CHAPTER 7.

ZONE THERAPY FOR WOMEN.

In the eternal fitness of things there would be something radically wrong if zone therapy did not offer some especial and particular help to women. It is a satisfaction to state that the eternal fitness of things is right, as usual. For zone therapy is as unique in this connection as in most of its other applications.

Many of the things it does are positively startling. And yet they become commonplace, after one has been in the work for a time. One of the most striking cases that has yet come to my attention came in the form of a letter of thanks from a mother of a young girl. I never saw either. The mother, however, wrote me that her daughter, who had not menstruated in ten months, was, some time ago, instructed by a patient of mine to take the broad handle of a tablespoon and make strong pressure upon the tongue (a tongue depressor shown in Fig. 17 would be more appropriate), as far back as she could stand it without gagging.

She did so, and within five minutes was menstruating profusely, yet without the slightest pain or discomfort. In the several months which had since intervened, she “came around” regularly every twenty-eight days. The mother who feared that her daughter was going into a decline, could not refrain from writing me a most heartfull letter of appreciation for what my patient, through my instruction, had been able to do for her daughter. I call this good preventive medicine.

Painful menstruation (dysmenorrhoea), also yields like magic to the potent pressure of a probe applied to the posterior (back) wall of the pharynx. But the tongue pressures are, in the majority of cases, quite as effective. For pain in the back or thighs, preceding or during menstruation, pressure with the tip of the index finger on the posterior wall of the pharynx on the median line and to the right and left of same, will almost uniformly give relief.

A broad, rough-surfaced tongue depressor (see Fig. 17) is best for the purpose. But if this is not available, the handle of a large spoon or the handle of a tooth brush may be used.

This should be applied to the tongue three-quarters of the way back and on the median line. The patient’s head should be held rigid, and the lower jaw supported, to the end that stronger pressure can be made. It is well to have the physician or some male member of the family officiate in this, as the patient may not be inclined to use the requisite amount of force.

The pressure should be held firmly for two minutes. Then it should be relaxed and the point of focus changed slightly. Or the instrument may be turned or rotated from side to side, at one minute intervals.

Many patients who are obliged to go to bed for two or three days each month, after a course of this treatment, are completely relieved of all distress. Indeed, some of these hardly knew they were “coming sick.”

It might be added that pressure exerted on the thumb, first and second fingers of both hands helps materially in this work. And one of the most comforting factors in the practice is that patients are usually quite as well the next morning as they are even directly after the most successful treatment.

Occasionally the use of the metal comb on the back of the hand, “combing” thoroly the region of the thumb, first and second fingers as far as to the wrists--has given best results. But the tongue pressures are most uniformly successful.

While I have seldom heard of a miscarriage being induced by these pressures, yet I believe a note of warning should be sounded, cautioning against the use of the tongue pressures, particularly during the early months of pregnancy.

For it is quite conceivable that abortion might follow drastic tongue treatment. It would be far better during these months to depend upon the finger pressures or the comb for treatment of these zones.

Also, if there is a too-profuse and too-frequent menstruation, severe tongue pressures should be avoided. In these conditions gentle stroking on the backs of the hands with a wire hair brush or the teeth of the metal comb has given best results. And this same procedure may be confidently resorted to to prevent threatened abortion.

While not confined to women, yet women are by far more generally afflicted with constipation and hemorrhoids than are men. Their sedentary habits, tight lacing, and repugnance to water drinking make them peculiarly susceptible to the costive habit--which in turn, through engorgement of the hemorrhoidal veins, causes piles.

I mention these subjects here because the treatment for constipation and hemorrhoids is identical with that given for painful or suppressed menstruation.

The results in constipation are, in some instances, absolutely astonishing. I know of one woman, constipated for fifteen years, who never knew what it meant to have a natural movement of the bowels. She grasped the chair seat with the tips of her fingers and thumbs, putting all her strength into this grip--so as partly to desensitize the pain of tongue pressure, and thereby be able to stand a more drastic treatment. Then the tongue was firmly pressed for nine minutes in the manner before described.

Her bowels moved within fifteen minutes afterwards, and for a year or longer she has never had to take another cathartic. Another case was cleared up two years ago, and has had no return of the former trouble.

These, however, are the extraordinary and exceptional cases. For routine treatment it may be well to use the pressures for a considerable period of time, so that their stimulating effect may tend to create a “habit” in the peristaltic muscles of the bowel. For the cure cannot be considered complete until this “habit” is firmly established.

The pain, bleeding and swelling of piles is also helped by these same procedures.

The point to be most emphatically dwelt upon in connection with the treatment of these conditions is that “absent treatment,” or lick-and-a-promise namby-pambyism, isn’t of any avail. The pressures must be made by some one who has more sympathy with the patient’s ultimate good than he has for her present temporary discomfort, and who will administer a good honest treatment--preferably while the patient does all she can--by tightly clasping the hands on the interlocked fingers, or by grasping the chair or a table with the finger tips--to reduce the sensitivity of the zones operated upon.

If zone therapy is used in this manner, the results will amaze and delight. For no method yet evolved for the treatment of these disorders even remotely approximates zone therapy in point of efficacy.