In these “Case History” pages I’ll try detailing some of the cases I’ve taken on and the results I’ve had using Reflexology

Traumatic Brain Injury

Diabetes

Fertility

Stroke

  TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI) AND REFLEXOLOGY

I have been having very impressive success with two cases of traumatic brain injury. TBI is a very serious problem that is getting much more attention now because it is the "signature injury" of returning veterans from Iraq, and it's one that mainstream medicine has few answers for.

Case #1 is a young man who had anorexic brain damage in 1986 from some kind of wrong medicine they gave him in the hospital in Israel. He was in a coma for 7 months, and came out totally paralyzed, having lost the ability to read. Various physical therapy wonder workers had gotten him to the point that he could walk with an attendant holding his arm so he wouldn't fall (very poor balance) and could speak, although in a slow, difficult-to-understand drawl. I began working on him in October, 2006, and scheduled two sessions a week. At the end of the first session he was unable to get out of the La Fuma reflexology chair, and I had great difficulty supporting him and getting him up out of the chair. He was slow of speech - when he attempted any - and seemed confused.

At the second session he seemed more aware and vocal, and at the third session he confided that he had several small seizures each day. By the 6th session he was able to get out of the reflexology chair without assistance, and his seizures were becoming infrequent. After I suggested the seizures might be related to sugar balance he reported that he was free of seizures except when he missed a meal. I continued to do twice-a-week Reflexology sessions, and by the end of December he reported that he was much more secure in his walking, only needing his attendant nearby in case he lost balance, and I noticed that he was getting much more alert and articulate - we had long conversations during the Reflexology sessions about current events, etc. His speech seems to be quite normal now - although on the phone he sometimes slips back into his labored, drawling speech style.

Case #2 is a middle-aged woman who was severely injured in an auto accident 16 years ago. She was pronounced dead and taken to the morgue, but recovered - sort of. She was in a coma for months, and when she came out of it the doctors told her that she'd lost ¾ of her brain, and that she would never be able to "mainstream" - participate in normal society. They emphasized that strong family support was absolutely necessary for even partial recovery. She had no family support at all, and has spent 15 years fighting that diagnosis. She re-learned to read at the Rusk Institute, and took courses at the Open Center, creating a substitute family out of her psychotherapist, her health aid, and people at the Open Center and at Landmark Education, where she serves as a volunteer office worker.

Except for normal health problems to be expected for a middle-aged woman who drinks, smoked until the doctors told her she had emphysema, and is overweight, her problems are all psychological. But they are severe. (Drinking can be considered a TBI symptom. TBI people may have a low tolerance for alcohol, and self-medication by alcohol or drugs is very common.)

The doctors gave her a list of 14 symptoms common to TBI survivors, which included anxiety, depression, poor coordination, inability to focus, being fearful (of all sorts of things) hyper sensitivity, rigidity (can't handle changes) low confidence and self-esteem, "disinhibition" (speaking inappropriately) and redundancy (saying the same thing over and over). In her case - with no family support - there was also a complete loss of identity. She speaks about her "other life".

I first started working on her on Jan 26, 2007. I did a very light - mostly relaxation technique session, but noted that her brain reflexes were quite tender. When she came for her second session three days later she said she'd been badly discombobulated after our first session, and forgotten how to do the computer data input she normally does. Again, I did a light session. The next few sessions I concentrated on other issues (she had a sore shoulder, and I concentrated on shoulder and spinal work to clear that up) but each time did a little on the brain reflexes too

At her 5th session she said that her memories were coming back. She'd been able to remember some of her high school Spanish to communicate with her cleaning lady. At her 7th session she reported a breakthrough - she'd been able to stay home alone without having a panic attack and stressing out - the first time in 15 years. She reports that her friends say she seems less frazzled now, "more peaceful", "coherently present" "happier", "more patient", has a "peaceful aura". (Apparently this is very noticeable, since when she's frustrated she starts banging on the table, crying, swearing, shaking, etc.) Also, she says her sense of smell is coming back.

It's evident that TBI people may have a whole basketful of psychological problems, and this person is going to need pages and pages of more "breakthroughs" before she's done.

What's very noticeable about these two cases is the tremendous difference in their symptoms, and the way that Reflexology is effective in addressing both of them. In working on them both I've concentrated on the brain, spinal and endocrine reflexes, but I do the whole foot every time, in an effort to balance the body and its control systems. There aren't any magic spots, or if there are I haven't found them - just normal therapeutic Reflexology twice a week. (I'd do three times a week if I could manage it, and would expect it to be even more effective. There's a cumulative effect that is often lost in once-a-week sessions.)

I'm hoping to get the attention of whoever is responsible for treating the returning veterans and setting up some kind of program. Of course the veterans won't have any money to pay for Reflexology, but if we can demonstrate effectiveness we may be able to get some kind of grant.

Diabetes and Bad Sugar Management

With Reflexology we generally expect to clear up Type II diabetes if we can get the clients to come in three times a week and keep checking their sugar and consulting their doctor.  With Type I diabetes we don’t expect to clear it up, but rather to help with the accompanying symptoms.  (Nobody’s going to be cutting your feet off if you’re getting regular Reflexology.)  But I’ve always wondered – they don’t diagnose diabetes at birth – they pick it up when the child is four or five years old.  So what if you started working on the child then?  Could you so normalize the body that they never would be diagnosed?  And how could you know? 

I haven’t gotten to work on a pre-diabetic child yet, but a couple of years ago they brought me an 8-year-old boy.  He was a big child, bigger than his classmates, and somewhat plump.  His father was an athlete and assumed that if his son was “fat” there must be something wrong with him – nothing to take to the doctor, but maybe some Reflexology would help.  The boy was constantly whining for sugar (“Can’t we stop by the cookie place? Please? Can’t we stop?”) indicating a severe problem with sugar management.   

I told them that to clear up a condition they needed at least two sessions a week (although three would be better) so they paid for a series of 10 sessions and arranged for him to come twice a week.  I worked on him as I would for any sugar-management person, the whole foot, but extra on the pancreas, liver, adrenal and other endocrine, and spinal reflexes. 

When he came for his third session (second week) he told me that he’d taken his secret candy stash and thrown it down the air shaft at his apartment, where he wouldn’t be able to get it again, because he knew that it was bad for him and he realized that he no longer had to have candy.  He said he still liked candy, but now he no longer had to have it.  (When you have to have it, you have a secret stash whether it’s bad for you or not.)  In all, he did six of the 10 sessions his parents had paid for (kids get really fast results).  His complexion changed, his whole personality changed, and his parents said “okay, he’s fixed” and went off to vacation in Bermuda.  They never came back to finish up the sessions they paid for, but he’s an intelligent and responsible kid, so I figure he’ll stay off the sugar and be okay.

Unfortunately for the cause of science (but maybe fortunately for the child) he was never diagnosed, so I don’t know if he was hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemic (diabetes/high blood sugar).  Whatever it was, Reflexology seemed to clear up the problem.

Female Fertility - and Male as Well

Reflexology is a very effective way to promote fertility, and I have had a remarkably high percentage of success in helping women (and sometimes men) resolve their fertility problems. It is a natural result of normalizing the body and its hormonal systems, which follows from working on the hormonal reflexes. Menstrual cycles become normal, menstrual pain (in most cases) decreases or stops, and the body begins working in an optimal manner.

Even the doctors in the fertility clinic will tell you that your fertility will be enhanced if you are relaxed, but the procedures they recommend are often so stressful that they defeat their purpose (your body starts thinking the world must be a very dangerous place - not a good time to have a chile) and the whole process becomes distasteful to the patient. With Reflexology, the client is mentally and physically relaxed, and the reproductive organs are relaxed as well. The birth cycle is helped to proceed normally and naturally - without any extra effort or attention from the mother-to-be.

Ideally you should work on both partners in the fertility effort, but usually I only get to work on the woman. That's often enough, though - if you get the woman up to 90% you can usually make something happen even if the man is only at 40%. Recently, though, I spoke to a person who works in a fertility clinic and she told me that they are getting a lot of low sperm counts now. This may be caused by the increased use of agricultural Atrazine, a type of herbicide that was banned in Europe in 2006 (but so far not in the US), and has been shown to turn male frogs into female frogs.

I do occasionally get male fertility clients. I had one who was the son of a chiropractor, so he was sort of in the alternative medicine world, and he and his wife were not being successful in their efforts to have a baby. They got the wife into the hospital and did all sorts of tests on her, and finally said, "There's nothing wrong with you - let's get your husband in for a sperm count". He said, "No - I'll get some Reflexology." So he came in for a few sessions, and one day there was a call on my answering machine "Okay, my wife's pregnant - I won't be in Tuesday. Thanks." A little sleazy, perhaps, but once they'd established that everything was okay with his wife's body, so no danger in a pregnancy - does he really care if his sperm are the wrong size or shape or color or speak the wrong language, or are insufficient in number? No, he just wanted to normalize it. And as the son of a chiropractor, he was reasonably sure that Reflexology would do that, which, in fact it did.

I want to emphasize that there are no special techniques or reflexes to be worked for fertility - it all happens as a result of working all the reflexes on both feet, which relaxes the whole body. For female fertility cases I may do a little extra on the ovary, uterus and fallopian tube reflexes, and on the other hormonal reflexes (pituitary, adrenal and thyroid glands) and on the spinal points that provide the nerve supply to these organs. For male fertility I may do a little extra on the comparable areas for the male. But I have had fertility results - sometimes unintentional and surprising results - without doing anything extra for the reproductive organs at all.

I now routinely caution women who I suspect think they are no longer fertile that "If you're going to do a whole series of sessions you may want to take some precautions - when everything is normalized it all works normally."

Stroke

I have had a number of successes with stroke victims. A stroke is a brain circulation problem - either a blockage or a bust-out - and improving circulation in the brain with Reflexology is often very helpful.

(We had a medical breakthrough in stroke treatment a couple of years ago, so now - if you have the right kind of stroke, and you get to the hospital in a couple of hours, and it's the right hospital and everybody who needs to be there is there - there's something they can do about it. Otherwise, there's no effective treatment, all they can do is give you some blood thinners so maybe you won't get another stroke.)

But with Reflexology, you can improve the brain circulation and actually make a difference.

My first case of this was a number of years ago, when I got a call from the family of a 90-year-old Orthodox rabbi in Brooklyn who'd had a stroke. Usually with a stroke they figure that whatever doesn't come back in six months is gone, and this had been eight months. His blood pressure was very high, he was angry at the physical therapists and everybody else, and his mind was disordered - he didn't recognize people in his family. Somebody came back from Israel and recommended Reflexology, so they called the International Institute of Reflexology and got the numbers of several New York Reflexologists from them. I guess I was the only one who was willing to come to their house to work on him, although I didn't live near.

I started working on him twice a week, and after a week or so his blood pressure went down and he stopped being angry. Then - a few weeks later - his brain started working again. A friend came to see him on the Sabbath from the other side of Brooklyn, so he had to walk several miles to get to him, since orthodox people are not allowed to take transportation on the Sabbath. When the rabbi saw him he asked - 'What are you doing here? How did you get here?' So he had to understand who the person was, where he lived, that it was the Sabbath, etc. There was much rejoicing from his family at that.

But then we hit a plateau. I kept working on him, but he didn't seem to get any better. He was a big man, and he'd fallen several times, so he was afraid to get out of his wheelchair. He recognized everybody in his family by then, and when they spoke to him he'd say 'What do you want me to say?' in Yiddish. Apparently he was depressed. Finally, his family told me that they thought he'd had enough Reflexology, so I quit coming to see him. By then I was working on his grandson's wife and daughter, so I was kept up with family news, but I didn't hear from him again for almost a year. His other granddaughter called me up and asked if I could come at least once a week - she thought it had helped him before.

When I went to see him his energy seemed very low - it looked like it might be his last week. (He was 91 by then.) I figured once a week wasn't going to be enough, so I started to come three times a week, and after a couple of weeks he perked up. He'd lost his depression and regained his zest for life. He gave a blessing to a great-great-great grandchild, and he attended a ceremonial religious dinner and said a few words as a patriarch should. The people in his congregation got very excited - "He's coming back!" They told me they'd found a wonder-working doctor and would put him entirely under his care. Later I heard he'd had a colostomy, and eventually I heard he'd died.

Well, you don't want to live forever anyway, with the deterioration that happens with age. But the case is instructive. If it were my grandfather I'd be in there in the hospital working on him the day after he had his stroke, and we'd never know if the Reflexology helped or not. With this case, with the on-again, off-again treatments, we can see that when you're getting Reflexology things may get better, and when you're not they may not, but it doesn't make you 25 years old again.

There are many different sorts of symptoms that go with strokes. Another case I had was a man whose stroke had left him with a weak left foot that he sometimes kind of dragged, but his big problem was speech. Sometimes - but not always - when he'd speak what would come out would be a garble of nonsense syllables. He'd think he was speaking words, but it wouldn't be words. He was trying to run a business, and this led to many upsets and frustrations.

I started working on him twice a week - again house calls on a distant client - and after a couple of months his speech came back. He still dragged his foot a little when he was tired, but his speech seemed to be all recovered. They decided that it was a physical therapy problem, and went back to Europe where they could get free physical therapy.

Naturally, it helps to start working on the stroke victim as soon as you can, but I know of one case (not mine, but a friend's) where symptoms from a stroke of 18 years before were helped by Reflexology. Even if there has been destruction of brain tissue - they say we're not using most of our brains, anyway, so if you can relax the brain and get it some circulation maybe they can break out a few rooms an furnish them. You never know what you can do, and you won't do any harm by working on them, so you might as well work on anybody who needs it.