Pressures with a cotton-tipped probe on the back wall of the pharynx (the inside junction of the nose and mouth), as well as upon the mucous membranes of the nose, give, in the hands of physicians, the quickest results. The cotton-tipped probe may be dipped in trichloracetic acid, or some pungent agent, which will lend “punch” to the contact impulse.
A curious feature in connection with this probe therapy is that if the patient, by coughing, resents the presence of the instruments, the effect seems to be dissipated. In other words, the transmission of the nerve impulse is partly inhibited. It is fair to say, however, that patients become rapidly accustomed to what at first frequently caused irritation.
The use of a tongue depressor, covering the center of the tongue fairly well “forward,” has also been found most helpful, if pressed down and held firmly several times a day for three minutes or more at a time. In fact, it is expedient to use the tongue depressor in almost all nose, throat and stomach troubles—or, in fact, any condition occurring in the “front” of the body.
The wearing of moderately tight rubber bands upon the thumb, first and second fingers for ten or fifteen minutes (or less, if the finger tips become purple) repeated several times daily, seems also to help materially. Indeed, some physicians report that they get their very best results by having their patients wear the bands as continuously as possible, removing them only as required to prevent blood stasis, and then replacing them again.
Pressures exerted with the finger and thumb over the joints of the thumb, first and second fingers or toes have given excellent results. Three or four-minute pressures with an aluminum comb on all surfaces of the thumb and first finger—repeated several times daily—have also given satisfactory relief in hay fever.
Always the breath should be taken through the nostrils. If the mouth persists in opening at night, strap it shut with isinglass plaster cut in thin strips.
The treatment of asthma and other affections of the respiratory passages is very similar to that of hay fever, excepting that, instead of pressing the tongue, more generally the floor of the mouth is manipulated for this purpose—as the impulse is thus more “direct.”
Some of the results in asthma have been little short of miraculous. One patient suffering with bronchial asthma had been unable to lie down for three years, what little sleep she secured being taken propped in a chair. Her sole relief consisted in the hypodermic injection of fifteen drops of adrenalin solution, practically every morning and night.
I made pressure on the pharyngeal wall, at a point “low down,” where the “metallic sensation” was reflected into the bronchial region. Also I used the probe on the floor of the mouth, directly beneath the root of the tongue.
Within five minutes this lady—for the first time in three years—was relieved of all pain, tightness, hoarseness, and shortness of breath. In two months of this treatment she gained fifteen pounds, and now sleeps through the night. Also, she has been enabled completely to discontinue her use of adrenalin.