Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving Relief with Reflexology

Golf Ball Rolling

© 2010 Barbara Kunz  
Did you eat too much turkey for Thanksgiving? Or if you are a vegetarian did you eat too much tofu? Try this simple technique to relief that post Thanksgiving bloat. 
Interlace your fingers with a golf ball between your palms. Bring your wrists toward each other to create a little pressure. Now roll the gold ball around the palms of you hands. 

I do it until I start to feel things ease. It is also good for constipation and diarrhea and general indigestion.


Kevin Kunz


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Give the gift of reflexology

Giving the Gift of Health
It’s the time of year for the gift giving challenge. This year consider giving the gift of health. You’ll feel good knowing you’re giving a gift that can be helpful and healthful as well as useable all year long. Reflexology products, reflexology books, and what we’ll call “happy feet”  gifts are appreciated. In addition, reflexology gift possibilites include gifts in a wide range of prices. Also consider the gift of a reflexology session. Your time and hands-on work may be the most appreciated gift of all.

The following includes gifts for all budgets.
Cobblestone mat (reflexology path) $42.50
Foot bath
MediRub Foot Massager
Foot massagers (general)
         Expensive but highly rated
         Cheaper but still highly rated
Wooden foot roller and Porcupine massage ball
Porcupine Massage Ball
Wooden foot roller massager
     Low Cost yet functional. 
     Medium Cost but a little more to it. 
     Higher Cost but damn good looking
Fitter foot roller
Fitter Double foot roller
Yamuna Body Rolling Foot Saver Kit

Acu-Life Massage Sandals

Kevin Kunz

http://www.reflexology-research.com 












Monday, November 22, 2010

Forest Bathing- More Than a Walk in the Park

When is taking a walk more than, well, taking a walk? The answer—when it’s done in a forest. At least that’s what research is telling us about forest bathing, immersing oneself in the sensory rich environment of a forest when walking, a popular activity throughout Asia.

For years the Japanese have explored the possibilities of enhancing health while walking in the forest. A name for it, Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing), was coined by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in 1982. And, more recently Japanese researchers have been involved in a project titled the Therapeutic Effects of Forests. One study summarizes the healthful components of forests in terms of the five senses—sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Researchers note, “We have conducted physiological experiments, both in actual forests and in physiological effects on individuals of exposure to the total environment of forests or to only certain elements of this environment, such as the odor of wood, the sound of running stream water, and the scenery of the forest.”

In another study, the researchers compared the stress of walking in a forest with that of walking in a city. Study participant walked in a forest and then a city. Physiological measures of stress were taken after each walk. When the two were compared, forest walking was found to create a more relaxed state: lower concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure. “The results show that forest environments promote lower concentrations of (stress hormone) cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments” 

Results from further studies demonstrate that forest bathing: decreases blood glucose levels; increases the immune system’s human natural killer activity; reduces stress levels; increases relaxation as well as significantly decreases hostility and depression with “liveliness” increased significantly. Physiological measures were utilized to reach the conclusions in all studies.


Barbara Kunz






Friday, November 19, 2010

Ho-Ho-Ho Oh-Oh-Oh Save Your Feet During the Holidays

Here's a quick list of ways to save your feet from the holiday blues.

1. Be aware of your feet. Do not get so caught up in the rush of the season that you forget your poor feet. Stay in tune with how they are feeling and don't over ride them.

2. Take frequent breaks. Feet were not meant to stand or walk on hard surfaces for hours at a time.

3. Wear sensible shoes. Save those stylish shoes for times when you are not doing combat at the malls.

4. Interrupt stress and do it frequently. Try a reflexology session or a massage. A nice session allows your body to relax helps your feet relax as well.

5. Stretch prior to events like shopping or cooking or standing at parties. You don't have to be doing a marathon in order to get the benefit of stretching.

6. Use a trick that waitresses use. Lie on the floor and prop your feet up on a chair or coach. It helps reverse the flow of all that blood that has accumulated in your feet after a long time of standing and/or walking.

7. Break up the pattern of stress by rocking side to side. Stand with your feet about shoulder width wide. Bend your knees and rock side to side across your feet.

8. Just rub them. Really rub them to keep the circulation going. You don't have to be a professional reflexologist to get results. (But hiring one isn't a bad investment.)

9. Buy your feet a treat. A simple foot roller can do wonders and isn't costly.

10. Recruit your family. Even amateur foot-workers can make you feel better.

But above all enjoy your holidays.

Free Reflexology Friday- New Freebies

Free Friday- Reflexology Stuff

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1. Free Iphone/ IPad/ ITouch Reflexology Chart App. Take your reflexology with you.This handy app goes on your IPhone, IPad and Itouch. 


Get it here.

2. Free Interactive Foot and Hand Charts

Done with a design team from Kunz&Kunz and DK these charts are wildly popular and a great teaching tool as well. 


3. Free Widgets

These interactive widgets are free to put on your web site, blog, Facebook page and other social networking sites. 

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Nursing and Reflexology Research. Free Widget with Reflexology Research Performed with Nurses

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6. Free Facebook Reflexology Forum- A causal forum on reflexology for anyone to join

Kevin's Facebook page that might as well be a forum. Lively, fast paced and a real treasure trove of information

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Can you catch athletes feet on your hands?

Kevin how do you handle those who have atheletes foot/feet? 
I worry about contacting some of these foot problems if I know they have them.
Brenda

Brenda
Athletes foot is really mostly confined to the feet because of the warm, moist conditions. But it can spread to the hands and face if you sweat a lot and are in very moist conditions. http://www.athletes-foot.eu/treat.php

I have never had a problem with it because I am not very sweaty and I wash before and after seasons with a 20 second hand wash or longer. I also provide wet wipes as an alternative to foot washing if the conditions are not convenient. http://www.cdc.gov/features/handwashing/

Hope this helps.  
Kevin Kunz

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

10 Reasons the World Needs Reflexology

1, The world needs touch. Research has shown how touch can help in a wide variety of situations.

2. Reflexology has been shown to be cost effective. For example there are studies that show reflexology can help businesses save money with lower absenteeism and better worker morale.

3. It has become a last resort for those without healthcare. Healthcare has become beyond the means of many. Reflexology is not a replacement for medicine but has become what is available at times.  

4. Children are often without the nourishment of touch. Kids are at times without healthcare. Reflexology can at least lend some support.

5. Dementia is on the rise. It promises to be at epidemic levels within a very few years. Research has shown reflexology may be helpful in dealing with dementia,

6. Millions or baby boomers are becoming senior citizens. Health costs worldwide are on the rise. Reflexology shows promise for helping to keep those costs down.

7. Seniors citizens are subject to falls. Reflexology can help them reconnect with their feet and help their overall balance.

8. Senior citizens are often alone, untouched and depressed. Reflexology has often been very effective with reconnecting them with a sense of self worth lifting depression and helping with their sense of loneliness.

9. Stress is not being addressed by many healthcare systems yet it is the the root cause of most illness. Chronic degenerative illness in particular are not very effectively dealt with conventional medicine. Reflexology addresses stress directly.

10. Reflexology can often help when medicine can't. For example reflexology can help with certain aspects of cancer care such as nausea, vomiting and depression.

What reasons do you think the world needs reflexology?


Kevin Kunz


Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A Christmas Stocking Filled with Foot Pain Relief

A Christmas Stocking Filled with Foot Pain Relief -- Bunion Splints that Relieve Bunion Pain -- An Unexpected but Thoughtful Gift  

We just got this from SF Gate, the online site for the San Francisco Chronicle. The link goes to our What is Reflexology? page. It is holiday gifts for foot pain relief.


4.  "Off the charts" foot reflexology session! Do you ever treat yourself to foot reflexology? It reduces stress which, of course, can adversely affect various parts of the human body. Because feet and hands help set the tension level for the rest of the body, reflexology is an easy way to interrupt the stress signal and reset the body's equilibrium.

Sound familiar?


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/15/prweb4780074.DTL#ixzz15TzO4J3G



Kevin Kunz


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

the perfect running shoe

Just finished a correspondence with. design student from Vienna. His class project is a perfect running shoe. It is quite interesting to work Reflexology into this idea.

I said that I thought you could stimulate the reflexes but not really work them. An enclosed shoe doesn't really provide much wiggle room.

What do you think?

Kevin Kunz

Monday, November 8, 2010

Your heart attack prevention plan and reflexology

Men’s Health reported ideas for “Your heart attack prevention plan” in June 2008. Included was a tip to “Trade massages with her (your significant other).” “Regular massages may soothe a rapid heartbeat. Relaxation techniques reduce your body’s production of adrenaline, norepinephrine, and epinehprine, stress hormones that rev up your heart in the face of danger, days Atman P. Shah, M.D., an assistant professor of medince at UCLA. A 2007 British study found that people who received an hour of reflexology treatment (a type of foot or hand massage) had rates that averaged almost 8 bpm (beats per minute) than when they went without.”

This small paragraph started me thinking. As a professional reflexologist, I always like to see the encouragement of reflexology use. Planting the idea of such a specific use is great. And, there’s nothing like hands-on application from a loved one as shown by several studies. I would suggest, however, a wider consideration of reflexology techniques for two reasons: time and effort.  An hour is a long time to apply reflexology and I wonder how many casual users have the strength. Trading hour-long reflexology sessions adds up to a two-hour time span not always available with today’s busy life styles—especially considering there is also a learning curve in becoming familiar with those techniques.

What advice would I give? Use the hour-long for special times. Take responsibility for your own cardiac health by using reflexology path ideas. These ideas were tested and found to lower blood pressure as well as other beneits when paritcipants walked for 45 minutes three times a week. Reflexology path mats are available but you can create your own. Throw some rocks in a box or go out into a rocky portion of the garden.


And try some self help with hand reflexology. It is easy, convenient and can fit nicely in your day time wise. 


But please if you can-  give the gift of reflexology to each other as often as you can. It can help not only your heart but your relationship as well. 

Friday, November 5, 2010

Effects of Massage Therapy on Brain Activity: A Functional Magnetic Resonance

Our big question is why did they use a stick in using reflexology and not for massage. Won't that skewer the results? For an fMRI study is seems like a protocol which could use more work. Kevin Kunz


Diane Sliz, BSc
Effects of Massage Therapy on Brain Activity: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Pilot Study
Authors: Diane Sliz, BSc., Shawn Hayley, PhD. & Andra Smith, PhD.
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: To date, no known studies have explored the brain regions and circuitry activated in response to a therapeutic massage treatment. As such, the purpose of the present pilot study was to delineate the neural pathways in response to a massage therapy treatment in healthy adults.
DESIGN: A randomised pilot study enrolled healthy adults aged 18 to 50 years to receive a Swedish massage, a reflexology treatment or a massage administered with a wooden object on the right foot, while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) testing procedure. Questionnaires assessing mood states were administered at the beginning of the study and a Likert-scale question was given at pre-scan (once participants were placed in the MRI apparatus) and post-scan (after having received the treatment condition). 
SETTING: Participants came to the Ottawa General Hospital for the fMRI. Adults aged 18-50 years were recruited from University campuses as well as from a newspaper ad and other community venues. Each person was screened for contraindications.
INTERVENTION: Participants (N=40) received 8.5 min of either a Swedish massage, a reflexology treatment or a massage administered with a wooden object on the right foot. A control group did not receive any tactile stimulation while undergoing the same fMRI procedure as the three above-mentioned treatment conditions.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule is a 41-item scale measuring the degree of positive and negative affective mood states at the present moment. The Beck Depression Inventory is a valid and reliable 21-item scale questionnaire used to reveal depressive symptomatology in both healthy and clinical populations.
RESULTS: Preliminary results indicate significant brain activations in each of the treatment conditions (i.e. Swedish massage, reflexology treatment and massage administered with a wooden object on the right foot) compared to the control condition (i.e. no tactile stimulation on the foot). However, the Swedish massage elicits the strongest activations in the orbitifrontal cortex as well as the precuneus, areas associated with reward, pleasure and positive affect.  
CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary findings from this pilot study indicate that massage therapy enhances positive well-being and might have great beneficial effects in populations suffering from mood disorders such as anxiety, stress and depression.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Stereo for the Feet: Targeted Double Thumb Walking Technique

As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. And for a reflexologist, two thumbs can be better than one. The double thumb walking technique, applying technique with both thumbs simultaneously to the foot or hand, creates a “stereo effect,” quite literally adding a new dimension
to the reflexologist’s work.

Double thumb walking has long been a favorite of ours. But a new, targeted   consideration of the technique opens up a whole new world to the reflexologist and the client creating an appreciation of exactly what effects a reflexologist can achieve. Drawing on the body’s ability to perceive three dimensions or stereognosis—which literally means three-dimensional knowledge—double thumb walking technique applies a 3-D, three dimensional stimulation of the foot or hand to the benefit of reflexologist and client.

The recent re-discovery of the technique occurred as three long-time clients responded to their sessions like never before with use of targeted double thumb walking techniques. (See below.) Each client represented a different challenge: one with a foot stiffened by polio, one with feet thickened with fluid following knee injuries over the years, and the third with feet under the stress of a tailbone injury. Achieved was a full spectrum of reflexology effects: a feeling of overall relaxation, a more flexible foot and an incomparable approach to reflex areas.

Most interesting from the reflexologist’s view, perhaps, was a feeling that the foot had changed with all the pieces fitting together better—that the foot became a well oiled mechanism. The reflex areas were more reachable. The clients reported effects enhanced over those experienced during a usual session: lessened pain in the feet as well as the body, a much deeper relaxation of the foot, and a different-than-usual perception of the foot and reflex areas as pressure was applied. Their foot were perceived by each to feel “thinner.”

A mega-loosening effect is achieved when the double thumb walking technique is applied on opposite sides of the foot (top/bottom or inside/outside). Especially notable recently were the effects of applying this technique to three parts of the foot.

First, the responses were exceptional to the application of simultaneous double thumb walking to the inside and outside of the foot around the heel. The technique is applied as the reflexologist faces the sole of the foot.The fingers of the two hands are interlaced on the top of the foot with thumbs in position, one on the inside of the foot in the lower back reflex area and the other on the outside of the foot in the knee/leg reflex area. The technique is applied as each thumb walks forward offering an oppositional pressure with the foot sandwiched in between.

Next, effects were noteworthy for the simultaneous thumb walking on the top and bottom of the foot through the shoulder/arm/elbow reflex areas. The reflexologist sits to the outside of the foot, links fingers, positions thumbs at the base of the fifth metatarsal bone and applies the thumb walking technique up the foot.

Finally, the reflexologist applies the technique to the spine reflex area. The reflexologist sits to the inside of the foot, links fingers and rests the two thumbs on the top and bottom of the foot and then walks the thumbs toward each other, wrapping around the spine reflex area and covering the area in successive passes.


We have prepared a more extensive treatment of this subject as an eBook. 

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Monday, November 1, 2010

Reflexology and Pregnant Women

Question: I have a question with regard to Reflexology and pregnancy. I've always been told to avoid medial heel work during pregnancy, that work in that area could stimulate premature contractions. I just spoke with someone from the Washington Institute of Natural Medicine who told me that is still current thinking among reflexologists. She referred me to you when I asked the question whether there is research to support that idea, or whether the theory was completely anecdotal. Any information you can point me to would be greatly appreciated. Bruce



Answer:
Bruce
New one on me. Not the part about not working on pregnant women. More the part about not working on the heel. The myth about not working on pregnant women has been around since Mildred Carter put it in her book 40 years ago. Not a shred of research that I know about. I have asked for some type of evidence for years. Nothing so far.

If you put reflexology in a stress model a pregnant women is like any other person. Reflexology is a positive stressor if done within the person's comfort zone. If done to excess it is theoretically possible you could produce a negative stressor.

Yes unfortunately this is the current thinking of reflexologists that you shouldn't work on pregnant women because you can produce a spontaneous abortion. The medial heel is a new twist on an old myth.

All the best,

Kevin Kunz

BTW There is plenty of positive research on Reflexology and pregnant women.