Zone therapy; or, Relieving pain at homeFitzgerald, Wm. H. (William Henry Hope)
Science
Zone therapy; or, Relieving pain at home
Fitzgerald, Wm. H. (William Henry Hope)
Therapeutics, Physiological
Pressures with a cotton-tipped probe on the back wall of the pharynx
(the inside junction of the nose and mouth), as well as upon the mucous
membranes of the nose, give, in the hands of physicians, the quickest
results. The cotton-tipped probe may be dipped in trichloracetic acid,
or some pungent agent, which will lend “punch” to the contact impulse.
A curious feature in connection with this probe therapy is that if the
patient, by coughing, resents the presence of the instruments, the
effect seems to be dissipated. In other words, the transmission of the
nerve impulse is partly inhibited. It is fair to say, however, that
patients become rapidly accustomed to what at first frequently caused
irritation.
The use of a tongue depressor, covering the center of the tongue fairly
well “forward,” has also been found most helpful, if pressed down and
held firmly several times a day for three minutes or more at a time. In
fact, it is expedient to use the tongue depressor in almost all nose,
throat and stomach troubles--or, in fact, any condition occurring in
the “front” of the body.
The wearing of moderately tight rubber bands upon the thumb, first
and second fingers for ten or fifteen minutes (or less, if the finger
tips become purple) repeated several times daily, seems also to help
materially. Indeed, some physicians report that they get their very
best results by having their patients wear the bands as continuously as
possible, removing them only as required to prevent blood stasis, and
then replacing them again.
Pressures exerted with the finger and thumb over the joints of the
thumb, first and second fingers or toes have given excellent results.
Three or four-minute pressures with an aluminum comb on all surfaces
of the thumb and first finger--repeated several times daily--have also
given satisfactory relief in hay fever.
Always the breath should be taken through the nostrils. If the mouth
persists in opening at night, strap it shut with isinglass plaster cut
in thin strips.
The treatment of asthma and other affections of the respiratory
passages is very similar to that of hay fever, excepting that, instead
of pressing the tongue, more generally the floor of the mouth is
manipulated for this purpose--as the impulse is thus more “direct.”
Some of the results in asthma have been little short of miraculous. One
patient suffering with bronchial asthma had been unable to lie down for
three years, what little sleep she secured being taken propped in a
chair. Her sole relief consisted in the hypodermic injection of fifteen
drops of adrenalin solution, practically every morning and night.
I made pressure on the pharyngeal wall, at a point “low down,” where
the “metallic sensation” was reflected into the bronchial region. Also
I used the probe on the floor of the mouth, directly beneath the root
of the tongue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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