and as stimulating as the eye-ear reflex area. It is critical to locate and pay attention to this area.

You are in uncharted areas. We had some effect on all our paralysis clients. But they never had sensations in their feet to begin with.

Stay in touch. It is hard to say where this will end up but we found it kept them healthy above all else.

All the best,
Kevin Kunz