reflexology

In alternative medicine, manipulation and massage of the feet to ascertain and treat disease or dysfunction elsewhere in the body. It is based on the belief that each part of the foot is a mirror site for a part of the body. Reflexologists consider themselves to be holistic medicine practitioners, not foot doctors, as they believe that the whole body is represented in the feet.

Correspondence between reflex points on the feet and remote organic and physical functions were discovered in the West early in the 20th century by US physician William Fitzgerald, who also found that pressure and massage applied to these reflex points beneficially affect the related organ or function. He published his work in Zone Therapy in 1917. In the 1930s, Eunice Ingham (1889-1974) simplified Fitzgerald's teachings, concentrating on the energy zones in the feet, and called the result reflexology.