Foot reflexology may offer relief to patients with CHF
All over massage milks’ blood toward the heart
Reflexology, or pressure applied to specific regions of the foot, is fast becoming a valuable tool in Mehmet Oz’s arsenal against congestive heart failure.
Oz, an MD and associate professor of surgery at Columbia University in New York City, began using reflexology on hospitalized patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), "mostly out of curiosity," he says. Oz describes the effects of using a nonspecific form of this ancient method of meridian point stimulation as stimulating venous return, or "milking" blood back to the heart.
"Everyone gets some relief," he says, noting that hospitalized patients are on monitors, usually with a central vein catheter in the neck, so carotid pressure is continuously monitored and the results are visible. All this with a five-minute foot rub.
Oz is the first to admit he is not using classic reflexology techniques. Reflexology involves selecting the specific spot on the foot that corresponds with the organ system or body part in need of stimulation and applying firm pressure, usually with the thumb, for 15 to 30 seconds.
"It’s a rather nonspecific all-over foot rub," he says. "I don’t really stop to apply pressure to the specific points, although I know where the heart point is. I use the foot as a tension ball and just move around. Eventually, I know I will hit the heart point and stimulate the venous return and the lymphatic flow."
"It’s a nice little trick to have up your sleeve in an emergency," Oz says.
Technique different from massage
He adds that similar work with dogs has been shown to open the lymphatic ducts and stimulate the muscles to contract. "It’s an interesting way of getting blood back to the heart," says Oz.
"Don’t confuse reflexology with massage or acupressure," cautions Kevin Kunz, an Albuquerque, NM, reflexologist and author of Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self-Help Guide.
Reflexology uses nerve pathways between the feet, hands, and other parts of the body, a telegraph system of sorts, to correct imbalances. Acupressure uses energy meridians that sometimes overlap with reflexology points. Massage is overall stimulation without any specific target organs in mind.
"Because the hands and feet are sensory organs of locomotion, they have a special relationship with the body, and they can serve as a means of interaction with the state of tension and energy consumption throughout the body," says Kunz.
Kunz says Oz’ work is valuable even if he is not stimulating the precise point. That’s because Oz is stimulating the foot with the intention of working the heart and lymphatic points, which are on the ball of the left foot for the heart and across the top of the ankle joint for lymph glands.
"We don’t know what happens to these points in CHF," Oz says. "They may move. So I think it is valuable to give the foot overall nonspecific stimulation."
Kunz says there is a fundamental relationship between the foot and the rest of the body. "It is literally our foundation, and as we walk, the entire body acts in unison in response to deep pressure information from the bottoms of the feet."
Reflexology operates on the principle that there is a loop that links feet, hands, and internal organs. "Sensory stimulation not only activates and adjusts a response from the muscles and nerves, it also loops through the internal organs," he says.
In simpler terms, Kunz says, "Messages from the feet and hands give the body feedback on ongoing, external events. The sensory system then adjusts in its entirety and seeks additional information to complete the picture, a re-evaluation of the situation, and a return to a state of balance."
Sensory signals to the feet or hands communicate to the other parts of the body and break up patterns of stress, reset energy power plants, and help the individual achieve a greater body awareness and, in the end, promote healing, says Kunz.
Mildred Carter, a reflexologist in Granite Bay, CA, is a pioneer in the field. She is a proponent of hand reflexology, which patients can easily perform on themselves.
In her book Hand Reflexology, the Key to Perfect Health, Carter recommends working the upper pad of the left palm with the thumb of the right hand.
"When the sore spots are found, work them out, as they are telling you of congestion in the corresponding zone," Carter writes. "By holding pressure against the first through fifth fingers of the left hand, you will be calming the heart. When you use stimulating movements on reflexes to the heart, you are activating a vital life force on the left side of the body, thus sending oxygen-rich blood into the canals to help nature relieve congestion and revive glandular activity."
Kunz had a remarkable experience with reflexology on a cardiac patient experiencing arrhythmia while he was hospitalized. "I began working on the brain stem points [at the base of the big toe]. He was hooked up to a monitor, and it was just fascinating to watch things normalize during a 30-minute reflexology session. His heart rate dropped from 130 to a steady 70 beats per minute, and he dropped off to sleep as I was finishing."
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