SCOTS researchers say they have shown for the first time that reflexology can have an actual effect on the way a healthy person's heart functions.
Therapists have long believed the foot can be mapped to individual organs and that by massaging particular points, specific organs will receive more blood.
Now experts have carried out a study into the technique, testing the upper left ball of the sole that is said to map to the heart.
They discovered that healthy patients who underwent the treatment recorded a change in their heart function when that area of their feet was massaged. Reflexology on other parts of their feet had no such effect.
Cardiology patients who had problems with their blood flow, meanwhile, did not experience any change in their heart function.
Stirling University PhD researcher Jenny Jones, who carried out the work with Professor Steve Leslie, a cardiologist from the Cardiac Unit at Raigmore Hospital, said: "Reflexology is unique because it makes quite specific claims that it increases blood flow and this is something you can scientifically test.
"In our experiment with healthy people there was an inexplicable change in the heart function which occurred only when the heart reflex point area was massaged. We have no idea what caused this change, so we have applied for funding to investigate this further.
"Interestingly, there was no effect on the hearts of cardiology patients; however, all the patients found the treatment to be really relaxing."
The research, published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, will now be extended.
Ms Jones said: "There are limitations to what we can do with clinical medicine but there has not been much scientific research available on complementary therapies such as reflexology to help people decide if they work or not"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article