Reflexology for Thyroid Disease: A Foot Massage by a Different Name?

Thyroid disease" is a group of conditions caused by the imbalance of the hormones produced by the thyroid gland. Untreated, these conditions can eventually become life-threatening. Thyroid hormone imbalance usually begins with vague and annoying symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, headaches, dry skin and hair, etc. that are shared with many other medical conditions. The thyroid gland is a gold mine for quacks because almost any symptom can be blamed on the thyroid, and any improvement in a symptom - whether it was really caused by the thyroid or not - can be credited to the therapy. Reflexology is the belief that parts of the body are represented on the soles of the feet (or the hands or even the ears, according to some practitioners). By pressing on the spots that correspond to the organs, reflexologists can, or so they claim, diagnose and cure a host of illnesses.

Despite claims of great antiquity for the method, reflexology seems have been the idea of an American physician, William Fitzgerald. His book, Zone Therapy, was published in 1917 to promote his self-help method for pain control. He believed that applying pressure to fingers and toes with clothespins or rubber bands would decrease pain in the zone he thought was affected by that finger or toe. His ideas were expanded by Dr. Shelby Riley, who mapped pressure points on the feet, hands and ears. In the 1930s, Eunice Ingham developed the foot maps showing which zones she believed reflected which organ. In his book, Fitzgerald also claimed to cure "goiter" (any enlargement of the thyroid gland, usually from lack of iodine in the diet or from hyperthyroidism) by passing a metal probe through the patients nostrils and pressing against the pharynx ... a far cry from rubbing the feet as modern reflexologists do. Attempting to "cure" your goiter by shoving a probe up your nose several times a day to "keep the goiter zone quieted" isn't necessary in this century - we have iodine supplements and synthetic hormones that are far more comfortable.

But what if modern reflexology really works?OK, let's assume that you have a "thyroid disease". Whether your disease is caused by lack of iodine in your diet (classic goiter), over-production of thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism), under-production of thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism), or lack of thyroid stimulating hormone from the pituitary gland which is really a pituitary problem and not a thyroid problem, let's assume that a reflexologist can cure it by applying pressure to your feet.

So, where does the reflexologist press? The reflexology foot charts in use today do not agree which spot on the bottom of the foot is the spot that will adjust the thyroid gland and cure your thyroid disease. Some show a small spot in the center of the base of the big toes, where the toe joins the sole of the foot. Some claim it's a band across the base of the big toes. Some show it's not on the big toe at all, but a large area on the main part of the foot, including the whole first joint of the big toes. One chart showed the magic thyroid spot on the arch of the foot.

This makes me nervous, because the charts can't all be right. If the reflexologist is using the wrong chart, he could be affecting your heart instead of your thyroid. Or he could be influencing your penis, if the symbols on one of the ancient Hindu footprint charts used as "evidence" of reflexology's ancient origins are correct.

Has reflexology ever been scientifically tested? Yes, and with dismal results. In a 1998 study (Focus Altern Complement Ther 1998; 3: 194) with 72 opportunities to make a correct positive diagnosis of the 6 possible conditions, the reflexologists made a definite diagnosis 9 times. Of these, 3 were correct. Only 3 correct out of 72! That is no better than random predictions. In a later study (Complement Ther Med. 2000 Sep;8(3):166-72) the researchers found that reflexologists didn't agree among themselves which conditions were present in the group of patients they examined.

As an anonymous science blog comment put it: "Reflexology is like predicting the weather in Portland, Oregon by seeing what the weather is in Portland, Maine, by virtue of the fact they are connected by streets and highways."

My suggestion: Have your favorite person give you a relaxing back rub, and if you have or think you might have a thyroid problem, don't expect much from reflexology except less cash in your wallet. See a real doctor and get a diagnosis that has better than coin-flipping chances of being correct.