The feet are an important part of the neuromatrix.

 The feet are an important part of the neuromatrix.

• The bottom of the foot is one of the most important parts of the body because of its role in survival. The feet helps us go out for lunch or the feet helps us avoid being lunch.

• Human locomotion requires an integrated response from the entire body. If this response malfunctions the results can be catastrophic. In the wild you could become someone’s lunch. 

• Information sharing is one of the most important things the body does and it does it through the reflexes. It contributes to movement intelligence. 

• Fighting gravity and remaining upright is quite the task. It require input from our postural muscles, internal organs and the bottoms of our feet.

• The bottom of the foot is a stress pattern that forms over a day and accumulates over a lifetime.

• By applying pressure to the bottoms of the feet you reset the stress pattern that exists immediately.

• The foot is built for rough terrain. Shoes and flat paved surfaces cause stress because of the sameness of experience for the foot and the body.

• The internal organs have to supply fuel and oxygen to make movement possible. Any interruption in their process means something potentially catastrophic can occur. 

• Most of us are tactually deprived. The very simple act of touching can have an impact. It feeds are sensory system. 

• The cutaneal reflex and the pressure reflex are what keeps us together. Unfortunately as we age these reflexes become weaker. However stimulating these reflexes can strengthen these reflexes. 

Multiple sclerosis and recovery from falls

SUBSTANTIAL INCIDENT:

I always explain the MS nerve delay like this: “Healthy folks trip over a throw rug and their other leg slams down on the floor and catches them. For me, by the time the message gets from my legs, to my brain so my brain can tell my legs to correct, I’m down” Today my left leg got stuck on a spot on my tile and my right leg slammed on the ground and caught me. That hasn’t happened in 20+ years and possibly 30. That’s big. 

That should start both of our weeks off well.

Diane

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Diane and I had a very interesting discussion of the above statement. She has had multiple sclerosis for decades. Falls are a major issue for her. Once they start they have up until now ended on the ground.

Just being able to avoid a fall was a huge thing for her. It happen in an instant without a concious thought. It just happened

Recovery from falls is not only an issue for MS patients but it is an issue for all of us particularly as we age. It has become a critical issue as baby boomers are aging in mass.

Simply defined when we trip, stumble or are thrown off balance our ability to "catch" ourselves can be quite literally a life saver. The ability to right ourselves can not only save us from injury or even death but also the staggering costs of hospitalization and recovery.

The secret to recovery from falls is stimulation to the bottom of your feet. This helps build and maintain the information super highway between the feet and the brain. As we have stated in the past the feet are sensory organs which help ground awareness. Ground awareness is our ability to perceive what is underfoot and to appropriately respond to all types of terrain. 

If the feet have little or no stimulation one can lose the reflexive responses necessary to respond to the onset of a fall. Shoes and flat surfaces do not help the sensory functions of our feet. Shoes and flat surfaces dull the foot senses serving as a type of sensory blindfold. 

A disease like MS also mutes the response. The delay MS contributes makes the person's response just too late to stop a fall. 

What Diane demonstrated was an instantaneous reflexive response. The skin reflexes and the deeper proprioceptive reflexes acted together to fashion this response. Any delay in this reflexive response and you quite simply fall down. 

Reflexology stimulates the sensors on the bottom of your feet. But other things can help as well such as going barefoot or rolling your foot on a foot roller. 

You get the idea. Stimulate, stimulate, stimulate to make those connections grow. And good connections can serve you throughout life. 

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Un-sit with FitBit

Un-sit with FitBit

If the idea of un-sitting your life and moving about more through your day seems uninviting, consider motivating yourself by counting your footsteps. An easy way to do this is using a FitBit or VivoFit. Suddenly a chore can become a challenge.

I didn’t realize I was addicted until I lost my VivoFit at LAX. Suddenly I wasn’t getting credit for each footstep I took as counted by the band on my wrist. I wandered through the day without that rush of satisfaction knowing how much I was contributing to my own health. Lacking that  dopamine release I immediately ordered another one.

FitBit and VivoFit are wearable fitness trackers, basically an accelerometer on a wrist band that measures and reports foot steps. The band on your wrist can display instant feedback or your Smartphone can receive reports. They can do more but I’ll focus on the simple here.

Count your steps/build your health. Here’s what taking steps can do for you.

• Every 1,000 steps = 16% smaller waistline, 12% better HDL (good cholesterol), 15% better triglycerides

• Every 1,000 steps = 65 calories expended  if you weigh 120-pounds/100 calories for a 180-pound person

• Add 2,000 steps/day and you’ll maintain your weight. Add more, you’ll lose weight
• Taking 6,000 total steps per day significantly reduces risk of death
• 7,500 steps/day = better self esteem, confidence, productivity; experience improvement in quality of life; lose weight, feel better / more satisfied about their physical appearance
• 10,000 steps a day for 8 months = decrease in waistline circumference by 2 inches, weight loss of 10 pounds, reduction in high blood pressure by 34%, decrease by 69% the odds for men of having cardiovascular disease

For a hilarious take on wearing a FitBit see David Sedaris’s article in New Yorker magazine (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/stepping-out-3)

Un-Sit Your Life

Un-Sit Your Life

Dear Reader,

Just to let you know we have started a new blog for our new book, Un-Sit Your Life. This book is for years in the making. And if we do say so ourselves it came out very well.

You might be wondering why two reflexologist would get into the issue of prolonged sitting. The short answer is that we see it as related via pressure to the bottom of the feet. The long answer is here.

We are changing course somewhat. We are looking more and more at the reflex. In this case reflexes are involved in weight control as well as keeping our metabolism in healthy shape.

We hope you enjoy our latest work. And we hope it helps you achieve your goals.

Warmest regards

Kevin Kunz

Un-Sit Your Life

Chair Dweller Meet Inner Cave Dweller Say Authors

unsityourlife.com

Wobble Board, wobble balance board exercises.

I love my wobble board. I am not very good at it but I am getting better. 

My reaction to using the wobble board is a strange feeling in a way. I feel as though I have better grounding right after I leave the board. I am more aware of my feet. I also "feel" my body more. Why?

The body has sensors all around it which sense where parts of the body are even without looking. These sensors are called proprioceptors. -sportsinjuryclinic.net

These proprioceptors can get harmed do to accident or injury. The messages about body position become somewhat scrambled and so re-injuring  becomes a real possibility. A wobble board can retrain the senses of proprioception to retune the communications among body parts.  

Using a wobble board on a regular basis can help retrain the proprioceptors and improve coordination, hence preventing further injury.- sportsinjuryclinic.net

I like the exercises that are on this site. they start out slow and build your sightless sense of body position therefore improving the foot to brain link. Try these exercises. 

Reflexology can really help to reconnect the disconnected. The pressure that a reflexologist applies creates the same type of signal as a wobble board. While a reflexology session is quite relaxing wobble boarding can be a little more intense especially when you first start out. 

Oh yeah and take their advice on using a support like a chair to start out with. The last thing you want to do is injure those proprioceptors. 

These wobble board exercises are a lot of fun as they train your reflexes. 

Kevin Kunz

http://www.reflexology-research.com 

http://www.dk.com/reflexology