Every organ in the body had received a most thorough overhauling, and still those headaches held the fort. So the diagnoses settled down into “pain habit.”
Christian Science, magnetic healing, faith cure, and most of the modern medical fads had all been tried, without success. She was on the verge of suicidal melancholia.
The afternoon I first saw her she was almost in hysteria—her pain was so acute. For when telephoning for her appointment she had been told not to take any opiates—as they might “mask the symptoms,” and confuse the diagnosis.
Without stopping to question her, I washed my hands in an antiseptic solution, placed the tips of the first and second fingers of my right hand close against the roots of her incisor, or front teeth, held her head rigidly with the left hand, and pressed firmly for two minutes. I then moved my finger tips an inch further back on the hard palate, and repeated the pressure for another two minutes.
Releasing her, I stepped back, much as an artist might, in viewing a piece of work that pleases him. That I was justified in so doing was proved by the fact that, for the first time in three years, except when under the complete influence of an opiate, this lady was absolutely free from pain.
I instructed her husband, who accompanied her, just where to make the proper pressures when the pain returned, and within a week had a report from him that there were now no further attacks of the neuralgic headaches. This relief has persisted for more than a year.
Headaches frequently respond to pressures exerted over the joints on the thumb or fingers, or sometimes it may be necessary to “attack” it from the inside of the nose, or from some other point of vantage in the zone affected.
As an illustration of how pain can be squeezed out of the head through the fingers, a typical case, reported by Dr. George Starr White, of Los Angeles, California, may be helpful.
A lady suffered from a very severe headache on the top of her head, which had persisted for more than three weeks. She had consulted several doctors, who had given her “coal tars,” opiates, and hypodermics, but the relief was only temporary.
Dr. White told her nothing of what was contemplated, but took hold of her hands, and began firmly pressing on the first, second and third fingers—the pain being diffused over the frontal regions—at the same time engaging her in conversation concerning her condition.