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Can Reflexology Help with Constipation?

Reflexology CAN help with constipation.

Because of the non-intrusive nature of reflexology and other alternative medicines, the use of such treatments is on the rise. An Australian study released in 2011 found that two-thirds of the children surveyed had been given non-traditional treatment, mostly for constipation and acid reflux, amounting to almost double the amount counted in a similar 2002 study.

Potential Benefits

Based on the tenets of Asian medicine, reflexology involves the applying of pressure on "reflex areas" of a patient's feet and-or hands to stimulate a part of the body that is linked to that area through the nervous system. It has also been traced back to Native American and Egyptian societies, with nurse Eunice Ingham introducing it to American patients beginning in the 1930s.

Among the conditions other than constipation that reflexology has been found to have a positive impact on are insomnia, headaches, chronic pain, and PMS.

Evolving Science

There are different reflexology charts for the human foot, credited and copyrighted to various different practitioners and pioneers. But each one details a surprisingly complex map of the bottom side of the foot.

The reflex areas that pertain to constipation are all towards the middle and back of the foot, corresponding to the stomach, intestines, the transverse colon, the descending colon, and so on. Much of the U.S. reflexology expansion has been done at the behest of a pupil of Ingham's named Zachary Brinkerhoff. His method is one that relies in part on the scientific findings of scientists at the medical schools of Tulane, Harvard, and the University of Mississippi.

Reflexology is still an evolving science though. The website for the U.S. based Modern Institute of Reflexology chronicles the ongoing efforts of practitioners to upgrade the practice's standing in various states such as Delaware. Dr. David L. Patterson, whose introduction to reflexology came via hospital demonstration in 1977, went on to help legalize the process in Delaware.