HAY FEVER, ASTHMA AND TONSILITIS.
If the United States Hay Fever Association, and all individuals who
suffer from hay fever, will read carefully, and then apply this
chapter--as directed--the ravages of these catarrhal cataclysms, I feel
sure, will be beautifully lessened.
For zone therapy has an especial and peculiar message for
hay-feverites. It has mitigated, if not entirely relieved, the red-eyed
misery of hundreds of them. And none--except those who have been
victims--can know what a real relief this is.
Nobody knows for certain what causes hay-fever, and, judging from
the textbooks, they know even less regarding any definite method of
relieving it.
It is possible that repeated “colds”--generally from dust
infection--result in a chronic irritation of the mucous membrane,
followed by a thickening (or hypertrophy) of the tissues.
This thickened tissue dams the circulation of blood in the membranes,
and presses upon the delicate nerves of the nose, thereby irritating
them, which irritation proves to be the last straw. So the nerves of
the nose throw up both hands with a despairing moan.
An acute inflammatory irritation is established, setting up a vicious
circle. For the pressure causes nerve irritation, and the nerves
retaliate by still further disturbing the circulation, thereby causing
more pressure.
Then, if really it is pollen that causes the physiological
conflagration we call hay fever, the mucous membrane is so susceptible
that it will readily respond to the action of the pollen. Which is
probably also true of those cases that develop similar conditions from
the odor of roses, horses or cats.
It is significant, however, that of all the hundreds of hay-fever
patients that have ever come under my care not one had an absolutely
normal nose. Invariably there were bony spurs, protruding turbinate
bones, cartilages twisted out of proper alignment, an inflamed and
thickened mucous membrane lining, or some other pathological condition,
one usually requiring surgical interference.
So if you have, or expect to have, hay fever or any other abnormal
condition of the nasal mucous membranes, see a specialist and have
your nose placed in as near a perfect condition as surgical skill and
your physical shortcomings will permit, not forgetting also a thorough
stretching of the soft palate. This the surgeon will accomplish by
means of a finger inserted in the throat and a hooked instrument in the
passage back of the nose. By enlarging the contracted parts of this
passage normal drainage and circulation in these tissues is established.
The best results are obtained by operating during the height of an
attack. If sometimes even a needle be thrust through the congested
mucous membrane, so that the blood flows freely, the attack can be
broken up, and the condition frequently eradicated for that season.
Then use any combination of the following procedures, which experience
may prove helpful, remembering that here no fixed rule can be laid
down, and that what “works” magically in one case might have but little
effect in another.
First, make steady firm pressures on various points in the roof of the
mouth with the thumb. Be careful to “cover” the region directly on a
line with the nose. These pressures should be maintained for from four
to eight minutes at a time, and repeated a half dozen or more times
daily. Those experienced in zone therapy claim that the pressures have
an immediate and powerful effect upon abnormal conditions in this zone.
At the same time the upper lip should be firmly forced against the
teeth with the first finger. This usually has a most discouraging
effect upon sneezing.
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.
Within five minutes this lady--for the first time in three years--was
relieved of all pain, tightness, hoarseness, and shortness of breath.
In two months of this treatment she gained fifteen pounds, and now
sleeps through the night. Also, she has been enabled completely to
discontinue her use of adrenalin.
Another bronchial asthmatic suffered so severely that he had made all
arrangements, even to packing his trunks, to retire from business
and seek health on the Riviera or in Egypt. His “wheezing” was so
pronounced that he could be heard clear across a twenty-foot room.
This gentleman was advised by Dr. D. F. Sullivan, senior surgeon of
St. Francis Hospital, to see me before leaving the country.
I pressed on the floor of the patient’s mouth, under the root of the
tongue, with a cotton-tipped probe, and made strong pressure on the
first and third zones of his tongue with a tongue depressor. In three
or four treatments this man was entirely well, and informed us that he
had indefinitely postponed his trip abroad, and “was going back to work
again.”
Zone therapists have found in throat and chest cases that painting the
tongue with iodine on the upper and lower surfaces for about one-third
way back is most helpful.
But one of the best of all methods by which the patient may help
himself consists in biting the tongue as hard as comfortably can be
borne, holding that member between the teeth for several minutes at a
time, three or four times daily.
Also, it is well carefully to examine the condition of the teeth,
throat and pharynx in asthmatic cases, as frequently the asthma does
not clear up until some defect in these organs is remedied.
A twelve-year-old girl of my acquaintance, a physician’s daughter,
has developed considerable technic in zone therapy. Only recently
she relieved the pain of a bad case of mumps by fastening spring
clothespins to the first, second and third fingers of both her hands,
leaving them on until the finger tips became quite purple.
The little lady proudly demonstrated her control over the condition by
taking a mouthful of vinegar as a gargle. This, as every doctor knows,
is quite a crucial test.
In tonsilitis good results almost invariably follow pressure over the
inferior dental nerve, at a point where it enters the jaw bone. It
requires considerable skill to find this foramen (as it is called), so
this advice is really for doctors only.
Pressure may also be made with the finger on a probe back of the
anterior pillars (membranes situated in front of the tonsil).
Yet much may be accomplished merely by squeezing the joints of the
second, third and fourth fingers, and using a tongue depressor on the
extreme sides of the tongue.
And this reminds me that a certain minister of my acquaintance has been
teaching his Boy Scouts zone therapy methods, with especial reference
to curing themselves of coughs and other common ailments. The boys
also find it valuable in their “First Aid to the Injured” work. I
can readily understand that the analgesic effects of zone pressure
should be effective in the camp, as well as in the home, or in the
dead-of-night emergency.
Zone therapy opens up a tremendous field. So the more experimenters we
have the sooner every one will know just how tremendous and useful and
marvelous it is.