What does the research say about Reflexology and long term conditions?
Source – Reflexions Summer 2023
Author – Tracy Smith
Reflexions is the AoR members’ quarterly magazine, providing the latest reflexology insights. It is written by Reflexologists for Reflexologists. Our Summer 2023 Reflexions focused on Research – Long term Conditions, and we are delighted to share one of the articles with you. If you would like to receive our magazine and become part of our reflexology community, click here to Join today
As already discussed elsewhere, one of the keys to supporting people living with long term conditions (LTC’s), is not to be concerned wholly or solely with the condition itself but instead look more to the symptoms surrounding those conditions. Living with any long-term issue can be wearing, so you will often see the same problems repeatedly across a wide range of LTC’s. Some of the most common symptoms are fatigue, anxiety, sleep problems, digestive issues and pain. So, when we think about trying to help people living with LTC’s the question is, does reflexology support these background issues that make life unbearable, rather than does reflexology help someone with condition X?
On the whole, with the always-stated caveat that there aren’t huge amounts of research in reflexology, we can assume that reflexology can help support many individuals in their quest for relief in some areas.
Fatigue
Fatigue is commonplace in many LTC’s although it is most evident in illnesses like fibromyalgia. In this study, the researchers found that after each session of reflexology, the client felt a little worse, and had a healing crisis (not a term generally used as healing reaction or transition is better, but this is what is discussed in the publication) but after 7-8 sessions rather abruptly started to diminish, and functionality returned, they were able to do more including increasing work ability.(1)
Anxiety
One study looked at patients who were under sedation in Intensive Care Units (ICU). When given reflexology, the patients had significantly lower heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and respiratory rate than the control group, indicating a decreased level of physiological anxiety. They also needed less sedation which is a very positive outcome. (2) Another study compared reflexology to a no-intervention control and found that reflexology reduced ‘state’ anxiety and cardiovascular activity within healthy individuals, consistent with stress reduction.(3
Digestive issues, anxiety and vitality
Constipation can be a side effect of LTC’s, in part because of medication, in part due to reduced movement and also possibly as a direct effect of the illness, so it is of use to know that although there is very little research on the effect of reflexology on the digestive system, there is this study on adults and constipation. Of 19 women treated with reflexology, 94% of participants identified their constipation to be improved to some extent. 10/19 had improved colonic transit times, and two patients had normalised colonic transit. Ten patients demonstrated an improved anxiety score, and 11 demonstrated an improved depression score. Improvement was seen in general health, mental health and vitality on the SF36 scale, with vitality improving significantly. (4)
Pain, sleep and anxiety
This research looks at three aspects of LTC’s in an acute burns setting. This is not the same for chronic illnesses, but the awareness of the symptoms will be similar in either acute or chronic. The symptoms studied were pain, sleep and anxiety, and in the first two days after intervention, there were no differences, but by day three, the mean pain scores showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups that got bigger over day four and day five Anxiety scores also showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups on the fourth day. Sleep quality of the experimental groups was higher than the control group on the fourth day, and as an added advantage, there was no significant difference with opioid and analgesic drug usage between the groups. (5)
Pain and sleep
This research looks at Rheumatoid Arthritis, which would sit under the definition of a LTC, and in this case, sleep and pain were investigated. After six weeks of reflexology compared to a no-intervention control, the pain levels were statistically significantly lowered and the sleep score reduced – which means sleep was improved. (6)
Pain
This research had no control; it was just a case of treating patients with fibromyalgia pain who were hospitalised in an algology (or pain) clinic. The patients’ mean pain intensity scores were reduced by reflexology. This decrease improved progressively in the first and sixth weeks of the intervention, indicating a cumulative dose effect, i.e. one that increased after each session. (7)
On the whole, it can be seen that reflexology does seem to support people living with a range of symptoms that can debilitating with Long-Term conditions.
Ref: –
