What is reflexology anyway? My description before I read the book is: having my husband rub my feet. I've been hearing a lot about acupuncture and reflexology so I thought that I would do some reading to determine how to do it and if this has any validity. My husband has frequent headaches which are suppose to be relieved by reflexology. Other than that, our aches and pains are yet to come.

I made it to Waldenbooks just 28 hours before my $5.00 off coupon expired. I looked for Reflexology in the Health section where I assumed it would be. I Looked, Looked, Looked and FINALLY I found my selection of 2 books. One was all pictures, and this one had words. I should have chosen both.

About the Author
Mildred Carter is a professional reflexologist with 35 years experience. She has written several other popular books such as Helping Yourself with Foot Reflexology and Hand Reflexology: Key to Perfect Health She is known as a top expert nationally and has many patient success stories.

Tammy Weber is a certified reflexologist who has worked and studied with Mildred Carter for 30 years. ~She is also Mildred Carter's daughter.

Contents
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Table of Contents (Quoted)

* How Reflexology works to help the body heal itself

* Techniques for pressing reflexes all over the body

* How to use certain exercises to stimulate reflexes on the head

* How to Use Reflexology on the Ears

* How to use reflex pressure n the tongue

* How teeth can be helped with reflexology

* How to use reflexology on the eyes for better eyesight

* How reflexology stimulates the endocrine glands

* How reflexology strengthens an ailing heart and blood circulation

* How reflexology helps the stomach digestion

* Diet, vitamins, and reflexology

* Why drinking water and deep breathing are critical to reflexology

* How reflexology helps the colon

* How reflexology strengthens the liver

* How reflexology helps the pancreas and spleen

* Reflexology to help ailing kidneys and bladder

* Reflexology and the sex glands

* How reflexology helps premenstrual syndrome and menopause

* How to take care of and develop beautiful breasts

* How to use of reflexology for beautiful and healthy hair

* Treating coughs and colds with reflexology

* How reflexology cures headaches

* How to use reflexology to relieve back pain

* How to conquer arthritis with reflexology

* How reflexology helps carpal tunnel pain

* How to cure hemorrhoids with reflexology

* How reflexology relieves asthma

* Relief from cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis

* Using reflexology to dissolve stress and tension

* Reflexology provides and alternative to addictions

* How reflexology helps you lose weight naturally

* Return to youth using reflexology

* How reflexology helps the athlete

* Reflexology's sensational way to beauty

* How reflexology can help children

* How reflexology devices to relive pain

* Reflexology and your pets

Conclusion: Heal thyself and thy neighbor

Index
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You can tell a lot from the contents. First of all, have you ever seen 37 chapters for a book that's only 343 pages? What that means is that the information given is VERY brief. Every time I started to read about a topic, it changed!

Does a woman's magazine come to mind after reading through the contents? Loose weight, ease PMS, beautiful hair, look younger, great sex.

Author's Style
Different writers have different styles. Some tell longwinded stories, some pump up the adjectives.... This author writes as if she is talking to you almost like it's an impromptu lecture. "Now we ...", "Let us...", "We will....", "If you want", "You will want..."

Is she trying to be like Heloise? She's got tips for everything like not using toothpaste and swallowing a little vinegar and water apparently cures everything. She doesn't back these suggestions up with any medical evidence. Besides, what I want to know is about reflexology, not how the world should stop using toothpaste.

He author's writing dates her age. She uses terminology that I would only expect to hear from my grandmother. For instance, she uesed the word "retire" to indicate going to bed for the evening. (Perhaps that's because this is a revised and updated edition)

The author has been using this technique for for 35 years. She may understand it well in her mind, unfortunately she is unable to communicate the basics with me. I have never heard of or used reflexology before and I had difficulty following her fast pace and din't fully grasp what she was talking about.

I don't feel like I've satisfied my understanding for the subject. Now that I've learned what I can heal from her book, I'm going to have to get another book to find out HOW and WHERE to do the rubbing! I have started to do research on the internet and have ordered more books and charts because the information was not provided in this book. I got so fed up trying to read her miniature drawing that I just rubbed the whole hand, foot, etc.

There's isn't any history of reflexology in the book so I had to dig up some information on the internet after I read the book to put some pieces together. This technique has been around since the dawn of time in many civilizations, yet there's not mention of the past in this book. I'd like to have a little background and history on the subject before getting started, but I guess that's just me.

What the Book Is About
The book will give you the general area that must be rubbed and what other techniques to use in order to comfort the aching body. It covers the head, ears, face, mouth, hands, body (briefly), and feet. If you would like to work on a specific problem, you can find it easily in the contents or in the index.

The topic usually start with a description of the problem, how the problem occurs, about a paragraph describing the technique, some letters from individuals who have been helped by it, and any tips for vitamins, foods, or other things that could help.

There are a few diagrams in chapter 2 of the book that shows the body part with a dot which indicates what reflexes corresponds to the trigger. The page itself measures 9 x 6 and there are 2 or more diagrams on a page. Each section in the book refers back to this diagram so you will be hunting for it frequently. There are a few pictures of individuals throughout the book demonstrating techniques. The author mentions these pictures by saying as seen in photo #, but doesn't tell you what page it's on so you have to hunt through the whole book to find it!

The easiest technique I found was for stimulating the hair roots. Gently pull a hadfull of hair near the roots. Do this several times and your body will be quicky revitalized!

The author encourages the holistic approach and adds tips on food, vitamins, and other tips for maintaining your body. These factors help in bringing your body into harmony.

Crossing the Line
I was appalled when I read her recommendation for Strep Throat. She implied that strep throat can be cured from a kneeling position and swallowing/gargling a little vinegar and water. She mentioned this "cure" comes from a book by Dr. D. C. Jarvis titled Folk Medicine. Well I haven't read any folk medicine, but I have read in medical journals that say not being properly treated for step throat can lead to rheumatic fever, kidney failure, meningitis, and death. I knew a 23 year old who died from not having strep throat treated. In addition, the author's success story on this matter was for a child that had already been treated by a doctor and the author assumed she still had strep throat.

Where are all the medical disclaimers? I think a neive reader could read too much into this type of therapy. Heart problems, bacterial infections, asthma...these are things that should be discussed with a medical doctor.

(You will find everything very carefully worded in this book. The controversial medical implications are done through letters and as she describes her own experiences.)

~Reflexology was once considered illegal and her books became under attack because it consisted to practicing medicine without a medical license.

Reflexology is still considered alternative so I certainly don't recommend anyone giving up their heart pills for reflexology. There's no reason you can't use both.

Does this stuff work?
Call me crazy, but I am a firm believer in medication. I will always choose taking a Tylenol before I waste my day suffering over a headache or achy muscles. When I take a Tylenol my headache is gone within 10 minutes or less with the only effort being to walk into the kitchen and get the tablet out of the cabinet. The idea of reflexology is to rub the pain out. If you're at home watching TV and you have 30 minutes to waste, then no problem. If you're at work or in the middle of something are you really going to want to take up to an hour to rub yourself? For me personally, I can only consider this for preventative maintenance and relaxation. The idea is to do this every day.

My husband and I do back rubs for each other on regular basis. He usually skips or cuts my turn short, but that's a story for another day. It is much easier for me to pull his hair or rub his hand than to kneed and rub his back and he seems to enjoy it just as much. I was pretty disappointed when I tried these new techniques on him. I specifically asked him if anything hurt or if he had a headache and he said no. I rub his hands, feet, hair and ears for a total of 1 hour (while we watched Star Trek on TV). About 15 minutes later I hear a bottle rattling..."What are you doing?" I asked. He says, "I'm getting some Tylenol, I have a headache". So ether I'm not doing it right, it doesn't work, or it's not a cure-all.

Unfortunately I'm not as close-minded as the author is on this topic. I don't think that this is going to cure or improve everything and I don't think it's the only way. There are certainly alternative methods that work just as well: over the counter meditation, herbal remedies, acupuncture, certain foods or diet modifications, exercise, laughter, Yoga, physical therapy, psychological therapy, religion, and probably more.

There are dozens of letters from satisfied customers printed in this book telling her how the techniques changed their lives and how they no longer have pain. I can say good for them, I'm glad it has helped but I'll bet Tylenol or Bengay's book of letters from gratifying customers would be longer!

This has certainly worked for some and has some validity that it works. If nothing else, you will feel better from these techniques. You really don't have anything to lose by trying the techniques so I don't want to discourage anyone! I just personally feel more comfortable viewing this as an addition to treatment rather than an alternative.

Am I glad I bought the book?
Yes, the book is worth $13.00 (as stated on book). I found some information that I can benefit from and I think most people also will. Even if I choose not to do reflexology techniques every day, I can still grab this book and look up a topic if suddenly have an ache that needs attention. This book is much more effective as a reference book than a reading book.

What about the author? I will agree that she is a leader in her industry but I personally don't like her writing style. I also think that she is very obsessed with reflexology and has a very biased opinion on the topic. Just as a waiter/waitress makes or breaks your dining pleasure, so does the author for reading enjoyment for me.

My Rating Decision
I had a little struggle deciding if I will recommend the book and what rating to give it.

I will recommend the book because she is a leader in her industry and I prefer books from experts. There is good information in the book and is compiled nicely for reference. This is more than a one-time read.

Although I haven't read other books on the topic, I have browsed through the contents and have found that this book discusses a large amount of pains and areas to improve so it is generalized and will be helpful to more people.

Another positive is this book discusses head, ears, hands, body, and feet where most books only discuss feet or hands.

I'm going to take stars away for the following reasons:

This book loses a star because I'll have to buy another book to find out what the author is talking about. On the back cover, this book claims to be "do-it-yourself" healing. After reading her book, I'm still unable to do it "myself". Her diagrams and pictures are not helpful. Her descriptions of how to do it are not descriptive enough. There's not description of how to know if you're doing it correctly or not. The whole process of figuring it out is VERY frustrating.

The diagrams are horrible and unorganized and that alone is justification to pluck a star from this book. The diagrams are in chapter 2 of the book and all have at least two diagrams per page. For example, the most important diagram and the easiest to present I would say is the foot. The only diagram of the foot area is a pair of feet. Each foot is 2" and the left has 32 points identified, and the right has 28 points identified. It's hard enough to find the points, why not draw them as miniature and let it be a mystery! If you are going to buy this book you might as well buy a chart to go along with it so you'll know where the spots are.

Another thing I'd like to mention is this book address the topics very quickly and moves on. Each topic if covered in for or five pages. It doesn't go into great detail of a topic and often doesn't answer all the questions you may have about it. On the other hand, it gets to the point and does not waste your time with filler. For this reason, the book would make a great reference book for those who do practice reflexology.

The author is well-known and the book has sold more than 500,000 copies. This book is also in the top 2 of bestselling Reflexology books on half.com and amazon.com. (Waldenbooks only carried this and another book so I'm guessing a top seller there).

There are 29 example pages of this book on amazon.com

Bottom Line
If you already already know how to do reflexology, you're probably going to love this book. If you have never heard of reflexology before, this may not be the best "starter" book but probably one that you will want to add to your collection eventually.






Recommended: Yes