7,200 nerves!

This is one of those interesting facts that you should have in the back of your mind (or written on the back of your hand). There are approximately 7,200 nerves that begin somewhere in the body and have their ending in the feet of an average person.

There, so now you have it! And this is why reflexology can work on the whole body just by massaging the feet since all of those 7,200 nerves can be manipulated and massaged (although not individually!).

The areas of the body are divided into zones which are mapped from the body directly onto the feet and it is within these areas that reflexology is applied. By manipulating these nerves the brain receives signals that encourage it to produce chemicals to relax the body and which also help it to self-heal and rejuvenate.

The nerves that feed down into the body also run the length of both arms and into the hands although there are not so many of them, I believe there are approximately 2,500 in each hand. It is for this reason that reflexologists prefer to use the feet for massage but that does explain why the same treatment will work on the hands.