Alternative Medicine

In Asia for many centuries physicians and healers have been using foot massage as an aid to the reflexology and treatment of both major and minor health problems. In the west this form of treatment has become known as "zone therapy" and "alternative medicine". The principle is simple. For every important organ or bodily function in the trunk and head there is a tiny area that corresponds to it on one or both feet. To locate and treat a health problem affecting any of the upper part of the body you merely massage the corresponding area on foot. It is not a cure-all and it is definitely no substitute for a visit to the doctor's office. But as a supplement to ordinary medical attention it can often influence a small but noticeable boost in health wherever it is needed.

The concept of vital energy is common to many ancient eastern cultures, yet it remains a mystery to western medical science. Called Chi in Chinese acupuncture, Ki in Japanese martial arts, or Prana in Indian yoga this energy is what makes and keeps us alive. It enters our bodies from our food, our environment and other people.

A Russian named Kirlian showed that by photographing living matter, such as a hand, inside an electric field, a kind of aura can be seen streaming out from the hand. Healing hands show a marked difference in the color and intensity of their aura while reflexology. It seems therefore that a special state of mind is present while healing, and that some influence passes between the healer's energy and the patient's body. But how this can be made to happen remains a scientific mystery. Nevertheless, medical profession is taking a cautions and practical interest in natural supplement.

Controlling one's temperature may sound impossible if we assume that bodily functions are out of control. Yet some Indian yogis can alter their temperature at will, slow their hearts almost to a standstill or stop a wound from bleeding.

Alternative medicine is based on belief that the mind and the body together have tremendous powers to promote health or sickness powers, which so far doctors have tended to underestimate or dismiss as mysterious nonsense. The number of practitioners of alternative medicine is rising six times as fast as the rate for doctors.