I spoke about this also at the recent ICR conference in Sheffield.
Our feet work on a feedback cycle, McKeon says. From the large muscles in the feet and legs to the small muscles in the feet, each sends messages to the brain about the environment. When these messages get disrupted, injuries arise as another muscle group tries to compensate for the miscommunication. Shoes typically set off these problems, as walking, running, dancing, cycling, or skipping force these muscles to absorb the body’s impact. If the foot’s small muscles miscommunicate or fail to send information up to the brain, the large muscles end up compensating. They overexert themselves, which ultimately leads to injury.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/walking-barefoot-helps-you-avoid-foot-injuries-also-improves-posture-balance-and-362164
From my presentation to be found here:http://spiros-reflexologia.blogspot.gr/2015/09/my-ppt-presentation-for-icr-2015.html
CNS sensitization is the situation where an individual has pain lasting longer than 3-6 months and that can last for years. There is no injured tissue, healing times have surpassed, and thus there are no true noxious stimuli - nociceptive input. A sensitized patient actually feels pain; it is not from the periphery anymore but rather from within the CNS, “it’s in their head”! Due to the presence of pain, a lack of movement will follow with the hope that this strategy will generate less pain. This lack of movement will tend to blur the CNS maps (homunculus) also called sensory motor amnesia SMA. Common areas for SMA are the feet, hip joints and upper thorax. On the basis of experiments, many experts believe that gaps, smudges, or other inaccuracies in the body maps can be a significant contributing factor in many chronic pain conditions, and that fixing these problems is a potential way to cure pain.25
Characteristic of these patients are increased sensitivity to light, touch, noises, pesticides or temperature. Sleep disturbances, swollen feeling, tingling numbness and/or poor concentration have shown to be associated.
Proprioception is the brain’s ability to sense the relative positions and movements of the different body parts. The key to understanding proprioception is the body maps. Each part of the body has a separate area of the brain dedicated to moving and sensing that body part. So, we have feet, and we have virtual feet in the brain – parts of the brain that represent the size, shape and position of the feet. When mechanoreceptors in the feet are stimulated by a mechanical force (reflexologists hands), they send a signal through the nervous system to the part of the brain devoted to sensing that part of the body. Research has found that plantar massage and joint mobilization of the feet and ankles has a positive impact on balance in the elderly. 31
Movements that are most likely to lead to changes in the quality of the maps are movements that are curious, exploratory, novel, interesting, rich in sensory input, slow, gentle, mindful, non-painful. Ingham – small creeping movement. 26
Motor mental ability/disability
In normal infants developmental milestones such as eye – hand coordination and visual tracking occur at predictable ages. Intellectual development and motor development go together, consider the presence of primitive reflexes in a new born which would control gross movements. These primitive reflexes normally fade away as the child’s nervous system develops giving rise to fine motor control, like picking up an object with your thumb and index finger – intrinsic muscles/reflexology muscles!
Hypotheses
Chronic pain may lead or be associated to CNS sensitization. These higher levels from where pain is expressed are in charge of fine movement too, which in turn is expressed through intrinsic muscles that also exist in our feet/hands. When we apply Reflexology, like it or not, we are also offering stimulus to the maps, possibly readjusting the maps and desensitizing the CNS. Also of importance, is that the body relies a great deal on the mechanoreceptors of the feet for proprioception adjusting in turn its entire posture accordingly. In both cases it is like formatting your pc.
Proprioception is the brain’s ability to sense the relative positions and movements of the different body parts. The key to understanding proprioception is the body maps. Each part of the body has a separate area of the brain dedicated to moving and sensing that body part. So, we have feet, and we have virtual feet in the brain – parts of the brain that represent the size, shape and position of the feet. When mechanoreceptors in the feet are stimulated by a mechanical force (reflexologists hands), they send a signal through the nervous system to the part of the brain devoted to sensing that part of the body. Research has found that plantar massage and joint mobilization of the feet and ankles has a positive impact on balance in the elderly. 31
Movements that are most likely to lead to changes in the quality of the maps are movements that are curious, exploratory, novel, interesting, rich in sensory input, slow, gentle, mindful, non-painful. Ingham – small creeping movement. 26
Motor mental ability/disability
In normal infants developmental milestones such as eye – hand coordination and visual tracking occur at predictable ages. Intellectual development and motor development go together, consider the presence of primitive reflexes in a new born which would control gross movements. These primitive reflexes normally fade away as the child’s nervous system develops giving rise to fine motor control, like picking up an object with your thumb and index finger – intrinsic muscles/reflexology muscles!
Hypotheses
Chronic pain may lead or be associated to CNS sensitization. These higher levels from where pain is expressed are in charge of fine movement too, which in turn is expressed through intrinsic muscles that also exist in our feet/hands. When we apply Reflexology, like it or not, we are also offering stimulus to the maps, possibly readjusting the maps and desensitizing the CNS. Also of importance, is that the body relies a great deal on the mechanoreceptors of the feet for proprioception adjusting in turn its entire posture accordingly. In both cases it is like formatting your pc.
