Читать книгу Zone Therapy; Or, Relieving Pain at Home - Edwin F. Bowers - Страница 5

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No illustrator would ever think of drawing a picture of a boy with a green-apple colic, unless he represented that boy with both hands clasped fervently over the seat of war. Nor would he picture a pain anywhere else, without showing the attempts made to relieve this pain. For no one would believe his illustrations, if he omitted these details.

Now, while we know the fact of pain relief, through laying on of the hands, or by kindred measures, we know only a part of its reason for operation. There are several of these. They are, first, the soothing influence of animal magnetism, experienced when we tenderly, if not lovingly, rub the bump, accumulated in the dark of the moon, by collision with a tall brunette side-board, or a door carelessly left ajar. It does soothe. This we know.

Next, the manipulation of the hand over the injured place tends to prevent a condition of venous stasis—a state in which the injured surface veins dam back the flow of blood, and produce that lurid discoloration known euphoneously as “black and blue.”

Also, pressure applied over the seat of injury produces what Dr. George W. Crile, of Cleveland, calls “blocked shock,” or “nerve block,” which means that by pressing on the nerves running from the injured part to the brain area we inhibit or prevent the transmission to the brain the knowledge of injury. In other words, the hurt place can’t tell the central telegraph station anything about the accident, because the wires are down.

Dr. Crile, and surgeons generally, now utilize this knowledge to prevent shock during operations, by injecting cocain, or some anesthetic solution around the course of the nerve trunk leading from the place to be operated upon to the brain.

But there is yet another reason, which we have found out only yesterday. And this is zone analgesia. Pressure over any bony eminence injured, or pressure applied upon the zones corresponding to the location of the injury, will tend to relieve pain.

And not only will it relieve pain, but if the pressure is strong enough and long enough it will frequently produce an analgesia, or insensibility to pain, or even a condition of anesthesia—in which minor surgical operations may be successfully done.

This, of course, is not an infallible or invariable result. Specialists in zone therapy have found pressure effective in obliterating sensation in about 65% of cases; while it will deaden pain, or make it more bearable, in about 80%.

In the hands of many who have tried these methods the percentage often is much lower—because they haven’t learned how to apply it. For if the operator doesn’t “hit” the proper areas or focal points he misses them completely—and also misses results.

In attempting the relief of pain by “working” from the fingers it should also be emphasized that it makes a difference, too, whether the upper and lower or the side surfaces of the joint are pressed. A physician experimenting with the method was ready to condemn it because he was unable to relieve a patient who complained of rheumatic pains which centered on the outer side of the ankle-bone. The doctor grasped the second joint of the patient’s right little finger and pressed firmly for a minute on the top and bottom of the joint. (See Fig. 3.) The pain persisted, and the doctor jeered at the method.

Fig. 3.—Illustrating method of applying anterior and posterior pressure to the finger joint.

A disciple of zone therapy smiled, and suggested that while the doctor had the right finger, he had the right finger in the wrong grip. The doctor was advised to press the sides of the finger (See Fig. 4), instead of the top and bottom. This was done, and the pain disappeared in two minutes.

Fig. 4. Illustrating method of applying lateral pressure to the finger joint.

This pressure therapy has an advantage over any other method of pain relief, inasmuch as it has been proved that, in contradistinction to opiates, when zone pressure relieves pain it likewise tends to remove the cause of the pain, no matter where this cause originates. And this in conditions where seemingly one would not expect to secure any therapeutic, or curative, results.

For instance, I recall a case of breast tumor, with two fairly good-sized nodes, as large as horse chestnuts. This lady had made arrangements to be operated upon by a prominent surgeon in Hartford, but had postponed her operation a few weeks on account of the holidays.

Meantime she had been instructed to make pressures with a tongue depressor and with elastic bands (See Figures 17 and 5), for the relief of the breast pain—which relief, by the way, was quite complete. After a few weeks, this lady returned to her surgeon for further examination and to complete arrangements for operation. Upon examining, however, the surgeon found the growth so reduced in size that he expressed himself as unwilling to operate, as he saw no necessity for operating. The tumor has since completely disappeared—under these tongue pressure treatments. This patient, and the name of the surgeon who saw her “before and after,” are at the disposal of any physician who may regard this plain unvarnished tale as an old wives’ chronicle.

A small uterine fibroid made a similar happy exit, as a result of pressures made on the floor of the mouth, directly under the center of the tongue. This patient next made a regular practice of squeezing the joints of her thumb, first and second finger, whenever she had nothing else important to do. And the result infinitely more than justified the means.

Lymphatic enlargements, as painful glands in the neck, arm-pits, or groin, yield even more rapidly to this zone pressure than do tumors. And while no claims are made to the effect that cancer can be cured by zone therapy, yet there are many cases in which pain has been completely relieved, and the patients freed from the further necessity of resorting to opiates. And in a few cases the growths have also entirely disappeared.

Fig 5.—Showing method of “rubber-banding” the fingers for trouble in the first, second and third zones.

The growth of interest in this work is most encouraging. Dr. FitzGerald and other physicians using zone therapy in their practice, have had scores of letters from patients they have never even seen, but who have written, expressing their appreciation for the relief secured through instructions from some of their patients, or through following out some suggestion from my articles in the magazines.

I have reason to believe that there are now upwards of two hundred physicians, osteopaths and dentists, using these methods every day, with complete satisfaction to themselves and to their patients.

And the number of laymen, and especially lay-women, who are preaching the doctrine in their own households, and among their circle of friends, must be legion. The adoption of the method is attended with absolutely no danger or disagreeable results, and may be the means of lengthening short lives and making good health catching. I, for one, hope that the numbers of those who may be inclined to learn and practice these methods upon themselves and upon the members of their families may ever increase and multiply. For this is a big idea, and a helpful one. Therefore, the more who make it their own the better for the human race. We shall now let Dr. FitzGerald continue the argument.