In acute articular rheumatism, where there are no gross pathological changes or stiffening in the joints, splendid results have followed the use of combs. It should be remembered that the hip area corresponds with the shoulder on the same side, the knee with the elbow, and the ankle with the wrist, etc., and pain is often overcome more quickly by attacking corresponding parts with pressure or stimulation.
One old lady who suffered terribly in the joints of both hands, and who had not been able to sleep for weeks without an opiate, experienced complete relief after a half dozen treatments with the comb over the tips of her fingers and thumb (Fig. [12]). And she was able to sleep soundly thereafter without the use of her usual hypnotic.
A very interesting case of gonorrheal arthritis was reported recently. This man’s right knee joint was so painful that he could not bear to have it touched. To bend the right leg at the knee was out of the question.
Two minutes’ pressure on the top and bottom, as well as on the tip of the big toe, completely relieved the pain, and upon testing the joint the soreness seemed to have vanished. The doctor then began carefully bending the knee, and to his surprise, and to the amazement of the patient—who hadn’t the slightest idea what was being attempted—the knee could be flexed (bent) perfectly, without any pain whatever.
As this doctor makes a specialty of treating painful joints by means of heat, light, mud baths, and electricity, and has had a great deal of experience in this work, we were much gratified to hear him say that of all the cases he had ever treated he never had anything seem so miraculous as this. He further stated that he had tried all his methods of treatment to alleviate this man’s pain and to be able to flex the knee, but without avail; yet zone therapy, applied at the proper zone, brought about almost immediate results.
As demonstrating a peculiar phase of zone therapy, and showing how great aches from little corns may grow, here is a very interesting and instructive case. A patient, suffering from rheumatism in the left shoulder and arm, had, for more than three weeks, been unable to sleep on account of the pain. He had a small callous growth on the tip of his left thumb, corresponding to the zone in which the pain was located. This was removed, and pressures were made with a comb on the place where the finger corn had formerly held forth. Within four days he was completely cured.
And this reminds me that a corn doctor is a valuable aid in pressure therapy work. For time and again I have seen pains as far away as a headache relieved by clearing up the zone occupied and irritated by a large pugnacious corn, which was the actual cause of the headache—foolish-sounding as it may seem.
A little boy with an aggravated case of “wry neck” had, for months, slept upon sand bags to give him neck support. I cauterized the necks of his teeth (always look to the condition of the teeth in wry neck) with a fine platinum point cautery (which is merely a direct way of stimulating all the zones), and in a few days this youngster was up and running around as well as ever.
Other cases of wry neck have been quite as readily cleared up by combing the appropriate fingers on the palm of the hand of the side involved or by pressing with a cotton-tipped probe on the proper zones on the posterior wall of the throat, or on the under surface of the tongue and on the floor of the mouth under the tongue.
Most medical men, without stopping longer than two seconds to think about it, will affirm that all these things are ridiculous and absurd.