THAT ACHING HEAD.
The next time you have a headache, instead of attempting to paralyze
the nerves of sensation with an opiate, or a coal tar “pain-deadener,”
push the headache out through the top of the head. It’s surprisingly
easy.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Palate-pressor Electrode may be used with or
without electricity.]
It merely requires that you press your thumb--or, better still,
some smooth, broad metal surface (See Fig. 6), as the end of a
knife-handle--firmly against the roof of the mouth, as nearly as
possible under the battleground--and hold it there for from three
to five minutes--by the watch. It may be necessary, if the ache is
extensive, to shift the position of the thumb or metal “applicator” so
as to “cover” completely the area that aches.
Headaches and neuralgias, of purely nervous origin, not due to
poison from toxic absorption from the bowels, or to constipation, or
alcoholism, tumors, eye-strain, or some specific organic cause, usually
subside under this pressure within a few minutes.
’Tis as easy as lying. Many patients cure their own or their friend’s
and relative’s headaches or neuralgic attacks in this manner. In their
own headaches they use their right or left thumb--depending upon
whether they are right or left-handed. In treating others, they use the
first and second fingers, pressing firmly under the seat of pain.
Their “points of attack” may extend from the roots of the front
teeth--for a frontal headache--to the junction of the hard and soft
palate--for a pain in the back of the head. Or from the roots of the
right upper molars to those of the upper left molars, if the pain be in
the region of the temples or the side of the head.
Only temporary results should be expected--or even complete failure--if
the pain is due to costiveness, eye-strain, or some persistent organic
condition--although even here the severity of the attack can usually be
modified.
In those headaches excited by dental operations relief can almost
invariably be secured. Dr. Thomas J. Ryan of New York, and others
familiar with zone therapy (the science of relieving pain and curing
disease by pressures in the various “zones” affected by pain or
disease), almost uniformly cure headaches or neuralgias in their
patients in this manner. In medical practice the results are even more
miraculous.
One of the worst cases yet treated by zone therapy was that of a lady
who had suffered from persistent headache for more than three years.
She had been to all the most prominent nerve specialists in the East,
and had also consulted several European experts. Her heart was in a
very dangerous condition, owing to the amount of antipyrin and other
headache powders she had taken.
Her pain was located most generally in the forehead, and during the
height of the attacks extended up as far as the top of the head.
It was not relieved by sleep--indeed, it was worse, if anything, after
such poor and inadequate sleep as she was able to get. This fact
eliminated eye-strain as a cause, for eye-strain headaches are almost
invariably better after a night’s rest.
Every organ in the body had received a most thorough overhauling, and
still those headaches held the fort. So the diagnoses settled down into
“pain habit.”
Christian Science, magnetic healing, faith cure, and most of the modern
medical fads had all been tried, without success. She was on the verge
of suicidal melancholia.
The afternoon I first saw her she was almost in hysteria--her pain was
so acute. For when telephoning for her appointment she had been told
not to take any opiates--as they might “mask the symptoms,” and confuse
the diagnosis.
Without stopping to question her, I washed my hands in an antiseptic
solution, placed the tips of the first and second fingers of my right
hand close against the roots of her incisor, or front teeth, held her
head rigidly with the left hand, and pressed firmly for two minutes. I
then moved my finger tips an inch further back on the hard palate, and
repeated the pressure for another two minutes.
Releasing her, I stepped back, much as an artist might, in viewing a
piece of work that pleases him. That I was justified in so doing was
proved by the fact that, for the first time in three years, except when
under the complete influence of an opiate, this lady was absolutely
free from pain.
I instructed her husband, who accompanied her, just where to make
the proper pressures when the pain returned, and within a week had a
report from him that there were now no further attacks of the neuralgic
headaches. This relief has persisted for more than a year.
Headaches frequently respond to pressures exerted over the joints on
the thumb or fingers, or sometimes it may be necessary to “attack” it
from the inside of the nose, or from some other point of vantage in the
zone affected.
As an illustration of how pain can be squeezed out of the head through
the fingers, a typical case, reported by Dr. George Starr White, of Los
Angeles, California, may be helpful.
A lady suffered from a very severe headache on the top of her head,
which had persisted for more than three weeks. She had consulted
several doctors, who had given her “coal tars,” opiates, and
hypodermics, but the relief was only temporary.
Dr. White told her nothing of what was contemplated, but took hold of
her hands, and began firmly pressing on the first, second and third
fingers--the pain being diffused over the frontal regions--at the same
time engaging her in conversation concerning her condition.
After about three minutes he asked her if she would locate with her
hand just where the pain was. She hesitated, looked up, and said, “Do
you use mental therapy?” Then, after blinking perplexedly for half a
minute, she added: “For the first time in three weeks, except when I’ve
been under the influence of narcotics, the pain is entirely gone.”
Dr. White told her to have someone repeat these finger pressures, at
the same time emphasizing that if she failed to get relief from this
method to come back. He has not seen her since.
But the same condition in the same patient may not be cleared up from
the same point every time. For instance, if the pain is in the second
zone of the forehead, at one time we may stop it by “attacking” the
forefinger. The next time, however, pressure upon that finger might not
have the slightest effect, and we would have to go to the tongue or the
roof of the mouth to get results. Another time we might be successful
only from the nose--or by pressing the teeth of an aluminum comb on the
skull, above or below the seat of pain--and so on.
Now, physicians have for many years, been consistently teaching our
patients and the public how not to get sick. Why not carry this
teaching to its only logical conclusion, and teach them how, by
perfectly safe and harmless means, they may, if sick, cure themselves
of their minor ailments?
It would add marvelously to the sum total of health, happiness, and
economic efficiency if all headaches, for instance, which could be
cured by zone therapy were cured and kept cured--by spreading the
knowledge of how to keep them cured.
We feel certain also that the medical profession, as soon as it is
generally informed concerning zone therapy, will eagerly welcome
the opportunity to promulgate the advantages of a safe and harmless
method of relieving headache and pain. And also of doing away with the
necessity for longer resorting to dangerous antipyrin or phenacetin
tablets and powders. This is a crusade worthy of their highest altruism
and noblest self-sacrifice.