About This Page

I got into reflexology in 1979 and have been working on people ever since.  I opened an office for professional sessions in 2008 and have found that the chair in which I preform a session usually holds the most interesting people.  My clients often have tips that can be useful for many people.  In the spirit of what I have learned, I decided to use PNN as a way to whare what they have told me is successful and offer a forum for people with health issues to share information.  These are only ideas to be used in conjunction with a health professional.  Always be sure to inform your doctor of any course of alternative health therapy that you use.

Knee Pain

One of the most common complaints that I see from my clients is knee pain.  The problems these sufferers have range from athletic injuries to chronic problems due to cartilage. 

Knee injuries just take forever to heal, mostly because we use the knee all the time.  My elderly father fell one time and hurt his knee.  He was griping about it one day about how he needed to go to the doctor. 

"Dad," I said.  "You knee is used all the time.  You'll need to let it heal."

"Well, how long is that going to take?" he shot back.

"Maybe up to six months."

"Six months!"

"Maybe.  I tell you what, if it isn't better in three, we'll go see the doctor."  I never heard about it again.

Fortunately, new technologies can give regular doctors the ability to see if the problem is bone on bone.  But if you can't afford fancy procedures, here are some simple things to try first to get rid of knee pain.

1.)  Certain rubs can help you determine the problem.  Use peppermint oil on the afflicted area to see if the problem is muscular in nature.  (Do not use if you are allergic to peppermint)  A strong arnica rub can determine if the problem is an injury or strain. Biofreeze is a product that seems to help areas that have arthritis. 

2.) A back that is out of alignment will also throw out the knees.  If you seek regular chiropractic treatment, ask that your doctor pay close attention to the knees.  A good reflexologist may be able to help with both the back and the knee issues, but the therapy may take longer than chiropractic work.  Even a massage therapist can sometimes help the backs and hips move in such a manner that may help the knees.

3)  If you haven't already tried glucosomine, it might be worth a try.  Use a liquid or gel tab to get this nutri-suppliment right to the problem quickly.  Glucosomine has been used for many years to help with joint repair.  It might take time to get relief, but many people do find it helpful.  You can spend the money on the expensive "joint repair" remedies at your local store, or just use a liquid suppliment.  But since it is not regulated by the FDA, each batch can vary in intensity, even if it is made by the same manufacturer!

4.) New shoes or better shoe supports can give the knees some relief.  Check your shoes for wear on each side to see if they need replacing.  You would be surprised how the proper foot support can help the knee.

Knee surgeries, while inconvenient, seem to really help knees do better.  We are fortunate to live in a time when this procedure has been perfected.  However, check with other people who have had it done when determining which doctor to use as a surgeon.  And always take the therapy offered to help the knee heal faster.

I find that people with chronic conditions suffer less pain if they exercise daily, mixing up tiheir workout.  Those who walk, ride bike and do water exercises have the strongest muscles and even if their knee pressure points indicate a problem, they still don't report much pain.  It's just something to keep in mind.

Finding Intolerances

She came late in the day, straight from work. "I got a lot going on and I want to see if you can give me some ideas what is going on in my body."

I would rather work with information as I can.  But after discussing an increase in blood pressure and some stretching exercises, I exclaimed, "Hey!  What's going on with your nasal passages?" 

"I don't know," she said.  "I get a bit of a sore throat all the time whenever I go to work and just all clogged up in here," and she pointed to the front of her forehead.

"Is there a leak in your roof at work?" I asked, suspecting mold.

"No."

"New carpet?"

"No.  But I've been working with a new spray to reduce static electricity, and I've noticed that ever since I've started using that product, I don't feel as well."

There it is.  Most people have an inkling of the cause of a problem.  Intuition is a huge asset for most folks, but not enough people listen to their own inner wisdom.

"Tell you what, try this at home."  I had her stand up, and in her right hand I place a tiny jar of an essential oil.  "Now put the other arm straight out.  I'm going to push down on it, and I want you to resist me shoving down on it as hard as you can."  She did as I asked and I was not able to move her arm very far downward.

"Now the," I went on, switching the essential oil out with a small tin of Goof Off, a solvent used to clean almost anything off of any type of surface.  "Try resisting my pressure to push down your arm now."  I easily pushed her arm downward.  It had no strength at all.

She turned in amazement.  I showed her the little tin of solvent, and then explained that her body wouldn't like solvent on it.  It's bad for you.  But pepperment oil is no big deal for most people.  With that, she determined to go back to work and test the technique.

This is a simple way of finding out if certain substances make your body unhappy.  My hubby learned it the hard way one Sunday the day after we brought home a Christmas tree.  He awoke with little red dots all over his body.

I called a friend who is into homeopathy.  She instructed me to try everything that he could have eaten in the past 24 hours and explained the method to me.  In the end, we didn't find anything that looked to be the culprit, so I called her back.

"Did you get a tree yesterday?" she asked.  I quickly promised to try it on hubby.

"No!" he cried, as his arm showed no resistance to my downward push.  Live Christmas trees were our favorite.  But there was no mistaking it.  Three days later after the new silk tree was raised and the old one was donated to a family that had nothing, I knew the technique worked well.

So if you need to find out for sure which items you are eating are bothering you, or if you suspect something in your house zaps your good feeling in life, check it out using this simple technique.  It might just help you rebalance your life.

Paraffin Poisoning

Yesterday, while working on a client, she told me that about a year ago, she had a sudden sharp pain in her left arm.

"It felt just like I had broken it or something!  So I went to the doctor, and an x-ray told us there were now broken bones.  So he sent me to a physical therapist who had me wear a brace and do some exercises.  After several weeks, it still wasn't helping, so my doctor sent me in for an ultrasound.

The man doing the ultra sound was young and wonderful.  He looked for arthritis, but didn't find any.  He looked for any kind of calcium build-up, but didn't find any.  Finally he said, "I think it's a classic case of paraffin poisoning." "

"What is that?" I cried.  My storyteller watched my face with delight.

"That's what I said.  I told him that while I did burn a lot of candles at home, because I love the smell, that I had never heard of such a poisoning."

"No," said the young man.  "It's directly related to the number of birthday candles on your cake."

I let those words sink into my head.  "You mean..." I asked.

She nodded. "It's the nicest way I've ever heard of anyone saying that it's due to old age."

Ginko and Ringing in the Ear?

She is one of the nicest clients, but for the life of me I can not get her ears to stop ringing through reflexology alone.  Though I have had another client who had some relief, ringing in the ears, or tinnitus, has proven itself to be a terrible challenge to heal.

Since then I have done a bit of research on the subject, and have found a few suggestions.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Spontaneouls Healing, Ginkgo, a nutrisuppliment, is designed to increase the blood flow throughout the body, particularly through the brain. Using a regular dose of Ginkgo for eight weeks should be an adequate amount of time to see if it will eliminate the problem.

Another situation that can lead to tinnitus is stress.  Dr. Weil also mentions in his book that one German therapist felt that yoga sessions for the sufferer would eventually make the problem go away.  He believed that yoga was one of the best exercises for getting rid of stress. This German doctor had tried this technique on every sufferer that had come to him for help and had a 100% cure rate. 

Last, ringing in the ear can be caused by nasal blockage.  The theory is that once those nasal passages are cleared, then the ringing will cease. There are homeopathic remedies on the internet, and might be worth looking into if you know it is the nasal passages that are perhaps causing the ear problems. 

It's hard to say what will completely fix such a annoying problem.  But now a new and exciting science may be on the way.  According to one daily news paper that is of, "less repute," a new device which helps lessen the effects of titinnus involves a cap that is worn on the skull.  This then sends out tiny magnetic charge, which for whatever reason corrects the ear ringing problem completely.  Tests are still being run on this new technology to determine if the procedure is safe. 

Hopefully curing titinnus will occurr in the next few years.  For long sufferes of this terrible problem, the cure can not come soon enough.

Combination Therapy

When people become ill, they often seek an immediate fix to their illness. The general public has trained doctors to give out "magic bullets" to cure illnesses; drugs offer a great way to rid the body of pain.  The problem is that many of these drugs cause side effects for which the doctor must then give another pill, which causes another side effect.  Is it any wonder that some of my clients come in taking ten to twelve drugs?

While we should be grateful for medications and their powerful benefits to our health, let's consider what could be done to help the body first so that medications don't have to be used.  The perfect example is high blood pressure.

A high blood pressure reading is one of the first things to trigger the "give the patient a drug" reaction from a medical care provider.  Often the patient comes in feeling lousy.  Perhaps there have been dizzy spells, irregular heartbeats, or even fainting spells.  A health care provider that sees a high blood pressure reading is immediately obligated to get that pressure down to eliminate stroke as a problem.  That's their job.

However, a saavy patient can make a clear decision about the proper course of action.  Perhaps a combination of lifestyle changes can bring about that lower blood pressure reading.  Consider my recent discussion with Ruth, my P.A. who had taken my blood pressure.

"It's high and we'll put you on a simple pill to bring it down."  said Ruth, as she began to scribble on a notepad.

"No you won't.  I'll take care of it."  I answered.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, wide-eyed.  It hadn't obviously occurred to her that someone might refuse her course of treatment.

"Oh, I'll up my water intake and start walking every day.  That should bring it down."  And it did. 

That's what I like to call Combination therapy.  I combined physical activity, which blows off stress and provides over all wellness to the body with the increase in the water to help the liver metabolise better.  Since blood pressure is influenced many organs in the body, water provides help to those organs. If I had been drinking over three cups of coffee a day, I would have dropped that to one. 

Now if a client takes in over sixty-four ounces of water, exercises every day and still has blood pressure issues, then a pill is probably esseential. Weight loss or getting their cholesterol lower naturally takes more time than increasing activity and water intake.  So a pill might be the best way to avoid a stroke.  The main thing is to use common sense when deciding on a course of treatment.  Will something besides a drug help and be better for you?

Chances are that a health condition didn't manifest itself overnight.  A cure will not either.  Nor may only one technique.  Consider looking at a combination of lifestyle changes or therapies to bring you back to health.

Milk and Restless Legs?

Mrs. Dee is about  78 years old and I had just met her at a wellness weekend at her church ten days earlier.  Apparently our ten minute "try it out" session surprised her at all of the issues I had brought up.  But the new idea she brought to me was a surprise:  she had found a cure for her restless legs.

"I suffer terribly from restless legs," she began, as I started working on her feet.  "And last Wednesday it was terrible.  So I got on the internet and searched the term 'restless legs' and up came an ad that said 'Cure Restless Legs Forever.'  Well, I had my credit card so I ordered it.

"Turns out the author says that anyone suffering from restless legs should eliminate dairy from their diets.  And do you know that in three days my restless legs problems was gone!"

Restless legs is an interesting condition. Some clients report that at night, their legs uncontrollably kick all over their beds.  Couples often have to take up different beds for the spouse to get any sleep at all.  Clients report often that their legs ache horribly, and often the sufferer has to walk the floor in the middle of the night to relieve the pain.  Naturally, their sleep is compromised, which leads to that person often falling asleep during the day time.  Who knows how many car accidents could be prevented if people didn't suffer from restless legs. Women seem to be afflicted more often than men, however Mrs. Dee's father and brother both have to deal with their restless leg issues, too.

So why should milk be the culprit for restless legs? Milk is an interesting food that has been quite integrated into our society. Once scientists understood how much calcium was in milk and how calcium was needed for healthy bones, promoting milk for school lunches made sense.  I was surprised to learn from a documentary on The History Channel that only the peoples from a certain chunk of Europe had  developed the ability to drink milk.  The rest of the world uses milk in other ways such as cheese or yogurt.  In general, the old wisdom that cow's milk is great for baby calves is probably right.

There's only one problem, though:  it's a great source of calcium and most American's are used to using milk on their morning cereal.  What do you do then?

If you chose to take milk out of your diet to fight something like restless leg syndrome, consider taking in more leafy green vegetables, salmon, cantaloupe or other calcium rich foods.  Some people chose to add a calcium pill, too.  Organic vegetables have been proven to contain more vitamins and iron than comparable foods that have not been grown with an organic emphasis. 

"What did you do then to eat cereal in the morning?" I asked.

"Oh, I use Almond milk," she said.  "I just get it at the health food store."  Problem solved.

So if you suffer from restless legs or know someone who does, you might want to try using no dairy and seeing how you are feeling.  Most of all, compensate for any lost nutrition.