It merely requires that you press your thumb—or, better still, some smooth, broad metal surface (See Fig. [6]), as the end of a knife-handle—firmly against the roof of the mouth, as nearly as possible under the battleground—and hold it there for from three to five minutes—by the watch. It may be necessary, if the ache is extensive, to shift the position of the thumb or metal “applicator” so as to “cover” completely the area that aches.
Headaches and neuralgias, of purely nervous origin, not due to poison from toxic absorption from the bowels, or to constipation, or alcoholism, tumors, eye-strain, or some specific organic cause, usually subside under this pressure within a few minutes.
’Tis as easy as lying. Many patients cure their own or their friend’s and relative’s headaches or neuralgic attacks in this manner. In their own headaches they use their right or left thumb—depending upon whether they are right or left-handed. In treating others, they use the first and second fingers, pressing firmly under the seat of pain.
Their “points of attack” may extend from the roots of the front teeth—for a frontal headache—to the junction of the hard and soft palate—for a pain in the back of the head. Or from the roots of the right upper molars to those of the upper left molars, if the pain be in the region of the temples or the side of the head.
Only temporary results should be expected—or even complete failure—if the pain is due to costiveness, eye-strain, or some persistent organic condition—although even here the severity of the attack can usually be modified.
In those headaches excited by dental operations relief can almost invariably be secured. Dr. Thomas J. Ryan of New York, and others familiar with zone therapy (the science of relieving pain and curing disease by pressures in the various “zones” affected by pain or disease), almost uniformly cure headaches or neuralgias in their patients in this manner. In medical practice the results are even more miraculous.
One of the worst cases yet treated by zone therapy was that of a lady who had suffered from persistent headache for more than three years. She had been to all the most prominent nerve specialists in the East, and had also consulted several European experts. Her heart was in a very dangerous condition, owing to the amount of antipyrin and other headache powders she had taken.
Her pain was located most generally in the forehead, and during the height of the attacks extended up as far as the top of the head.
It was not relieved by sleep—indeed, it was worse, if anything, after such poor and inadequate sleep as she was able to get. This fact eliminated eye-strain as a cause, for eye-strain headaches are almost invariably better after a night’s rest.