Excerpt from “Reflexology Paths of the World”

[Sly]

here some thoughts I found interesting :
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthser...xercise/Reflexology_Paths_Marazita_Spano.ashx


"Wearing shoes all day through the toils of work and day-to-day activity, stress, illness, lack of hydration and inactivity can cause muscle tissue to weaken and blood flow to stagnate. This blood stagnation culminates in waste matter collecting in the feet. This waste matter forms crystalline deposits formed by urate crystals and calcium deposits at key nerve endings located in the feet. Reflexology practitioners call these deposits grainy or sandy structures."

"walking without shoes, walking on pebbled paths, cobbled stoned streets, sand dunes, and hard cement are not new phenomena. Primates continue to practice reflexology walking barefoot and allowing the earth and gravity to massage away areas of stagnation. In the human realm, universal adornment for protection and fashion can be charted back a few centuries."

a picture :
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XS6AWYF9b...ealthyaging.ori.orgcobblestonephotoschina.jpg

 

[Ahcuah]

"Wearing shoes all day through the toils of work and day-to-day activity, stress, illness, lack of hydration and inactivity can cause muscle tissue to weaken and blood flow to stagnate. This blood stagnation culminates in waste matter collecting in the feet. This waste matter forms crystalline deposits formed by urate crystals and calcium deposits at key nerve endings located in the feet. Reflexology practitioners call these deposits grainy or sandy structures."

I wonder if there is any scientific support for this statement, that is, real studies, or whether it's just like what the podiatrists do: make up something that sounds reasonable because they think they are experts. (I'm referring to the effects of "stagnation", not the weakening of muscles and blood flow.) Does blood "stagnation" really culminate in waste matter collecting? I tend to doubt it.

 

[Sly]

I really dunno...

for example,
"gout" is a foot disease caused by a high rate of urate in the blood.
calcium crystal disease is called "pseudogout"

I think the effect of "stagnation" is more symbolic, reflexology is inspired by the Qi medicine, not by the modern chemical medicine, and the central idea is the flow, flow is life, when stagnation is death. very often "alternative medicines" have been kept away because of their lack of "scientific support"

I'm not an expert, I really dont know

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I had developed Hyperparathyroidism due to a tumor on my parathyroid (not thyroid) in my twenties and lived with it for years...until I HAD to do something about it (long story, but a great one that I shared elsewhere on the site). One of the problems with this condition is that calcium crystals will deposit in the hands and feet and can lead to deformities. I often wonder if some of the problems I have had with my hands and feet can be attributable to HPT. (I'm not referencing Morton's Neuroma here, but other problems with my heels and arches, and then the pains I have in my wrists, hands, and fingers.)

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I wonder if there is any scientific support for this statement, that is, real studies, or whether it's just like what the podiatrists do: make up something that sounds reasonable because they think they are experts. (I'm referring to the effects of "stagnation", not the weakening of muscles and blood flow.) Does blood "stagnation" really culminate in waste matter collecting? I tend to doubt it.

I'm no expert either, Ahcuah, but it makes sense to me that if blood is not circulating, has thickened, can clot, will sit stagnant, and prevent other nutrients, oxygen, platelets, cells, etc., to flow, therefore causing all of this to pool becoming waste matter and collecting there.