Читать книгу Reflexology: The Definitive Practitioner's Manual: Recommended by the International Therapy Examination Council for Students and Practitoners - Beryl Crane - Страница 19

Holistic medicine is an approach to health care in general; it is based upon the idea that health is the result of harmony between the body, mind and spirit and any extreme stress of any kind, which includes physical, psychological, social and environmental pressure, is inimical to good health.

Natural healing takes place every day. When you cut yourself, the body’s innate power draws and knits together tissue and heals the wound. If we fracture a bone, many parts of the body perform different tasks for healing to occur; a team effort is needed, as no single body part works alone. The body is like a machine with many component parts that perform daily chores in maintaining blood circulation, and ensuring the correct level of fluids and enzymes to keep it in good running order. These functions would not be able to take place without energy. Food is the fuel that provides the energy the body needs for its cells to perform their intricate tasks. Every part of the body is involved with a complex nerve network, with the brain as the control centre, monitoring and co-ordinating every function. All the component parts need to be in balance.

Reflexology provides the means whereby the body can be synchronized to balance the timing of its engine. Reflexology is a fascinating study of the links between reflex points of the feet and hands and longitudinal (vertical) pathways or zones. As we work on the feet, we thus form a picture of the entire body. In this way the feet or hands are considered a microcosm of the body, with all organs, glands, and so on laid out in the same arrangement (for details of the reflex areas, see plates 1–4).

As mentioned above, all processes that take place in the cells of the body need energy. The energy transfer that is central to reflexology and other healing systems such as shiatsu, acupuncture and acupressure allows the body’s integrated systems to achieve homeostasis. We often hear in traditional medical systems terms such as ‘Chi’, frequently translated as ‘life energy’ or ‘life force’, or ‘Prana’, meaning breath of life. Energy is indeed constantly circulating through the body and is the very foundation of life. At a cellular level, we need energy to survive, we draw energy from the food we eat and this powers every cell within the body, which in turn needs its own energy to function. It is this much deeper level of biotic energy, the innate energy at cellular level, which maintains the metabolic processes that we work on.

At the neurological level, every machine needs a control system, and the complex brain is the control and computer system of the body. The brain, which is the source of conscious awareness of each and every thought process, is also a motor centre initiating and co-ordinating the voluntary movements of the body, and interpreting all the fast incoming information received from the sense organs. It monitors and discharges the necessary signals to muscles, glands or other parts of the nervous system to respond appropriately. It is a vast network, and is the body’s greatest user of energy, to power the many chemical and neurological processes associated with it.

The physical body and its component parts are made up from billions and billions of cells, and even though there are many types, shapes and sizes, the one thing they all have in common is a requirement for energy. According to the holistic concept, for instance as found in TCM theory, if this internal energy is obstructed, deficient or in excess in any way the cells function less effectively. In reflexology, during a treatment session the therapist will utilize those pathways of energy that already exist in the human body and they return the imbalanced or deficient energy flow safely back into harmony. Reflexology treatment is given to look after and nurture the body, and is often likened to the constant maintenance and preservation that a machine needs to keep it in good running order. We know for any effective control of any manmade apparatus it needs power or energy and maintenance. The first often can only be achieved by giving it a motor or engine that drives it, and this in turn must be maintained. The engine may be driven or powered by electricity or another substance.

Two opposing systems are also usually needed to make it work, for instance in a car engine the brake and the accelerator. This again is paralleled in many of the systems within the body. Locomotion is the result of the co-ordinated action of muscles on the limbs. The muscles of the body work in antagonizing pairs. The same is true of hormones which interact in a biofeedback system that enables them to regulate the body towards an almost constant state. For example, glucagon raises the level of blood glucose, while insulin has an opposing effect and lowers the glucose levels. High levels of oestrogen are secreted by the ovaries to stimulate ovulation but (in the absence of egg fertilization) are counterbalanced during the monthly menstrual cycle by progesterone, which in turn is only secreted under the control of other hormones from the pituitary. These gonadotrophin hormones thus work in unison. From this we see how the body must be in balance. Hormones are responsible for certain changes in the body, and work together with the nervous system to monitor and control blood pressure levels. Hormone responses are not so quick as those of the nervous system, and they function more on a long-term basis. By these physiological processes all the internal systems of the body (for example blood pressure, body temperature, the acid-base balance) are maintained at equilibrium despite variations in the external conditions. If there is a homeostatic imbalance in the various systems then disease will eventually occur.

Since all the systems of the body interrelate, only one area needs to be slightly out of balance to lead to disorders in other areas. These problems can often be observed to travel up and down a zone and even affect other parts of the body. Ill-health often falls into what is known as the ‘vague symptom’ category: a general malaise is often felt, every part of the body aches with general stress in neck and shoulders, the person may be irritable, not sleeping properly, picking at or eating too much food, making them feel ill or tense. Such a person may be unsure whether to go to their doctor or not, in case they are labelled neurotic, and the symptoms often continue for a long period of time. It is only when a problem becomes chronic do they begin to be more concerned.

Many complementary therapies, among them reflexology, are natural, non-invasive, and drugless paths to self-help, helping to restore a person to a more tranquil temperament, improve their mental condition and enable the person to cope better with life’s demands. Reflexology treatment encourages a generally healthier body by facilitating the proper functioning of the circulatory system, so enabling the supply of nutrients and oxygen to reach all cells of the body.

Imbalance of our internal environment is often caused by stress (see chapter 10 for a detailed discussion of this). The excitatory process of a stress stimulus often changes this internal environment, causing high blood pressure, pain in many parts of the body because the muscles become tense, depression, brooding or morbid thoughts, a change in our circadian (or daily) rhythms and other regular biological body rhythms (e.g. daily body temperature variations, sleeping and waking patterns, the female menstrual cycle). The hypothalamus and the medulla oblongata (see figure 2.23) contain the main brain centres controlling such homeostatic functions. While in a healthy body slight changes can be coped with, major changes such as going on holiday abroad (time change) can cause a very real problem. Also shift workers, for instance nurses or people who work nights, often find this interference with regular rhythms of the body leads to the so-called psychosomatic disorders (i.e. mental and physical disorders such as asthma, eczema, peptic ulcer, irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, back stresses). All these are caused by the body’s automatic responses to stress, mediated by the autonomic nervous system.