RELAXING NERVOUS TENSION.
Perhaps you may not do it. You have such splendid control over
yourself. But you know many people who, when angry, or when suffering
great physical pain, sink their teeth into their lip. Sometimes they
bite hard enough to start the blood. Others clinch their teeth and
hands, and double their toes up in their shoes. Why do you suppose
they do this? They do these, and many other natural and apparently
inevitable things, because they are instinctive and scientific, and
because Nature knows her business. We have done and shall continue
to do them involuntarily and automatically, because they relieve
pain and nerve tension, because they produce a form of analgesia, or
pain-deadening, similar to that which follows the injection of water or
some anesthetic solution into a sensory nerve. If you stop and think
for a moment many examples of this inhibition--as it is called--will
recur.
One of the most interesting, from our standpoint, was that of a young
school teacher, subject to cataleptic fits, who, when she felt one
of her fits coming on, stepped on her right toes with all the weight
she could throw on the left foot, at the same time grasping the right
wrist firmly. Often those near--if notified in time--would produce the
pressures for her. In this way the young woman managed to break up or
prevent all except severe and sudden attacks.
It was subsequently found that this patient had a chronic irritation
in the right ovary, and also a strained condition of the muscles of
accommodation in the right eye. When these conditions were cleared up
by proper remedial measures and correction, the cataleptic attacks
ceased.
The fact of relief having followed in many instances her “inhibiting”
the right-sided zones indicated the possible source of trouble. And
by painstakingly examining the organs in these zones the cause of her
condition was located and finally overcome.
So, as a means of diagnosis zone therapy has an immense value. Its
curative effects, however, are most valuable and significant. Many
of the gravest nerve conditions--conditions which failed to respond
to the most skilled medical treatment obtainable anywhere--have been
completely and permanently cured by the application of the proper
pressures--properly made.
I recall a very grave case of neurosis--a writer’s cramp--accompanying
a neurasthenic condition. This lady--unusually alert and
intelligent--was a physical and nervous wreck. Sleepless, harassed by
“nerves” in their most aggravated form, she was unable to hold a pen,
or to write more than a few minutes at a time, until, on account of
the pain and twitching of the arm, wrist, and fingers, she was forced
to desist. She could no more have picked up and threaded a needle--let
alone have sewed with it--than she could have operated an aeroplane.
She was also nearly deaf from a middle ear trouble.
Several months’ treatment, using the aluminum comb across the front and
back of the hands and on the finger tips, and daily employment of the
tongue depressor for four or five minutes, brought about a complete
change in the patient’s condition.
It relaxed the terrible nervous tension--which was particularly marked
along the course of the spine--enabling her to sleep at night, and
awake thoroly rested and refreshed in the morning. The writer’s cramp
was also completely cleared up. A number of other conditions were also
corrected, and the hearing was improved quite 50%.
This lady has since resumed her occupation as a private secretary--a
position she was forced by ill health to relinquish more than two
years ago--and now writes for hours at a stretch, without any return of
the cramp in the hand and arm.
And, most convincing of all, she can now not only pick up, thread, and
hold a needle--something she had not been able to do for years--but
she can sew steadily for two or three hours, and feel no disagreeable
effects from this feminine debauch.
A peculiarly satisfactory characteristic in all these cases is that
the improvement is even more apparent the “morning after” than it is
immediately after the treatment.
Another case of neuritis in the arm and shoulder (brachial neuritis)
for more than six years had been unable to raise his arm higher than
the shoulder. For the two months previous to treatment he had been
obliged to carry it in a sling. The slightest movement of the arm
brought about a paroxysm of agonizing pain.
A number of hollowed-out spring clothespins were clamped on the fingers
of the affected arm (see Fig. 13), and left there for twelve minutes.
At the expiration of this time the clamps were removed.
The patient gingerly took his arm from its support, and after a minute
or two spent in experimenting with it, moved it freely up behind his
head and swung it behind his back in a sweeping motion.
It was subsequently found that this man also had an osteopathic lesion,
which was reduced by Dr. Reid Kellogg, and after a few weeks’ “home
treatment”--consisting of five minute applications of moderately tight
rubber bands around the ends of the fingers--he reported himself as
well--and has remained so for more than ten months.
For sciatic neuritis it is found that deep pressures with the teeth of
an aluminum or steel comb made upon the toes are much more effective
than when made upon the fingers. When pain is most severe on the back
of the leg pressures should be made upon the ball (sole) of the foot.
(See Fig. 18.) When the front of the leg pains also, the top of the
foot should also be pressed.
While we are on the subject of sciatica, I might emphasize the
importance of a careful examination of the condition of the wisdom
teeth. For very frequently we have found this to be the origin of the
sciatic nerve trouble.
Another interesting case, successfully treated with clothespins, was
that of a young man suffering from hand tremors, insomnia, and nervous
exhaustion.
He had his finger tips clamped daily for a week. Then three times
more, at intervals of three days. After the eighth treatment he had
no further trouble with tremor, slept like a baby, and was apparently
relieved of all nervous symptoms.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Showing a method of treating rheumatism or
sciatica by treating all five zones on the back of the leg and body.]
We have found it helpful, if the patient has a good set of teeth, to
have him clinch the teeth, and also the hands, for several minutes at a
time, three or four times daily. This produces an exaggerated degree of
relaxation, which is most helpful in overcoming nervous conditions.
Most of our patients are also instructed to “yawn prodigiously,” and
stretch. This stimulates a healthy action of the sympathetic nerves
in all the zones, and cannot fail but be most beneficial. Sometimes
the insomnia of neurasthenia may be effectively overcome by tightly
clasping the hands--interlocking the fingers as shown in Fig. 19, or
pressing the finger tips firmly together, and holding this position for
ten or fifteen minutes--unless sleep should come before this and relax
the clasp.
Also, the clinching or wriggling of the toes is of benefit to a
neurasthenic. In fact, I am convinced that the method of relieving
fatigue in marching troops, discovered by Drs. DeFleury and Jacques--of
the French army, is largely an application of the principles of zone
therapy.
The French surgeon’s idea is temporarily to expel the blood from the
legs by raising them. The soldiers remove their shoes and lie prone on
the ground, close to a tree or wall, with heads slightly elevated. They
then raise their legs against the wall, stretching upwards as far as
limb limitations permit.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Patient seventy-two years of age with
carcinoma of left side of tongue, jaw, and pharynx. Two days before
this picture was taken the patient was unable to open his mouth.
The folded hands and open mouth indicate not only relaxation of the
jaws, but the method in which it was brought about. Dr. J. W. Hogan
painlessly extracted eighteen teeth for this patient under pressure
anesthesia.]
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Patient with right hand in this picture is
indicating with index and middle finger the location of his pain, and
how he is overcoming it thru pressure on the arm of the chair with the
tips of the thumb and fingers of the left hand. We seldom are obliged
to resort to drugs for pain, even in malignancy.]
In this attitude the toes and ankles are worked or “wriggled” briskly.
Then the knees are flexed and extended a half dozen times or more. A
body of men, apparently in the last stages of exhaustion, recuperate
their energies with from five to fifteen minutes’ exercise of this kind.
It can readily be seen how, by these exercises, all the zones in the
body would be stimulated to a normal condition. And the fact that the
exercises practiced are successful on a wholesale scale proves the
principle sound.
One of the most important things Americans have to learn is how to
relax. Anything that will teach them to do this should prove a boon.
Therefore I feel certain that, before many years, the principles and
practices of zone therapy will be as familiar and universally applied
as are now the principles of domestic hygiene or the practice of
sterilizing baby bottles. And then zone therapy will add to the depth
and breadth, as well as to the length of human life.