Calling one of the dentists to make strong pressure over the first joint of one thumb, the doctor grasped the other thumb. This simple, apparently foolish, treatment was maintained for three minutes. The patient began to show signs of relief. The drawn lines on her face softened. She could bear without shrinking the touch on her neck.
The doctor sent for a glass of water, and held it to the patient’s lips. She took a sip of water, which she swallowed with much difficulty and pain—the first drop in five days.
“It is the most delicious thing I ever tasted,” she whispered.
She was able to swallow about a third of a glass upon her first attempt. The pressures were continued intermittently for about an hour, and within that time she was able to drink four glasses of water and a glass of malted milk. A light rubber band was placed over her thumb joints, as shown in Fig. [5], and she enjoyed her first night’s sleep since the inflammation had developed.
The next morning she reported that she was almost entirely relieved. The swelling was hardly perceptible, and she could bear reasonable pressure over the glands without discomfort. She had no difficulty in swallowing. In a few days she was fully recovered, and has had no return of the trouble.
With the relief of nerve tension—consciously or unconsciously exerted—there necessarily follows a relief in either the constricted or the congested condition of the lymphatic glands or ducts, the thyroid and other ductless glands, and also of the vasomotor nerves, which control the flow of blood through the blood vessels.
This action, no doubt, accounts for the marvelous results which zone therapy has produced in the treatment of glandular and circulatory diseases—whether due to nervous, or physical causes.
In the famous “globus hystericus”—that big lump comes up in the throat of an hysteric—there is no speedier or more effective treatment than zone therapy. Merely take the hands of the hysterical individual, squeeze them as hard as she can bear the pressure, and maintain this pressure for several minutes. Almost immediate relaxation of all the zones will follow, and with this relaxation a disappearance of the great lump in the throat.
The combs or the wire hair brush may be used, if preferred. Or, if none of these are available, merely scratch the back of the hands with the finger nails. It will help materially, of course, if suggestion be employed, using the voice in a soothing manner.