ZONE THERAPY FOR WOMEN.
In the eternal fitness of things there would be something radically
wrong if zone therapy did not offer some especial and particular help
to women. It is a satisfaction to state that the eternal fitness of
things is right, as usual. For zone therapy is as unique in this
connection as in most of its other applications.
Many of the things it does are positively startling. And yet they
become commonplace, after one has been in the work for a time. One of
the most striking cases that has yet come to my attention came in the
form of a letter of thanks from a mother of a young girl. I never saw
either. The mother, however, wrote me that her daughter, who had not
menstruated in ten months, was, some time ago, instructed by a patient
of mine to take the broad handle of a tablespoon and make strong
pressure upon the tongue (a tongue depressor shown in Fig. 17 would be
more appropriate), as far back as she could stand it without gagging.
She did so, and within five minutes was menstruating profusely, yet
without the slightest pain or discomfort. In the several months which
had since intervened, she “came around” regularly every twenty-eight
days. The mother who feared that her daughter was going into a
decline, could not refrain from writing me a most heartfull letter of
appreciation for what my patient, through my instruction, had been able
to do for her daughter. I call this good preventive medicine.
[Illustration: FIG. 17. Tongue-pressor Electrode. May be used with or
without electricity.]
Painful menstruation (dysmenorrhoea), also yields like magic to the
potent pressure of a probe applied to the posterior (back) wall of
the pharynx. But the tongue pressures are, in the majority of cases,
quite as effective. For pain in the back or thighs, preceding or
during menstruation, pressure with the tip of the index finger on the
posterior wall of the pharynx on the median line and to the right and
left of same, will almost uniformly give relief.
A broad, rough-surfaced tongue depressor (see Fig. 17) is best for the
purpose. But if this is not available, the handle of a large spoon or
the handle of a tooth brush may be used.
This should be applied to the tongue three-quarters of the way back
and on the median line. The patient’s head should be held rigid, and
the lower jaw supported, to the end that stronger pressure can be
made. It is well to have the physician or some male member of the
family officiate in this, as the patient may not be inclined to use the
requisite amount of force.
The pressure should be held firmly for two minutes. Then it should be
relaxed and the point of focus changed slightly. Or the instrument may
be turned or rotated from side to side, at one minute intervals.
Many patients who are obliged to go to bed for two or three days each
month, after a course of this treatment, are completely relieved of
all distress. Indeed, some of these hardly knew they were “coming
sick.”
It might be added that pressure exerted on the thumb, first and second
fingers of both hands helps materially in this work. And one of the
most comforting factors in the practice is that patients are usually
quite as well the next morning as they are even directly after the most
successful treatment.
Occasionally the use of the metal comb on the back of the hand,
“combing” thoroly the region of the thumb, first and second fingers as
far as to the wrists--has given best results. But the tongue pressures
are most uniformly successful.
While I have seldom heard of a miscarriage being induced by these
pressures, yet I believe a note of warning should be sounded,
cautioning against the use of the tongue pressures, particularly during
the early months of pregnancy.
For it is quite conceivable that abortion might follow drastic tongue
treatment. It would be far better during these months to depend upon
the finger pressures or the comb for treatment of these zones.
Also, if there is a too-profuse and too-frequent menstruation, severe
tongue pressures should be avoided. In these conditions gentle stroking
on the backs of the hands with a wire hair brush or the teeth of the
metal comb has given best results. And this same procedure may be
confidently resorted to to prevent threatened abortion.
While not confined to women, yet women are by far more generally
afflicted with constipation and hemorrhoids than are men. Their
sedentary habits, tight lacing, and repugnance to water drinking make
them peculiarly susceptible to the costive habit--which in turn,
through engorgement of the hemorrhoidal veins, causes piles.
I mention these subjects here because the treatment for constipation
and hemorrhoids is identical with that given for painful or suppressed
menstruation.
The results in constipation are, in some instances, absolutely
astonishing. I know of one woman, constipated for fifteen years, who
never knew what it meant to have a natural movement of the bowels. She
grasped the chair seat with the tips of her fingers and thumbs, putting
all her strength into this grip--so as partly to desensitize the
pain of tongue pressure, and thereby be able to stand a more drastic
treatment. Then the tongue was firmly pressed for nine minutes in the
manner before described.
Her bowels moved within fifteen minutes afterwards, and for a year or
longer she has never had to take another cathartic. Another case was
cleared up two years ago, and has had no return of the former trouble.
These, however, are the extraordinary and exceptional cases.
For routine treatment it may be well to use the pressures for a
considerable period of time, so that their stimulating effect may
tend to create a “habit” in the peristaltic muscles of the bowel. For
the cure cannot be considered complete until this “habit” is firmly
established.
The pain, bleeding and swelling of piles is also helped by these same
procedures.
The point to be most emphatically dwelt upon in connection with
the treatment of these conditions is that “absent treatment,” or
lick-and-a-promise namby-pambyism, isn’t of any avail. The pressures
must be made by some one who has more sympathy with the patient’s
ultimate good than he has for her present temporary discomfort, and who
will administer a good honest treatment--preferably while the patient
does all she can--by tightly clasping the hands on the interlocked
fingers, or by grasping the chair or a table with the finger tips--to
reduce the sensitivity of the zones operated upon.
If zone therapy is used in this manner, the results will amaze and
delight. For no method yet evolved for the treatment of these disorders
even remotely approximates zone therapy in point of efficacy.