Evidenced Based Reflexology

How much reflexology it takes to create health

Evidence-Based Reflexology for Health Professionals and Researchers

By Barbara & Kevin Kunz

It's all here - everything you need to make evidence-based decisions about using reflexology in your work or research. Documented with research results are: Creating successful outcomes by considering dosing and other parameters; What reflexology does as documented by research; Summary chart of protocols for 168 studies and 78 health conditions; Time line information for successful outcomes from real time to single session to daily session and more; Dosing for results with physiologic measures; Reflexology's impact on physiologic measures; Dosing and results by systems of the body; Results of self-help and hand reflexology application; Discussion of negative outcomes; and Discussion of control groups. Bibliography. Table of Contents

Reflexology research shows that systematic patterns of pressure technique application create specific changes in the body and its health. Evidence found in research provides answers about two issues: what results can be obtained through reflexology work and how to get results with reflexology. Consequently, it is now possible to make evidence-based predictions about reflexology and dosing: the amount of reflexology work needed to achieve a specific outcome.

Results from some 168 reflexology studies are reported here. The studies were selected because abstract or full study information included an indication of how much reflexology work lead to reported results. This included information about the frequency (how often) and/or duration (how long) of technique application. They, thus, met the major goals of this work - assessing reflexology research to determine parameters for success (or failure) with reflexology technique application as well as dosing information.

Some of the studies follow the rigorous standard of science: inclusion of treatment and control groups; randomized assignment of participants to treatment or control groups; blinding or double blinding; publication in peer reviewed journals; and listing with PubMed, the National Institute of Health database. Studies are included, however, which are outside of these standards. This has been done to provide information that serves as a starting point for exploring guidelines for reflexology technique application: frequency (how often), duration (how long) and strength of signal (how hard). Such information is important for those who would conduct rigorous scientific research as well as those who seek to apply reflexology as professional practitioners, care givers and/or self-help users.

This work includes discussions as well as tables of information. Discussions include: general factors impacting successful outcomes (page 21), general results of reflexology work (page 32), negative outcomes (page 178) and control group factors (page 193). Tables include information about procedures and outcomes (page 40) and specific dosing and results (pages 117, 126, 133, 138, 163, 173). Included also is the Bibliography of 167 studies.

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