Monday, December 6, 2010

Nadine's Left Hand- Reflexology and Paralysis

About a month ago Nadine had a stroke. It paralyzed her left side. Because of all of the shuffling that goes on in these situations we didn't get to her until three weeks later. The family got started with instructions I phoned in. I emphasized focusing on the eye/ear area because of our unique experiences with spinal cord injury.

While we have a lot to say of this subject but pictures speak louder than words. This video was taken at her third session.


When we were working with spinal cord injury we noticed a crossover effect when you applied pressure  to the eye/ear area. This is the key area for paralysis. See http://www.reflexology-research.com/paralysisreport.htm 

The eye/ear area is not an exact mirror image area unlike the rest the reflex areas. It is according to recent functional MRI studies a "polysensory area" which means it involves several senses. Eyesight for example involves more than one sense. And the same area in the brain that lights up in brain imaging is also associated with stroke. 

We would be working on one foot and the hand (quadriplegia) or the foot (paraplegia) would move. We called it the "crossover effect". Interestingly we had more effect on the quadriplegic than the paraplegics. 

It makes me wonder if because the interruption is outside of the spinal cord and in the brain itself if this could explain the quickness of the results.  One week is a really short time for this kind of response. 

How will this hold up with other stroke patients? We don't know. But we are damn well going to find out.

All the best,

Barbara and Kevin 





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