Reflexology!

As you've probably guessed; we are big believers in integrated medicine. When we found out that our local spa was offering one hour treatments of reflexology for £20, we jumped at the chance....well, Em and I did. L needed a bit more pushing.

For those of you who are looking for a potential solution to your individual health problem, it's important that you know that there is no shame in looking for a solution.We can't tell you how many times we've had a smug clinically healthy person roll their eyes at our delving into traditional chinese medicine, ayurveda or even massage. It's easy to judge when you've never needed anything more than a paracetamol or some antibiotics to fix you. But we're sure that you know this. If you have any doubts, speak to your health practitioner and do some research. If after all of that you feel that the procedure is right for you then try go ahead, and if not then at least you know a little more about what suits you and what doesn't.

We were won over to it a few months ago when a friend of L's (who also has endometriosis) was singing the praises of reflexology. She said that she had so much more energy and that the reflexology had helped to reduce her endometriosis symptoms. So, in true TBT spirit we did a bit of researching:

• This study found that reflexology helped to significantly reduce anxiety in breast cancer and lung cancer patients, and one of the three pain measures used showed that patients with breast cancer experienced a significant decrease in pain. But the researchers did note that this finding needed further verification.
• This 2007 study found that when a nurse reflexologist taught partners how to perform reflexology on patients with metastatic cancer pain in the hospital, an immediate, significant decrease in pain and anxiety was observed. Little change was observed in the control group who received usual care plus attention.
• In the interest of balance,this study found that no significant differences between GP care and GP care + reflexology in the management of chronic back pain. A main effect was found for pain reduction, irrespective of either group, however trends in the data did show that pain reduction was greatest in the reflexology group. But the trend was not great enough to say that GP care + reflexology was better than GP care alone.

We purposely selected articles from science journals, purely because the publication of articles are a little more objective. Lol, that's not to say that all scientists are objective, and all complementary medicine is not. You get people pushing their own agenda in every field, we're all human after all.

Anyway, we digress;
The treatment lasted for 40-50 minutes in total, the first ten-twenty minutes were spent discussing medical history, providing personal details (name, address, weight, date of birth, GP) and discussing any health concerns we had.

Our reflexologist was called Karen, she gave us a full introduction to reflexology and explained which body part, organ or gland each area of the foot corresponded to. She was very attentive and her attitude really added to the experience.

What we thought:

L says: A-mazing!! I am so glad that Em and Layla forced me to go, I went in first (in true guinea pig style) and when I came out Em and Layla were looking at me in awe; I am naturally quite pale, I have fair hair and fair skin, following the reflexology I came out with lovely rosy cheeks and a warm glow. Loving it. It's improved my circulation which has helped keep my dry skin patches at bay.

Em says: I loved the treatment, it was really relaxing and I've already booked my treatment for next month. In fact, I've booked everyone's treatment for next month....shhhhhh!!! It has helped bring down my blood sugar - the week before my treatment my blood sugar had been pushed up out of my normal range (mainly because of stress at work, I eat a very healthy diet and exercise every day.) and it was doing me no good, since the treatment 1 week ago my blood sugar has come back down to my normal range and remained that way. I'm so pleased!!

I say: Lol, anything I say now will sound cliche following Em & L's reviews. I found it so relaxing, I too came out with really rosy cheeks and a warm glow. I'm not usually pale, all in all it accentuated my olive complexion...which is nothing to complain about! More notably, I was the only one who suffered from detox effects; I was up until 3 in the morning with a massive distended stomach and can now no longer sleep on my front which isn't a problem. On the recovery side of things my stomach and abdomen is much happier. I'm not bloating up, burping (yuck), or getting dark lines under my eyes.

We're really happy with our first treatment but as with everything, people will respond differently to different treatments and as this wasn't a scientific study we can't say that all of the things that happened after the reflexology was a result of it. Either way, we loved it.

Have you ever tried Reflexology? What did you think?
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