JOIN USJija Subramanian, a resident of Bangalore, would often run to her doctor with her 14-year-old daughter, Nikitha, who suffered from continuous sneezing. The sneezing bout would go on for 15 minutes every day and a course of expensive allopathic drugs would fix the problem temporarily until the sneezing re-appeared a few days later. This cycle kept repeating and Jija had reached her wits end.
She had heard of acupressure, a drugless approach to diseases and studied this form of alternative medicine that had the potential to bring about vibrant health and could be self-administered. Acupressure involves the application of manual pressure (usually with the finger tips) to specific points of the body.
This is a fact — our body has vital energy running through it, flowing along invisible lines of energy called meridians. Fourteen meridians connect our organs with other parts of the body. Acupressure points lie on those meridians. If the flow of energy is blocked at any point in the meridian, it is thought to be the cause of ailments. This can lead to the onset of diseases anywhere along the meridian. And sometimes, an acupressure practitioner may apply pressure to a point in the foot to relieve a headache.
Jija found a practitioner in her neighbourhood who treated her teenage daughter. In a month, the sneezing bouts vanished. The acupressure treatment on her daughter was showing positive results.
She says, “These simple and easy-to- learn techniques are less known to the general public but can cure a cold, allergy, digestive problems, eye, ear and teeth problems – all at a nominal cost. For children below five years of age, there is an even milder form called acutouch. The technique can be performed on children with light pressure, gentle tapping and stroking of the appropriate points.”
In the book, Acupressure for Health and Fitness, figure 2 has an activation point numbered ‘Lu 7’. This point has to be activated in anti-clockwise direction seven times, once a week. On pages 18 and 19, reflex points on the palm of a child are indicated.
These should be activated for five minutes daily to improve a child’s immune system. All this can be done by mothers at home and antibiotics can be avoided.