Reflexology
That last sentence should be all you need to know how stupid it is, but I’ll continue anyway.
In 1917, Dr. William Fitzgerald wrote a book called Zone Therapy in which he said that the body has 10 “energy zones” and that disharmony of these are what cause illness and affliction. In the 1930′s Eunice Ingham said that Dr. Fitzgerald was wrong. She should have stopped there, but instead she decided to take the batcrapness an extra step by saying that each part of the foot is a “mirror site” to a certain part of the body. The big toe, for example, is considered a reflex area for the head. Reflexology maps the body with the feet, the right foot corresponding to the right side of the body and the left foot corresponding to the left side of the body. Because the whole body is represented in the feet, reflexologists consider themselves to be not just podiatrists, but actual health practitioners.
Reflexologists claim that they can cure a variety of aches and pains by massaging the correct reflex points on the foot, I guess if you’re just going to make stuff up without verifying it, you can kind of just say whatever you want, because other reflexologists claim the ability to cure migraine headaches, relieve sinus problems, restore harmony to hormonal imbalances, cure breathing disorders, correct digestive problems, and restore your circulatory system’s natural harmony.. If you have a back problem, a massage on the right spot on the right foot (which might be the left foot in some cases?!?!) can alleviate your suffering. All from massaging your feet.
To illustrate how completely inane this idea is, imagine you calling someone to fix your plumbing. Instead of a plumber coming to your house, you get a “house reflexologist”. He assures you that he can fix your problem through some mystical power you can’t possible understand, the propmptly begins hitting your ceiling fan with a wrench. When you tell him that’s not where the plumbing problem is, he says they’re connected (meaning they’re in the same house) and that you just need to relax and let house reflexology work.
A recent study, published in The Medical Journal of Australia, searched medical databases for 18 medical studies that met scientific crtieria. In the studies, 12 failed to prove any effect at all, positive or negative.
Foot massages feel awesome, yes, but don’t mistake it for actual medical care, because it’s not. And perpetuating the belief that it is may cause people to look to it to cure their ailments instead of an actual, tested, effective treatment. That’s the real tragedy with any alternative medicine. It’s exploiting people’s health concerns for a cheap buck, at best doing nothing and at worst suspending their recovery. Don’t let the do it to you.
