Foot massage used as physical examination

The physical examination of the foot can be divided into examination methods for the entire foot and examination methods for only one system. Examination of the entire foot is used to detect all reflecting areas on the foot one by one to discover pathological lesions in correspondent organs. This exam takes about one hour. The examination of one system is used to detect reflecting areas of only the diseased system. This exam takes only 10 minutes.
   
The methods of examination are as follows:
1. First, the patient is placed in a sitting posture on a stool, or in a supine lying posture on an examination table with the feet placed on the knees of the examiner, soles forward, or on a stool of similar height.
   
2. The foot of the patient is held by the examiner's left hand. An examination probe with a small bead of 2 mm diameter on one end for pressing the reflecting areas of the foot, and with a handle of 4 mm diameter is held in the examiner's right hand.
   
3. The tip of the probe is pressed perpendicularly at the reflecting areas. A pricking pain produced by the examination indicates a disease present in the correspondent organ. Otherwise, the organ is normal. If the disease is very serious, the pain may be too severe to tolerate, and the examination of this area should be stopped immediately.
   
The pressure may vary from 0.5 to 1.0 kg according to the thickness of the muscles in different reflecting areas. It should be steadily applied and gradually increased to reach the deep layer of tissues before reaching the periosteum, because a false positive result may be produced due to hypersensitivity of the periosteum during stimulation. The number of detecting spots in each reflecting area varies according to the size of the area. The detection may be applied to as many as 10 spots in a large area, or as few as 3-4 spots in a small area. A sharp pricking pain is the only indicator of a positive result, and a dull pain, numbness, distension or soreness cannot be taken as a diagnostic criterion. An area with even one positively detected spot can be selected as a therapeutic location.
   
4. Positive results of an examination of both feet should be recorded on the patient's medical chart and evaluated along with the findings of other diagnostic methods to make a correct diagnosis and an adequate therapeutic plan.
   
5. Several precautions must be taken, although this is a simple and reliable diagnostic method.
(1) Before examination, the criterion for a positive result should be clearly explained to the patient, who should be asked to give a correct answer, namely only a sharp pricking pain indicates a positive result.
   
(2) During examination the probe should be correctly held in the right hand and pressure applied adequately. The patient's foot should be held tightly with the left hand, the examined areas should be fully exposed, and the pressure should be applied steadily to a fixed spot.
   
(3) Detection in each reflecting area should be repeated 2-3 times with the same pressure. At the same time, the patient's response to painful stimulation such as twitching and swinging the foot or a pained facial expression should be carefully monitored.
   
(4) Inquiry into the patient's medical history and the examination can be carried out simultaneously. For example, when the reflecting area of the thyroid gland (12) is examined, the examiner may also ask the symptoms suffered by patients with hyperthyroidism, including pathological leanness, fatigue, restlessness, hyperirritability, and profuse sweating. The physical signs of hyperthyroidism, including local mass, adhesion, and tenderness may also be examined to make a diagnosis of hyperthyroidism.
   
(5) If the result of this examination is doubtful, the patient may be asked to undergo some specific examinations with advanced instruments such as X-ray, CT scan and B-ultrasound to make a correct diagnosis and decide the proper foot therapy.
   
(6) The physical examination should be repeated once more after a course of foot therapy to check the therapeutic results and the patient's reactions. If the pricking pain in the reflecting area is still present and unchanged, another course of treatment should be applied again with the reflecting areas appropriately adjusted to improve the therapeutic effect.
   
(7) For diseases already diagnosed accurately, only the correlated reflecting areas should be detected to find positive areas for treatment. For example, in patients with colitis, only the reflecting areas of the digestive system should be examined, including the stomach (15), duodenum (16), pancreas (17), liver (18), gallbladder (19), small intestine (25), cecum and appendix (26), iliocecal valve (27), ascending colon (28), transverse colon (29), descending colon (30), rectum (31) and anus (32). Besides these reflecting areas, other positive areas can also be selected for treatment.