CHAPTER 8.

RELAXING NERVOUS TENSION.

Perhaps you may not do it. You have such splendid control over yourself. But you know many people who, when angry, or when suffering great physical pain, sink their teeth into their lip. Sometimes they bite hard enough to start the blood. Others clinch their teeth and hands, and double their toes up in their shoes. Why do you suppose they do this? They do these, and many other natural and apparently inevitable things, because they are instinctive and scientific, and because Nature knows her business. We have done and shall continue to do them involuntarily and automatically, because they relieve pain and nerve tension, because they produce a form of analgesia, or pain-deadening, similar to that which follows the injection of water or some anesthetic solution into a sensory nerve. If you stop and think for a moment many examples of this inhibition--as it is called--will recur.

One of the most interesting, from our standpoint, was that of a young school teacher, subject to cataleptic fits, who, when she felt one of her fits coming on, stepped on her right toes with all the weight she could throw on the left foot, at the same time grasping the right wrist firmly. Often those near--if notified in time--would produce the pressures for her. In this way the young woman managed to break up or prevent all except severe and sudden attacks.

It was subsequently found that this patient had a chronic irritation in the right ovary, and also a strained condition of the muscles of accommodation in the right eye. When these conditions were cleared up by proper remedial measures and correction, the cataleptic attacks ceased.

The fact of relief having followed in many instances her “inhibiting” the right-sided zones indicated the possible source of trouble. And by painstakingly examining the organs in these zones the cause of her condition was located and finally overcome.

So, as a means of diagnosis zone therapy has an immense value. Its curative effects, however, are most valuable and significant. Many of the gravest nerve conditions--conditions which failed to respond to the most skilled medical treatment obtainable anywhere--have been completely and permanently cured by the application of the proper pressures--properly made.

I recall a very grave case of neurosis--a writer’s cramp--accompanying a neurasthenic condition. This lady--unusually alert and intelligent--was a physical and nervous wreck. Sleepless, harassed by “nerves” in their most aggravated form, she was unable to hold a pen, or to write more than a few minutes at a time, until, on account of the pain and twitching of the arm, wrist, and fingers, she was forced to desist. She could no more have picked up and threaded a needle--let alone have sewed with it--than she could have operated an aeroplane. She was also nearly deaf from a middle ear trouble.

Several months’ treatment, using the aluminum comb across the front and back of the hands and on the finger tips, and daily employment of the tongue depressor for four or five minutes, brought about a complete change in the patient’s condition.

It relaxed the terrible nervous tension--which was particularly marked along the course of the spine--enabling her to sleep at night, and awake thoroly rested and refreshed in the morning. The writer’s cramp was also completely cleared up. A number of other conditions were also corrected, and the hearing was improved quite 50%.

This lady has since resumed her occupation as a private secretary--a position she was forced by ill health to relinquish more than two years ago--and now writes for hours at a stretch, without any return of the cramp in the hand and arm.

And, most convincing of all, she can now not only pick up, thread, and hold a needle--something she had not been able to do for years--but she can sew steadily for two or three hours, and feel no disagreeable effects from this feminine debauch.

A peculiarly satisfactory characteristic in all these cases is that the improvement is even more apparent the “morning after” than it is immediately after the treatment.

Another case of neuritis in the arm and shoulder (brachial neuritis) for more than six years had been unable to raise his arm higher than the shoulder. For the two months previous to treatment he had been obliged to carry it in a sling. The slightest movement of the arm brought about a paroxysm of agonizing pain.

A number of hollowed-out spring clothespins were clamped on the fingers of the affected arm (see Fig. 13), and left there for twelve minutes. At the expiration of this time the clamps were removed.

The patient gingerly took his arm from its support, and after a minute or two spent in experimenting with it, moved it freely up behind his head and swung it behind his back in a sweeping motion.

It was subsequently found that this man also had an osteopathic lesion, which was reduced by Dr. Reid Kellogg, and after a few weeks’ “home treatment”--consisting of five minute applications of moderately tight rubber bands around the ends of the fingers--he reported himself as well--and has remained so for more than ten months.

For sciatic neuritis it is found that deep pressures with the teeth of an aluminum or steel comb made upon the toes are much more effective than when made upon the fingers. When pain is most severe on the back of the leg pressures should be made upon the ball (sole) of the foot. (See Fig. 18.) When the front of the leg pains also, the top of the foot should also be pressed.

While we are on the subject of sciatica, I might emphasize the importance of a careful examination of the condition of the wisdom teeth. For very frequently we have found this to be the origin of the sciatic nerve trouble.

Another interesting case, successfully treated with clothespins, was that of a young man suffering from hand tremors, insomnia, and nervous exhaustion.

He had his finger tips clamped daily for a week. Then three times more, at intervals of three days. After the eighth treatment he had no further trouble with tremor, slept like a baby, and was apparently relieved of all nervous symptoms.

We have found it helpful, if the patient has a good set of teeth, to have him clinch the teeth, and also the hands, for several minutes at a time, three or four times daily. This produces an exaggerated degree of relaxation, which is most helpful in overcoming nervous conditions.

Most of our patients are also instructed to “yawn prodigiously,” and stretch. This stimulates a healthy action of the sympathetic nerves in all the zones, and cannot fail but be most beneficial. Sometimes the insomnia of neurasthenia may be effectively overcome by tightly clasping the hands--interlocking the fingers as shown in Fig. 19, or pressing the finger tips firmly together, and holding this position for ten or fifteen minutes--unless sleep should come before this and relax the clasp.

Also, the clinching or wriggling of the toes is of benefit to a neurasthenic. In fact, I am convinced that the method of relieving fatigue in marching troops, discovered by Drs. DeFleury and Jacques--of the French army, is largely an application of the principles of zone therapy.

The French surgeon’s idea is temporarily to expel the blood from the legs by raising them. The soldiers remove their shoes and lie prone on the ground, close to a tree or wall, with heads slightly elevated. They then raise their legs against the wall, stretching upwards as far as limb limitations permit.

In this attitude the toes and ankles are worked or “wriggled” briskly. Then the knees are flexed and extended a half dozen times or more. A body of men, apparently in the last stages of exhaustion, recuperate their energies with from five to fifteen minutes’ exercise of this kind.

It can readily be seen how, by these exercises, all the zones in the body would be stimulated to a normal condition. And the fact that the exercises practiced are successful on a wholesale scale proves the principle sound.

One of the most important things Americans have to learn is how to relax. Anything that will teach them to do this should prove a boon.

Therefore I feel certain that, before many years, the principles and practices of zone therapy will be as familiar and universally applied as are now the principles of domestic hygiene or the practice of sterilizing baby bottles. And then zone therapy will add to the depth and breadth, as well as to the length of human life.