CHAPTER XI.

HAY FEVER, ASTHMA AND TONSILITIS.

If the United States Hay Fever Association, and all individuals who suffer from hay fever, will read carefully, and then apply this chapter--as directed--the ravages of these catarrhal cataclysms, I feel sure, will be beautifully lessened.

For zone therapy has an especial and peculiar message for hay-feverites. It has mitigated, if not entirely relieved, the red-eyed misery of hundreds of them. And none--except those who have been victims--can know what a real relief this is.

Nobody knows for certain what causes hay-fever, and, judging from the textbooks, they know even less regarding any definite method of relieving it.

It is possible that repeated “colds”--generally from dust infection--result in a chronic irritation of the mucous membrane, followed by a thickening (or hypertrophy) of the tissues.

This thickened tissue dams the circulation of blood in the membranes, and presses upon the delicate nerves of the nose, thereby irritating them, which irritation proves to be the last straw. So the nerves of the nose throw up both hands with a despairing moan.

An acute inflammatory irritation is established, setting up a vicious circle. For the pressure causes nerve irritation, and the nerves retaliate by still further disturbing the circulation, thereby causing more pressure.

Then, if really it is pollen that causes the physiological conflagration we call hay fever, the mucous membrane is so susceptible that it will readily respond to the action of the pollen. Which is probably also true of those cases that develop similar conditions from the odor of roses, horses or cats.

It is significant, however, that of all the hundreds of hay-fever patients that have ever come under my care not one had an absolutely normal nose. Invariably there were bony spurs, protruding turbinate bones, cartilages twisted out of proper alignment, an inflamed and thickened mucous membrane lining, or some other pathological condition, one usually requiring surgical interference.

So if you have, or expect to have, hay fever or any other abnormal condition of the nasal mucous membranes, see a specialist and have your nose placed in as near a perfect condition as surgical skill and your physical shortcomings will permit, not forgetting also a thorough stretching of the soft palate. This the surgeon will accomplish by means of a finger inserted in the throat and a hooked instrument in the passage back of the nose. By enlarging the contracted parts of this passage normal drainage and circulation in these tissues is established.

The best results are obtained by operating during the height of an attack. If sometimes even a needle be thrust through the congested mucous membrane, so that the blood flows freely, the attack can be broken up, and the condition frequently eradicated for that season.

Then use any combination of the following procedures, which experience may prove helpful, remembering that here no fixed rule can be laid down, and that what “works” magically in one case might have but little effect in another.

First, make steady firm pressures on various points in the roof of the mouth with the thumb. Be careful to “cover” the region directly on a line with the nose. These pressures should be maintained for from four to eight minutes at a time, and repeated a half dozen or more times daily. Those experienced in zone therapy claim that the pressures have an immediate and powerful effect upon abnormal conditions in this zone.

At the same time the upper lip should be firmly forced against the teeth with the first finger. This usually has a most discouraging effect upon sneezing.

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.

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.

And this reminds me that a certain minister of my acquaintance has been teaching his Boy Scouts zone therapy methods, with especial reference to curing themselves of coughs and other common ailments. The boys also find it valuable in their “First Aid to the Injured” work. I can readily understand that the analgesic effects of zone pressure should be effective in the camp, as well as in the home, or in the dead-of-night emergency.

Zone therapy opens up a tremendous field. So the more experimenters we have the sooner every one will know just how tremendous and useful and marvelous it is.