Reflexology was first practiced by the early Egyptian, Indian, Native American and Chinese settlers. Reflexology, is no ‘New Age’ therapy, but is a form of healing that has been known to man throughout the world for thousands of years.
The earliest recorded example of what we know today as Reflexology, was found in an Egyptian pictograph found in the tomb of a physician named Ankmahor at Saqqara dating back to 2330 BC. It is known as ‘The Physician’s tomb’ and the translation reads ‘Don’t hurt me’, the reply is ‘I shall act so you praise me’.
In the late 19th Century if it had not been for the enquiring minds of Dr William Fitzgerald and Eunice Ingham the modern understanding of reflexology may never have happened.
Dr William Fitzgerald, an American Ear, Nose and Throat specialist late 19th Century was the founder of Zone Therapy. He discovered the anesthetic effects of pressure points on the skin around the nose and other points on the mucosa of the nose, mouth and throat.
Fitzgerald observed that direct pressure on certain parts of the body could produce an anesthetic effect on a corresponding part of the body particularly when it was in a direct line running vertically from head to toe. By dividing the body into 10 vertical zones ending in the 5 fingers and 5 toes on either side of the body, he was able to predict other parts of the body which could be affected. He concluded that pressure on any one part of a zone could affect areas contained in that same zone. For example, the hip, knee and shoulder are all in zone 5 whilst the Spine is in zone 1.
Eunice Ingham
(1889 -1974) is known as the Mother of Reflexology. She developed the Zone Therapy findings from Fitzgerald further, and had the opportunity to treat hundreds of patients. She was able to determine that the reflexes on the feet were an exact mirror image of the organs of the body. In 1938 Dr. Riley encouraged her to write her first book entitled ‘Stories the Feet Can Tell’ where she documented her cases and carefully mapped out the reflexes on the feet as we know today. Most western cultures follow the Ingham Method of Reflexology.
In later years her nephew Dwight Byers continued spreading the word through teaching seminars and wrote the book Better Health with Foot Reflexology.