Every story has its beginnings and the answer to a question asked of a client by Barbara and Kevin Kunz in 1980 would lead to the Kunz’s 2023 foot reflexology research project at an fMRI laboratory at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine.

Theories and ideas about how reflexology effects the nervous system researched and developed during the intervening years would lead to innovations in reflexology as well as credible concepts prompting a scientist to suggest fMRI research.

What was the question and the answer?

“Jimmy, are you moving your fingers?”

His answer, “No, Kevin is.”

A simple question. A simple answer. An interchange that would launch a thousand ideas.

What was so special about the question and answer? Our client, Jimmy, was a quadriplegic with a spinal cord injury. The injury left him without the ability to move or feel any part of his body below the neck. Yet, Kevin’s application of reflexology technique to a specific part of the left foot prompted movement of the fingers of Jimmy’s right hand. The action was repeatable.

Forty plus years later Jimmy’s answer plus research and the development of a theory would lead us to research foot reflexology at an fMRI laboratory. Dr. Stefan Posse, lead medical investigator would pronounce these scientific results “unexpected.”

Why Would This Happen? Why would the fingers move?
As we would come to discover, in spite of the spinal cord injury, the nervous system was still functional. The nervous system still at work. Reflexology technique was the application of pressure on the bottom of the foot, thus , recreating the sensation experienced by a foot during a footstep. A footstep is part of the survival mechanism of a body’s fight or flight system and the ability to fight or flee. It would take a year of research to realize how reflexology worked within the nervous system and its importance. The full implication of what that means is still being discovered.

A Theory – a Year in the Making

It would happen again and again, with spinal cord injury clients. When reflexology was applied to the bottom of the foot, the fingers on the opposite side of the body would begin to move, even if this side of the body was paralyzed. We called it the crossover pattern.

More information would come six months later as we started working with Ann and Kris, both paraplegics with spinal cord injuries. Both clients would exhibit movement with a crossover pattern. In the beginning of the weekly reflexology sessions, there would be a generalized spasming of the paralyzed feet and legs. After three months the movement changed from spasming to a more organized movement that reflected what feet do during a footstep.

Kevin recognized that the spasming was becoming organized. He had been studying for a year what happens when a footstep is taken. Which muscles are used, what does each of the muscles do, how is the foot positioned, how balance is shifted.

Did this explain how Jimmy’s fingers were moving? Consider the action during a footstep as one leg and foot coordinate movement with the opposite hand and arm. Both sides of the body are moving together. We were seeing a footstep fragmented by spinal cord injury.

Pressure Comes into the Picture
It was a Sunday around noon a year after starting work with Jimmy. Barbara had been reading about the nervous system and the information it gathered from other senses in a physiology textbook for physical therapists.

There it was: “Proprioceptive sensations are those that apprise the brain of the physical state of the body, including …deep pressure from the bottom of the feet.” I knew in an instant that this was IT. This tied reflexology work into the nervous system. This was how reflexology worked. It was a EUREKA moment, the thrill of a lifetime.

As we learned that day, stretch and movement are proprioceptive sensations as well. Taken together these are sensory experiences that apprise the body of information needed to make possible moving and walking.

Reflexology Technique Tied into Fight or Flight

Survival and the ability to fight or flee requires the feet to coordinate with other bodily activity such as increased breathing. Did reflexology tie into this mechanism, the activity of the autonomic nervous system? We were to find it did.

In addition to movement, each of the individuals paralyzed by spinal cord injury experienced what we called “internal body adjustment,” or responses of the autonomic nervous system. For Jimmy, with spinal cord injury in the neck (the cervicals), the activity was perspiring on one side of his head. Sweating is controlled by the autonomic nervous system.

For Anne with spinal cord injury between the shoulder blades (the thoracics), work on the feet would prompt growling of the intestinal tract, an intense feeling of hunger and perspiring below the level of her injury. (Medically this was not what should happen).

Kris would exhibit different reactions and her injury was different from Jimmy’s and Anne’s. During a reflexology session, she might begin to shiver uncontrollably with teeth chattering. When offered a blanket or change in room temperature she would reply, “I’m not cold.”

All these different responses developed over time and were extinguished over time. Proprioception is particularly important to set activities of the autonomic nervous system.

When pressure sensors in the feet send information to the nervous system, that the the body is engaged in running, it’s important for the autonomic nervous system to increase breathing and adjust adrenaline.

Over the years other clients paralyzed following spinal cord injury would demonstrate similar response. In addition, clients paralyzed following stroke would experience abilities to move.

Forty Years of Research and Development

We developed these ideas throughout our careers building a credible body of knowledge for reflexology. Following discussions beginning in 2019 with neuroscientist Dr. Stefan Posse, he suggested reflexology research in his field of study, fMRI.

Two years later we had raised $54,000 to privately fund Neural Pathways of Applied Reflexology. Stefan had moved the project through the research requirements of the University of Minnesota, and we were at the University of Minnesota on a path begun forty plus years earlier.