DOCTORS in Dursley, UK are to offer free complementary therapy sessions to patients in a pilot scheme thought to be a first in Gloucestershire.

Doctors at May Lane surgery are interested in finding out whether herbal remedies, massage, change of diet or reflexology and Reiki may be beneficial to patients for whom orthodox medical treatments have not worked.

Dr Kathy Curtis-Hayward, a partner at May Lane surgery, said: "As a practice, we are constantly looking at ways to encourage people to be more in control of their health, to be aware of how they can better help themselves.

Carpal tunnel syndrome and surgery seem almost inevitable these days for any writing or computer-based profession. But massage therapy may prevent people from going under the knife, as well as relieving headaches, stress and boosting the immune system.

"Ninety percent of the time, carpal tunnel problems come from the neck," said certified massage therapist, Marie Peterson. Whether it's from constant writing, working on the computer or just being a Type A personality, this repetitive motion causes the shoulders to tighten up, she said.

"The tightness goes down the arms and pinches the nerves, cutting them off from circulation," Peterson said. "Using massage, I go in and break up the scar tissue and lengthen and restructure the muscle." And many times this can prevent clients from surgery.

Another therapy that can be used for carpal tunnel syndrome is reflexology.

"What drew me to reflexology is that it's mobile," said certified reflexologist Karyl Clark. "It provides an opportunity to fix a problem anywhere you are."

Forty-six million Americans are currently living with arthritis, the nation's leading cause of disability, and we are all paying a high price for it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the annual cost of arthritis to the United States economy was $128 billion in 2003 and increased by $20 billion between 1997 and 2003.

CDC attributes the dramatic increase to the aging of the population, predominantly baby boomers, and increased prevalence of arthritis. CDC also estimates an additional 8 million new cases of arthritis will be diagnosed in the next decade.

Here are some interesting clips about Reflexology and Arthritis. Do you know anyone with arthritis? You will be interested in my story if you do. My partner had disabling arthritis, pain and swelling in each of his finger and thumb joints before he became a Reflexologist.

More and more Brits are turning to complementary medicine as it offers patients greater control over their own course of treatment, according to Institute for Complementary Medicine (ICM).

Director of ICM, Clive Teal, said that complementary medicine takes a totally different approach to that of orthodox medicine in that practitioners tend to have more time to spend with their patients than a GP would and can as such get to the root of a problem.

"Complementary medicine tends to put the client a little bit more in charge of their own self," he added.

Can a foot massage improve your general health?

Well the Ancient Egyptians, Indians and Chinese all believed it could. It was these civilisations that first developed the complementary therapy we know today as reflexology.

Photographer, Lloyd Wright, who accompanied me on this job, is one of them. He had a kidney transplant 18 months ago after more than two years of dialysis. He says the first person to suggest he had “bad kidneys”, a year or two before his medical diagnosis, was a reflexologist.

Similarly, a medical friend told me of a patient who first discovered a breast lump after it was suggested to her during a reflexology session that she may have a problem in that area. It planted a seed that made her go and do a self-examination . . . and could have saved her life.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies are about to change reflexology, providing illustration of some of reflexology's basic tenets. In three separate studies, Hong Kong researchers explored with fMRI what happens in the brain when pressure or technique is applied to specifc reflex areas of the left foot. Their finding: the specific parts of the brain activated by such work correlates with reflexology's theory and intended use.

In one study, reflexology applied to a specific part of the foot activated the reflected area. Specifically technique stimulation applied to the inner lateral corner of the left great toe activated the right temporal lobe, the part of the brain related to the reflex area. of the brain inner lateral corner of the left great toe to see if this would activate the part of the brain reflected by this reflex area, the right temporal lobe.

Alica Hart-Davis learns a few rules about reflexology: 'So is this bit the solar plexus?" I ask, burrowing vaguely into the middle of my daughter Beth's right foot and trying to see where Rosanna Bickerton, my reflexology teacher, is pressing on Beth's left foot.

Hands-on help for Beth's feet. "A bit higher, Mummy," pipes up Beth. "And would you mind not using your thumbnail?" There's a lot to get to grips with when you are trying to learn the basics of reflexology in an afternoon.

I have known Rosanna for a while. So when I bumped into her recently and moaned that my children were always suffering from one virus or another, she didn't hesitate.

"Sounds like they need their immune systems boosting," she said. "Bring them to me. I'll show you what you need to do."

Yet more good news for sun worshippers and those who eat plenty of oily fish: the vitamin D derived from either activity reduces your risk of heart disease and increases your survival chances if you have cancer.

These latest benefits from the sunshine vitamin follow the discovery announced several weeks ago that the vitamin also reduces the risks of epilepsy.

"To be blunt, if my wife and I didn't think it was helping him, we wouldn't have continued with it," says Dan Polley. He's talking about Mikey, the Polleys' 2½-year-old in the next room, who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when he was 6 months old. Chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant have been crucial elements of Mikey's treatment. But the "it" his father speaks of is nothing like these aggressive, costly, and heavily researched exemplars of western care—it is a kind of touch therapy, from the camp of alternative medicine. Gentle and benign, "healing touch" is intended to rebalance the energy field that its practitioners believe surrounds the body and flows through it along defined pathways, affecting health when disrupted. Several times a week, therapist Lynne Morrison spends 20 minutes unblocking and smoothing Mikey's energy field, which energy healers like Morrison say they can feel and correct.

Before a recent session, Mikey was grouchy, drawing up his legs and issuing periodic yowls. His stomach hurt, said his father. But as the little boy nestled in his father's arms and Morrison moved her hands around his body, lightly resting them here and then there, his tenseness loosened and he quieted for a few minutes at a time. The Polleys believe that the therapy not only calms their son but is aiding his return to health.

The setting for the unorthodox therapy—an academic medical center—would have been startling just five or 10 years ago. Morrison is on the staff of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, a hard-nosed, tough-cases, research-oriented emblem of western medicine. It perennially ranks among America's premier hospitals and is the principal pediatric teaching hospital for Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

The last four remaining teams in the CBS Hit Show The Amazing Race – Series 12 made their way to Youth Park in Taipei, Taiwan to participate in a local custom used to reduce stress. Team members had to take off their shoes and, with their bare feet, walk down a 220-foot path made of jagged stones, turn around and walk back.

Ron & Christina arrived at Youth Park ready for the potentially painful walk across the stones. While Ron had little difficulties with the jagged rocks, giving credit to his "calloused feet," Christina squealed and writhed in pain, saying, "My feet felt like they were getting eaten by piranhas." After finally finishing the grueling walk, Ron & Christina opened their clue instructing them to travel to the next Pit Stop at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Plaza.

Nick & Don and TK & Rachel completed the jagged stone path before the bickering couple arrived. Only Nick & Don's inability to find a taxi to the Pit Stop kept Nate & Jen in the race as the pair navigated the sharp stones trying to clear the thoughts of pain and potential elimination from their heads.

To see video of the host of the show trying his feet on the Reflexology path click here ReflexologyPath

Or if the link mysteriously refuses to work try to copy and paste the following url onto your browser and enjoy! http://www.cbs.com/innertube/player.php?cat=170756&vid=175252&format=&auto=1