A Brief History of Reflexology

The roots of reflexology go way back in ancient history when pressure therapies were recognised as preventive and therapeutic medicine. Evidence indicates that foot massage techniques were practised throughout history by a variety of cultures.

It is believed that reflexology originated in China around 5000 years ago, although there is no concrete proof. The oldest documentation depicting the practice of reflexology was unearthed in Egypt, a pictograph dated around 2500-2330 BC, that was found in a tomb of an Egyptian physician, evidence showed that the physician was an influential person – second only to the king.

Another theory claims that a form of reflex therapy was passed down to the American Indians to the Incas. The use of reflex therapy has been practised by the North American Indians for generations. For centuries the Cherokee Indians of North Carolina have acknowledged the imporatance of feet in maintaining physical, mental and spiritual balance.

Throughout the ages the knowledge of reflexology may have been lost had it not been for the inquiring medical minds of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. People intrigued by the concept of reflex therapy instigated a renewed interest in the study of reflexes. The study and development of reflex therapy by pioneering Europeans and enterprising Americans laid the foundations of reflexology as we know it today.

In Europe a form of reflexology was know and practiced as far back as the fourteenth century. The scientific basis of reflex study had its roots in neurological studies conducted by Sir Henry Head of London in the 1890’s. In 1898 he discovered zones on the skin which became hypersensitive to pressure when an organ connected by nerves to this skin region was diseased. After years of clinical research Head established what became known as ‘Head’s zones’ or ‘zones of hyperalgesia’.

Europeans went on to expand their research but it was the Americans who put modern reflexology on the map.

Dr. William Fitzgerald, commonly known as the founder of zone therapy, graduated in medicine from the university of Vermont in 1895 and practised in hospitals in Vienna and London. In Vienna he came across the work of Dr. H. Bressler who has been investigating the possibility of treating organs with pressure points. While head physician at the Hospital for Diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat in Hartford, Connecticut, he managed to test many of his theories on his patients. Later Fitzgerald divided the body into zones. He found that by exerting pressure on specific parts of the body he learned to predict which othe parts of the body were affected.

His theory was that parts of the body found within a certain zone will be linked with one another by the energy flow within the zone and can therefore affect another. In his book ‘Zone therapy’ Fitzgerald describes that when pressure is applied to areas of the feet, hands or over the joints, he found characteristic results in pain relief and that when pain was relieved, the condition that produced the pain was generally releived too.

Fitzgerald, Bower and Riley developed and refined the theory of zone therapy, but it was Riley’s assistant Eunice Ingham who probably made the greatest contribution tot he establishment of modern reflexology.

Eunice Ingham (1879-1974) used zone therapy in her work but felt that the feet should be the main focus for therapy because of their highly sensitive nature. She charted the feet in relation to the zones and their effects on the rest of the anatomy until she had evolved on the feet themselves a ‘map’ of the entire body. She was so successful with her work that her reputation spread and she is now recognised as the founder of foot reflexology.

The Chinese Connection

There is a strong link between acupuncture and reflexology, they are based on similar ideas. The Chinese were undoubtedly aware of the importance of the feet in treating disease.