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Zone therapy is a system discovered many years ago by an eminent American physician, William H Fitzgerald, who was born in 1872 and who died in Stamford, Connecticut on 21 October 1942. He was an MD in Hartford, Connecticut. Dr Fitzgerald graduated from the University of Vermont in 1895 and worked his first 2¹/₂ years at the Boston City Hospital; he then went on to serve a further 2 years at the Central London Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Hospital in England (1902). This was followed by a further 2 years in Vienna’s ENT Hospital under Professor Politzer and Professor Otto Chiari, who were well known in the medical world at that time. All of this gives some indication of Dr Fitzgerald’s qualities as a doctor and surgeon. Dr Fitzgerald was senior nose and throat surgeon at St Francis Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut for several years. It was during that period that he made his findings of zone therapy, as it was called at this time, known to the medical world.

He developed this therapy because he observed, while working, that when applying pressure over certain points of the toes and hands, and other parts of the body, if the pressure was firm enough it caused a type of anaesthesia in a limited area. This enabled him to perform minor operations on the nose and throat without using cocaine and other local analgesics while the patient could be treated without pain. Fitzgerald stated in his book that pressure over any bony eminence, or upon the zones corresponding to the location of the injury, would tend to relieve pain, and that not only would it relieve pain but if pressures were firm enough it would produce an anaesthetic effect, often removing the cause of the pain.

Dr Fitzgerald published his first book in 1917 with Dr Edwin Bowers. The title read ‘Zone Therapy, or Relieving Pain at Home’. In this he related all his important findings on zone therapy. A zone is an area or part that is marked off, with stated qualities. Fitzgerald diagrammatically depicted this in his early drawings by dividing the human body into zones both anterior and posterior (figure 1.10) and he speculated that the body could be divided into ten such longitudinal (meaning vertical) zones, five each side of the median or middle line. The first ran from the medial edge of the great toe through the centre of the nose to the brain, and then out to the thumb or vice versa. He spoke of these zones as numbering one to five on the right side of the body and the same on the left side. He called them ‘ten invisible currents of energy through the body’ in line with the fingers and toes. (Note that the zones extended from the toe to the brain and out to the thumb or fingers or vice versa, not from the brain to the toe and brain to fingers, as stated in some books.) Fitzgerald also said that his five lines marked out and represented the centre of the respective zones. (Many books do not show this but instead depict four lines coming from each of the webs of the toes, showing the digits as the ten zones.) He then demonstrated the correlation between areas in distant parts of the body and how pressure of between 2 and 10 pounds on given fingers or toes would alleviate pain anywhere in a particular zone. He also stated that the upper and lower surfaces of the joint and side areas must all be pressed for good results (figure 1.11). Each zone could be worked on either hands or feet because the zones ran either way. The distance between the area treated and the organ was of no importance as the whole zone would be treated.

Fitzgerald outlined how pressure over the great toe or on the corresponding thumb helped the entire first zone; this first zone included the incisors and cuspid teeth, and an analgesic effect would often be felt throughout the zone. The second zone included the bicuspid and the third zone the two molars (knowing the zonal pathway enables you to work on the corresponding area for teeth problems). He stated that zones 4 and 5 usually merged in the head. The shoulder and axilla were in all five zones. Also he considered that in zone 4 was the middle ear. (My opinion is that the eustachian tube and middle ear combined are in zones 3 and 4.)

Figure 1.10 (a) The zones of the body according to Dr William Fitzgerald. (b) Corresponding longitudinal and lateral zones in the body and the foot.

Figure 1.11 Applying pressure to all surfaces of the finger

Zone therapy demonstrates the correlation and interdependence of all parts of the body. In his chapter ‘Zone therapy – for doctors only’, Fitzgerald commented: ‘six years ago I accidentally discovered that pressure with a cotton-tipped probe in the mucocutaneous margin of the nose gave an anaesthetic result’. He also went on to explain about how pressure on hands and feet and over joints reproduced the same characteristic results in pain relief. He stated that, when the pain was relieved, the condition that produced the pain was most generally relieved also, and that this led to the ‘mapping out’ of these various areas and associated connections and also to the conditions influenced through them.

He wrote that clasping the hands firmly was effective for many conditions including nervousness, anxiety, insomnia. Also clasping them for 10 minutes would help all pulmonary problems and even the common cold, while changing the clasp position from one hand to the other for 10 minutes each time would help to relieve many minor symptoms and in some cases even more involved problems.

He stated that neck and thyroid problems could be relieved by using distal pressures on the base of the first phalanx of the great toe or thumb and second and third digits respectively. (This was clearly stated so that errors in later books should not arise.) For lumbago one should work on the edge of the palm in line with the ring and little finger, but the most rapid relief for sciatica was secured by attacking the soles of the feet. Fitzgerald often spoke of curing lumbago with a comb; his instructions were to press the teeth into the palmar surface of the thumb first and then the second and third fingers and occasionally work on the webs, especially between thumb and first finger, and to work even the very tops of fingers and right up to wrists as this would help the entire zone. The palmar surface of the hands was to be attacked for pains in the back of the body and the dorsal or top surfaces of hands and fingers for any problems in the anterior (front) surface of body.

He added that, for eye problems, pressure could be applied to the index finger and sometimes middle finger if the eyes were set far apart. He spoke of squeezing the big finger or corresponding toe for ear problems. Pictures showed the distal phalange being squeezed by thumb and forefinger, or tight elastic bands being placed around them; one of the most effective methods for ear problems was placing a clothes peg to the tip of the ring finger or the fingers on either side, or raising the nail of the fourth finger for tinnitus. This point is a known acupuncture point (see figure 6.8b).

Pressure was often applied using aluminium combs, pointed instruments, tight elastic bands, clothes pegs or clamps on the fingers or toes (figure 1.12). Fitzgerald also spoke of how to use pressure with fingers and thumbs from anything between 1 and 4 minutes. The use of the many non-electrical applications such as surgical clamps, aluminium combs, elastic bands, pegs and percussion motors never really caught on because they were so invasive. Fitzgerald also had ‘therapy bites’ and ‘therapy grips’; these were saw-edged articles or sometimes just metal combs. He even used rubber erasers. However, hands and the precise techniques of the correct pressure were all that was really needed.

He stated how all the zones must be free from irritation and obstructions to get the best results. His writings spoke of how important teeth were and how they should be preserved, also how offending corns, warts, calluses, etc. created an inflammatory process, which could cause a problem in a corresponding part of the body, how fingernails and toenails should be kept trimmed and how too much pressure from shoes could be detrimental to health within that zone.

Fitzgerald gave four different reasons in his book for how zone therapy worked (this is also outlined in the book Reflexology: Art, Science and History by Christine Issel). He stated:

Figure 1.12 (a) A method of treating earache, toothache and any pain. (b) Combs applied to the fingers to treat complications of the mid-thoracic and lower back, and other deep-seated problems.

while we know the fact of pain relief, through the laying on of the hands, or by kindred measures, we only know part of its reason for operation. There are several of these. They are:

1 Through the soothing influence of animal magnetism

2 The manipulation of the hand over the injured place tends to prevent a condition of venous stasis

3 Pressure over the seat of injury produced ‘blocked shock’ or ‘nerve block’ which meant that by pressing on the nerves running from the injured part to the brain area we inhibit or prevent the transmission to the brain of the knowledge of the injury

4 Pressure over any bony eminence injured, or pressure applied upon the zones corresponding to the location of the injury will tend to relieve pain. Not only will it relieve pain but if the pressure is strong enough and long enough and in the right place it will frequently produce analgesia, or insensibility to pain.

These are some of the many ailments that Fitzgerald said he treated:

Abdominal pains

Abortion (prevention of)

Angina pectoris

Arm problems

Asthma

Backache

Bladder problems

Blood pressure disorders

Brachial neuritis

Breast problems

Bronchitis

Cancer (he never claimed to cure)

Colds

Conjunctivitis

Constipation

Coughs

Deafness

Diarrhoea

Epilepsy

Eustachian tube problems

Eye problems

Falling hair

Foot problems

Gall bladder problems

Goitre

Haemorrhoids

Hay fever

Headache

Heart problems

Hiccough

Hysteria

Insomnia

Intestinal problems

Labour pain

Laryngitis

Liver problems

Locomotor ataxia

Loss of voice

Lumbago

Lung problems

Menses

Migraine

Morning sickness

Mumps

Nasal catarrh

Nervousness

Neuralgia

Ovarian problems

Paralysis

Pneumonia

Prostate

Quinsy

Rheumatism

Sciatica

Sea sickness

Sneezing

Sore throat

Testes problems

Throat problems

Tinnitus

Toothache

Torticollis

Tuberculosis

Tumours

Uterine problems

Whooping cough