Scottish Institute of Reflexology
2000
How a 'caterpillar' eased Casey's pain:[3 Edition]
Sam Phipps. Sunday Herald. Glasgow (UK): Feb 20, 2000. pg. 8
People: Gordon, Jenny, Clogstoun-Willmott, Jonathan
Text Word Count 1288
Abstract (Article Summary)
The caterpillar is Jenny Gordon's thumb and she is practicing reflexology. Gordon is pioneering a complementary therapies project at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh. [Casey] is one of the many children who have benefited since it was set up last year.
Her mother, Elaine Black, knew nothing about reflexology but was prepared to try anything to cure her daughter's chronic constipation, which ...
http://health.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2000/06/13/thhel13.xml
Catherine's alternative view
(Filed: 13/06/2000)
Christine Doyle meets the woman responsible for putting new-look therapy on TV
MOST people look forward to unwinding after a day's work. But Catherine Humphrys, a massage therapist, is frequently out of luck. More often than not, her boyfriend, a marine archaeologist, beseeches her to sort out his back after a strenuous day's diving.
Even when she visits her father, there is no let up. John Humphrys, the no-nonsense presenter of Today on Radio 4, is particularly keen on Indian head massage. "With a new baby to look after, Dad is going through a stressful time," she says. "During the pregnancy, he often asked me to give him 'one of those head things'. He likes reflexology as well - 'the foot thing'."
Now Catherine, 30, is about to move into her father's world when she becomes a presenter for the Medical Channel. Launched this month, this seven-day-a-week diet of medical news, clinical updates, best practice and developments in the NHS will be available only to doctors and health workers.
Complementary and alternative therapies are to be given strong billing and Catherine has started filming for a series called Complementary Alternatives. This is a neat way of bridging the gap between such therapies and mainstream medicine. The aim is to inform doctors about how the treatments work, and encourage them to refer more patients.
Catherine is well aware that some doctors remain openly scornful of what they regard as an unregulated, expensive, unproven and - possibly - unsafe industry. When she started her own, now flourishing, career at the City Osteopathic Clinic in Southampton, she wrote to every local GP suggesting she should visit them to explain what she was doing. "I had absolutely no response," she says.
She believes that traditional and alternative practitioners should work hand-in-hand and insists she would never advise patients against consulting their GPs. "If I am unsure about their symptoms or what they tell me, I ask if I might liaise with their doctor." As she points out, more and more people are drawn to non-orthodox treatments, which they view as less invasive.
"Patients are better informed than in the past; they read more and scour the internet," she says. "They don't want to have antibiotics or antidepressants doled out to them. They know that many 'modern day' conditions - irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, stress and tension - can be helped by non-orthodox treatments." Very few, she stresses, have side effects.
Her first encounter with the alternative world came during her early career as a publicist for Care International, a leading aid agency, and later for the BBC's Children in Need appeal. "I discovered massage, and found it wonderful to relieve stress."
But her interest took root when her mother, Edna, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 1997 (her parents had separated some years before). "I simply could not stay in London, so I went to care for her at her home in Wales.
"The cancer had already spread to the liver and we knew she did not have long to live. It was all so unexpected. Here was a 55-year-old lady who had always done the right things in terms of health. But she was incredible, so practical and positive.
"As an ex-nurse, she knew what was happening. In a lot of cancer cases, the initial reaction is fear. Her response was to say: 'I am going to get on with my life, spend it with people I love, catch up with friends, finish doing my garden.' We spent the whole summer redecorating and planting.
"Mum opted not to have chemotherapy. There was no pressure. Her oncologist agreed her quality of life was reasonable, and there seemed little point in going in and out of hospital and feeling rotten, if there were only a few months left.
"One of the main things I learnt is that, with cancer, the patient has to be in control. It might sound obvious, but often you lose control because of all the technical things going on."
This was where alternative treatment helped. "She had regular reflexology and aromatherapy. Both of us spent time at the Bristol Cancer Centre which seemed to have the right approach.
"We did not want to ignore the illness, but we did not want it to take over her life. At Bristol, they look at your diet and ways you can help yourself. The focus is on quality of life. That was so important."
Towards the end, her mother moved to a local hospice where she died six months after the diagnosis. "The care was fantastic, my brother was there and my father visited. They had remained good friends - and he was such a support to my brother and me."
Catherine, who was "exceptionally close" to her mother, felt physically and emotionally exhausted by her death. "Going straight back to media London seemed a bit shallow," she says.
Instead, while sorting out her mother's house, she began college courses in anatomy, physiology, massage and reflexology. Building her practice in Southampton has been tough, but her background in publicity helped. "I wrote leaflets, contacted the local papers, talked to people."
Even now, many doctors still require proof before they can be convinced about the benefits of complementary medicine. But when it comes to palliative treatment, the case for an alternative approach is becoming more established. According to a recent report by Macmillan Cancer Relief, up to one third of cancer patients use alternatives and many oncology units and hospices offer at least one therapy.
Alternative therapies also help mothers-to-be to take control, says Catherine. "Reflexology is increasingly accepted as beneficial to relieve pain in labour, and acupuncture is being used in some NHS labour wards to ease nausea and pain."
But the Macmillan report also accepts that hard evidence for the efficacy of many treatments is lacking, and points to "limited research resources and poorly carried out clinical trials". Catherine argues that the Government should invest more money in research.
Haphazard regulation of many complementary therapies is another stumbling block. With some, there is no agreed body of knowledge and the quality of training can be rudimentary - sometimes no more than a few weeks. Catherine points to the lead set by osteopaths who have their own council with which all practitioners must be registered. "GPs need to know that when they refer someone for, say, back pain, the practitioner - osteopath, chiropractor, instructor in the Alexander Technique or Pilates - is fully trained and that there are controls should anything go wrong."
Catherine, a member of the British Reflexology Association, hopes the discipline's various bodies will follow the osteopaths' lead. To GPs who might dismiss reflexology - a system that involves massage of energy pressure points on the feet - as wacky, she says: "I have patients who have tried everything and reflexology only as a last resort. Remarkably, it helps. So I feel I am doing the right thing." But she warns against expecting instant results. "It is not like taking a miracle pill. It may take several sessions."
Her patients include "stressed out teachers, estate agents and lawyers". The youngest is taking her GCSEs; her oldest is in her eighties. "Some patients say massage gives you a mental uplift that lasts through a stressful day. It can ease sinus congestion, headaches, back, neck and shoulder tension, or problems with circulation. Or, if immunity is below par and the patient is catching one bug after another, it might act as a pick-me-up."
She readily admits that her father's reputation helped her to land her new role in front of a camera. "Dad is a good friend of the channel's managing editor. He was very insistent on having a qualified complementary practitioner as presenter for the series."
She is excited by the job which she sees as "a fantastic opportunity to get sensible information to GPs". In most cases, patients have to pay for complementary alternatives, but Catherine thinks that should not deter NHS doctors from informing them that something else might help. "Patients can make up their own minds. It is time for a change in attitudes."
http://health.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2000/10/03/thref03.xml
Making a stand against pain
(Filed: 03/10/2000)
A new kind of reflexology is much quicker and just as effective. Barbara Lantin meets its pioneer
YOU are in the office, hunched over your computer, when you become aware that your neck is killing you. Do you a) reach for the painkillers and struggle on, b) sit it out, doing very little work and praying for 5pm or c) go home. Employees at the Royal Sun Alliance insurance company in Horsham, Sussex, have another choice.
They can get a quick burst of Vertical Reflex Therapy (VRT), a new form of reflexology that is changing the face of this ancient therapy. The team at No Mean Feat, the workplace reflexologists who run the twice-fortnightly clinic at the Royal Sun Alliance, is raving about the new technique, in which the upper surface of the foot is treated - rather than the sole - while the client stands.
Not only is VRT more convenient, it is also much quicker than the traditional method. Results can, it is claimed, be seen after just a few minutes, and the recommended length of a treatment is no more than five minutes. "VRT is brilliant because it is short, simple and effective," says Louise Richardson of No Mean Feat, whose clients also include Sainsbury's.
"It helps with the kinds of postural problems from which people tend to suffer in the work environment - a bad back from driving, a stiff neck from the computer. You can get an almost instant increase in mobility. "
At work, employees don't always have time to lie down for half an hour or more for conventional reflexology. With VRT they can just pop along in the lunch break or at the end of the day. And you can give them self-help tips so that they can continue the treatment at home." VRT is the brainchild of Lynne Booth, who qualified as a reflexologist nine years ago after a career with IBM.
She stumbled on the new approach by accident. "When working with wheelchair patients I could not treat them lying down," explains Booth, whose book Vertical Reflexology, is out this month. "Indeed, it was often impossible to work on the sole of the foot at all when dealing with people whose legs were paralysed or whose feet were swollen. I tried working on the upper part and found I could obtain excellent results when pressing the patient's foot firmly on the foot-rest of their wheelchair."
However, it was not until she saw a patient who had injured her hip in a minor accident at home that Booth worked out the key to her new treatment. While the patient stood, Booth worked the hip, leg, spine and pelvic reflexes around her ankles for no more than 90 seconds. Ten minutes later, according to Booth, the woman experienced pain and warmth in her injured hip, followed by soreness and tingling.
By the following morning, she had greater mobility than she had enjoyed for months and - several years on - continues to do so. "After this I realised that when the reflexes on the foot - or the hands - are carrying weight, they respond more quickly. When the body is weight-bearing, energy blocks seem to clear with remarkable speed. It is as if there is a faster and more direct line of communication between the reflexes and the corresponding parts of the body. This accelerates the healing process.
"My colleagues and I have had some very exciting results. Shoulders that have been frozen for five years have freed up after a few minutes. Patients who could not put on their own socks, brush their hair or walk to the shops suddenly find they can. But it is important to say that not all VRT treatments produce such spectacular results."
Bernie Keane, a photographic stylist from West Hampstead, London, found the speed with which VRT works little short of miraculous. This year, she was diagnosed with breast cancer - a segmental mastectomy and an operation to remove her lymph nodes left her unable to raise her left arm. As a result, her radiotherapy treatment was delayed and she was referred for physiotherapy.
"When my reflexologist said she wanted to try a new treatment for two minutes, I almost laughed. As she touched one point on my foot, I gasped. When she had finished I could lift my arm above my ear. She gave me some exercises to do at home for a minute or so every morning and by the end of the week I had complete mobility."
"Other conditions including asthma, period pains, IBS and ME can also be treated," claims Booth. "It has been found to calm autistic children and it can be wonderful in labour when you cannot get the expectant mother to lie down. In theory, any condition can be helped and anybody can be taught to use VRT in its most basic form."
Lynne learnt this for herself when she fell six feet from the quay into the family's boat, cracking her head, back and shoulders. "I placed my foot on the seat and began some self-help VRT. I could feel my shoulder become warm almost immediately. I then asked my teenage daughter to work my feet while I stood and gave her instructions. After two or three minutes, I felt clicks, tingling and warmth in various parts of my body as I began to recover."
Booth uses this tale to illustrate that there is no mystique about VRT. In her book she explains how people can use the technique on their families and even on themselves. The thumb and the index finger are the main tools, with the right hand working the right foot and the left hand the left foot.
The reflexology charts show where to apply pressure for a particular problem. The area should be pressed firmly enough to produce a feeling of slight discomfort. "These skills can be really useful as first aid at home or work or when you are travelling," says Booth. "You will be able to react quickly if you fall or feel a sore throat or stomach ache coming on."
For occasions when it is embarrassing or impossible to start manipulating your foot, Booth describes the equivalent hand reflexes. She has taught 1,300 qualified reflexologists from all over Europe to use VRT and has training courses planned in Australia and South Africa.
She is constantly developing new techniques. Synergistic Reflexology involves working on hand and foot simultaneously: a "double whammy" for particularly painful or long-standing problems. In Diaphragm Rocking, the reclining foot is drawn backwards and forwards in a powerful rhythm that can, apparently, channel energy to wherever it is needed, and send even the most active patient to sleep.
Booth's latest discovery is a mini body map under the toenails. "I have worked out a kind of grid system by trial and error. If I press the tip of a fingernail on a toenail while the patient is standing - so that the foot is weight-bearing - people feel sensitivity in different parts of their body. It seems particularly effective for hormonal problems.
"There is always something new. It is very exciting."
Do-it-yourself VRT
Place your foot on an upright chair and lean forward so it is bearing as much weight as possible. Using both hands, work swiftly round ankle using fingers, thumbs and knuckles. Slip fingers under the arch of your foot and pull upwards to relax lower back. Work along the inside of the foot from toe to heel on the spinal reflexes Work fingertips down from ankle to toe, making fingers "caterpillar" walk in tiny bites to stimulate the main organs. Press firmly down on the big toenail for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other foot. Vertical Reflexology (Piatkus) by Lynne Booth is available from our retail partner, Amazon, for the special price of £10.39. Click here to order a copy online. To find your nearest VRT practitioner, send sae to Booth VRT, Suite 205, 60 Westbury Hill, Bristol BS9 3UJ. Website: www.boothvrt.com. No Mean Feat: 01483 237386.