Foot Reflexology and Detox

Detoxification is not a new health concept. In fact, detoxification as a health treatment has been around for a long, long time. Popular detoxification methods in modern time include the suana, dieting, colon cleansing, detoxification pills and solutions etc.

However, non of these detoxification methods are as easy, quick, cost effective, safe and effective as detoxification foot patches. In fact, some of these methods are even downright dangerous and had even accounted for a death or two.

Traditionally, the Chinese and Japanese have known about the detoxification effect of certain tree extracts and the meridian pressure points of relexology and accupressure. Combined with other herbs and when applied to the sole of the foot, it has been found to vastly improve circulation and promote detoxification of the human body leading to general better health and well-being. This combination of toxin cleansing and reflexology has made this formula a favourite among Asians, young and old, healthy and weak.

Today, this beneficial formula is packed in plaster pack using modern, hygiene packing methods and sold worldwide.

Detox (detoxification) is a term that's came into popular use in the last decade or so but only within the realm of alternative or holistic Western medicine.

Conventional, mainstream (allopathic) medical practitioners have yet to latch on to this concept, since they're only trained to treat diseases and symptoms specifically without treating the patient as a whole.

However, the concepts associated with detox have been recognized and practized in traditional Chinese Medicine (and other Asian, e.g. Indian Ayurvedic medicine) society for at least 3,000 years.

Basically, detox is about:
1) Recognizing that the body is exposed to toxins in the environment through the food we ingest and the air we breathe;

2) Adopting a systematic approach to help the body cleanse itself of these toxins and avoid further exposure to toxins.

Detox methods include dietary changes, fasting, supplements, exercise, yoga/meditation, massages, reflexology improving the environment (using CFC-free hair sprays, for example), New Age methods include aromatherapy, salt bath, skin brushing, etc.

Do I believe in detox personally? Well, most of it is plain simple common sense - proper diet, judicious supplementation, adequate rest, exercise, employ stress-relieving techniques in daily life...

I always believe that if the person's energy fields are harmonized and balanced (yin & yang), then his health will generally be good. I also believe that physical health follows mental and psychical health. So I'm a believer in the holistic (Western or Eastern) approach to health.

Foot reflexology, or otherwise known as foot massage, aims to prevent or treat health conditions through the application of finger pressure to specific points on the feet. The underlying idea of reflexology is that certain areas of the feet correspond to certain parts of the body, and by stimulating those areas; you can heal and detoxify that corresponding part of the body.

Reflexology and similar foot treatments have been used for thousands of years in places like China, Thailand, India and Egypt. It wasn't until the early 20th century, when an American physician named William Fitzgerald suggested that the foot be "mapped" to other areas of the body to diagnose and treat medical conditions. This process was originally called zone therapy. He strategically divided the body into 10 zones, each zone representing a different organ or body system. He then proposed that constant and regular pressure on a particular area of the foot could relieve pain, tension and promote healing as "reflexed" in the targeted zone.

In the 1930s, a nurse and physiotherapist named Eunice Ingham, further developed these maps to include specific reflex points. It was at that time that zone therapy was renamed reflexology and the name has stuck ever since. Modern reflexology charts include pictures of the feet with diagrams of corresponding internal organs or parts of the body. The right side of the body is represented in the right foot, and the left side, in the left foot. Reflexology is used by a vast array of health care providers today, such as massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and physical therapists.

Case studies do produce convincing evidence that the therapy is effective. One theory, begun by the ancient Chinese, is that the body contains an invisible life force(chi), or energy field, represented by meridian points in different parts of the body, that when blocked, result in sickness, pain or ill-feeling. The Chinese believe that suitable stimulation of the foot and meridian points can unblock and increase the flow of vital energy to various parts of the body, which promotes healing.

Modern doctors, who have studied the Chinese body meridian principles, put forward scientific theories that traditional treatments such as reflexology, massage and acupuncture causes the release of endorphins, which are natural pain killers produced by the body, stimulation of nerve circuits in the body, and the promo