He MY, Ud Din MJ, Xu HF, Wang SY, Ying GH, Qian H, Wu B, Qi HD, Wang X, Zhang G. Effects of foot reflexology on disease. World J Clin Cases 2024; 12(35): 6851-6854 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i35.6851]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Gang Zhang, Doctor, PhD, Associate Professor, Chief Doctor, Postdoc, Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 72 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu Province, China. zhanggangnjmu@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Dec 16, 2024; 12(35): 6851-6854 Published online Dec 16, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i35.6851
Effects of foot reflexology on disease
Ming-Ying He, M Jalal Ud Din, Hai-Feng Xu, Shang-Yu Wang, Guo-Huan Ying, Hao Qian, Bing Wu, Hong-Dan Qi, Xin Wang, Gang Zhang
Ming-Ying He, Hai-Feng Xu, Shang-Yu Wang, Guo-Huan Ying, Hao Qian, Bing Wu, Hong-Dan Qi, Xin Wang, Gang Zhang, Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu Province, China
M Jalal Ud Din, Department of Neurology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: He MY, Xu HF, Wang SY, Ying GH, Qian H, co-authored the analysis and wrote the article; Ud Din MJ, Wu B, Qi HD and Wang H made language changes. All authors approved the final manuscript for submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no financial relationship with any commercial entity with a potential interest in the subject of this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gang Zhang, Doctor, PhD, Associate Professor, Chief Doctor, Postdoc, Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 72 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu Province, China. zhanggangnjmu@126.com
Received: March 18, 2024 Revised: September 19, 2024 Accepted: October 9, 2024 Published online: December 16, 2024 Processing time: 220 Days and 17.1 Hours
Abstract
In this article, we review a recently published article to explore the significance of foot reflexology in modern medical practice. With the advancement of modern medicine, we are increasingly committed to finding the specific physiological mechanisms of foot reflexes to treat diseases, thereby better proving the therapy’s effectiveness. It has been reported that foot reflexes can activate the cerebral cortex and organs corresponding to the feet, stimulating blood flow, nutrition and nerves through neural and endocrine regulation to achieve the purpose of treating and preventing diseases and promoting health. The therapy shows unique potential and value, and provides a new perspective on integrating traditional medicine and modern medicine.
Core Tip: Most of the previous studies on foot reflexology have been systematic reviews, with mixed results. There has been one case report that foot reflexology can treat sensory-hearing loss, which provides objective imaging evidence to increase its credibility. However, the number of included studies is too small, and a large sample randomized controlled trial is needed to further study the mechanism of foot reflexology to prove its effectiveness.
