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One is that the knowledge is NOT diluted in any way as unfortunately is happening today.
It would be very convenient for everyone Reflexologist around the world to agree on Eunice's original scripts/charts and from there work forward in any direction one chooses.
Another reason would be to study and use the reflexes as originally described by Eunice. I remember reading in her biography (Issel) that these original reflexes were tried and tested on real cases in hospital wards she would visit and receive permission to treat.
Some original charts may be found with a simple google search these publications will date back to 1938, 1951 and 1963. Later on in 1984 her nephew Dwight Byers will publish this work again but with some revisions and that is when we will observe some changes to the original reflexes.
Many have and will say that these changes were done in order to represent the reflexes in a more accurate representation.
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| The origianl books from my personal collection. |
(I prepared the chart above from observing the original ones. Among them even there are minor differences for a few reflexes)
So in the original charts if we pay attention we will notice that the liver reflex is higher then we are used to seeing, it's position is such that it overlaps with the shoulder reflex and the lung reflex and the ears and a bit of the eye reflex in zone 2. On the left foot we will find the heart reflex rather higher too and more lateral then we would expect to find it. This reflex also overlaps with the shoulder and the lungs, and the ears and eyes.
In Inghams charts only "basic" organs are depicted, generally, there is no detail as we see today. One is to wonder how we have all these details and who proved Ingham's reflexes outdated?
So if the shoulder overlaps with the liver is it possible that the liver can cause pain to the shoulder?
The answer would be, ...yes it is possible and this applies to the left shoulder where it overlaps with the heart!
Referred Shoulder Pain
Causes of referred shoulder pain may include:
- Abdominal problems, such as gallstones or pancreatitis.
- Pelvic problems, such as a ruptured ovarian cyst.
- Heart or blood vessel problems in which pain is more often felt in the left arm and shoulder, such as heart attack or inflammation around the heart (pericarditis).
- A lung problem, such as pneumonia, where pain may be felt throughout the shoulder, shoulder blade area, upper chest, upper arm, neck, and armpit. Pain is usually felt in the shoulder on the same side as the lung problem.
- Other conditions, such as herpes zoster (shingles), Paget's disease, or thoracic outlet syndrome.
- Other problems, such as gas from laparoscopic abdominal surgery or air entering the vagina under pressure from some gynecological procedures.
Occasionally, hepatic enlargement causes diaphragmatic irritation, which produces pain that is referred to the ipsilateral supraclavicular and shoulder region. This referred pain is known as Kehr’s sign and is transmitted via the phrenic nerve and is often misdiagnosed. The phrenic nerve is a nerve that originates in the neck (C3–C5) and passes down between the lung and heart to reach the diaphragm.
Liver injury (which is very common) may cause the right lower rib cage to become a major primary restriction. Because these ribs are the attachment points for the pectoral muscles, the latissimus dorsi and other muscles, this restriction may result in fascial restrictions, which may directly limit the ROM and biomechanics of the shoulder girdle. In addition, the primary restrictions associated with liver injury may also produce reflex inhibition of the supraspinatus muscle, leading to instability of the shoulder joint.
Our next question of course would possibly be "...by treating the shoulder will I help the liver and the opposite and/or any other overlapping relationship?"
I guess we can only find out if we try, and while trying speculating on the overlapping of reflexes, vertical zones, chinese meridians and fascial meridians, energy and who knows what else.
I choose to finish off with Eunice Ingham's most famous and wise aphorism which she uses often in her works whenever the issue of overlapping would come up...
"If you're feeling out of kilter,
don't know why or what about,
let your feet reveal the answer,
find the sore spot, work it out."
Eunice Ingham
