Cleans as you Massage

Is stress or anxiety from the constant pressures of work and home life wearing you out? Perhaps you need a foot massage? A foot massage or foot reflexology does more than just make your feet feel better; it is thought to alleviate many ailments including back pain, stress and headaches.

From the beginning of time, people practiced massage therapy. Many ancient societies noticed that there were correlations between applying pressure on the feet and relief of discomfort in certain organs. By applying pressure in certain areas of the feet, pain and discomfort was relieved in other parts of the body.

Reflexology was introduced to the United States in 1913 by William H. Fitzgerald, M.D. an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Fitzgerald claimed that applying pressure had an anesthetic effect on other areas of the body. Dr. Fitzgerald went on to map out these zones and created the first modern reflexology charts. Reflexology was modified in the 1930s and 1940s by Eunice D. Ingham, a nurse and physiotherapist. Ingham claimed that the feet and hands were especially sensitive, and mapped the entire body into "reflexes" on the feet renaming "zone therapy" to reflexology.

The art of reflexology has advanced with modern technology. A foot massage uses certain strokes to relax the feet and the individual. Foot reflexology helps to increase the health and well being of the entire body. As the foot is massaged, healing of other body parts begins. Sometimes, the healing is spontaneous, but more often, the healing takes periodic treatments to sustain.

The feet are tied to your stress and anxiety. What happens when you are stressed? Stress increases the energy in your body through the nervous system. The nervous system reacts to protect the body. This release activates the hands and feet to be ready for action. The major organs become more energized to support the action of the hands and feet. They work in tandem. Reflexology helps to reverse this process and reduce the tension.

Exercise and massage decrease the stress hormones such as cortisol and increases endorphins. Endorphins are defined as hormone-like substances that are produced in the brain and function as the body's natural painkillers. Endorphins are the body's natural feel good chemicals. During massage or exercise, endorphins are released, which can produce feelings of euphoria and a general state of well-being. The endorphins produced can be so powerful that they actually mask pain. In addition to endorphins, massage and exercise both also release adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. These chemicals work together to make you feel good.

One of the critical discoveries by Dr. Fitzgerald was that reflexology massage had many healing benefits when an individual received continuous, periodic treatments. He found that just doing a sporadic reflexology massage did not have the same results as patients that received the treatment on a recurring basis. The build-up of stress is a continuous process and the relief of such build up must also be continuous. This is a critical distinction with parallels to many types of health issues like diet and exercise which need to be on a continuous basis.