Another bronchial asthmatic suffered so severely that he had made all arrangements, even to packing his trunks, to retire from business and seek health on the Riviera or in Egypt. His “wheezing” was so pronounced that he could be heard clear across a twenty-foot room. This gentleman was advised by Dr. D. F. Sullivan, senior surgeon of St. Francis Hospital, to see me before leaving the country.
I pressed on the floor of the patient’s mouth, under the root of the tongue, with a cotton-tipped probe, and made strong pressure on the first and third zones of his tongue with a tongue depressor. In three or four treatments this man was entirely well, and informed us that he had indefinitely postponed his trip abroad, and “was going back to work again.”
Zone therapists have found in throat and chest cases that painting the tongue with iodine on the upper and lower surfaces for about one-third way back is most helpful.
But one of the best of all methods by which the patient may help himself consists in biting the tongue as hard as comfortably can be borne, holding that member between the teeth for several minutes at a time, three or four times daily.
Also, it is well carefully to examine the condition of the teeth, throat and pharynx in asthmatic cases, as frequently the asthma does not clear up until some defect in these organs is remedied.
A twelve-year-old girl of my acquaintance, a physician’s daughter, has developed considerable technic in zone therapy. Only recently she relieved the pain of a bad case of mumps by fastening spring clothespins to the first, second and third fingers of both her hands, leaving them on until the finger tips became quite purple.
The little lady proudly demonstrated her control over the condition by taking a mouthful of vinegar as a gargle. This, as every doctor knows, is quite a crucial test.
In tonsilitis good results almost invariably follow pressure over the inferior dental nerve, at a point where it enters the jaw bone. It requires considerable skill to find this foramen (as it is called), so this advice is really for doctors only.
Pressure may also be made with the finger on a probe back of the anterior pillars (membranes situated in front of the tonsil).
Yet much may be accomplished merely by squeezing the joints of the second, third and fourth fingers, and using a tongue depressor on the extreme sides of the tongue.