CONTENT of This Page （Click each item to jump）
1. Judging Your Susceptibility to Catch Cold
2. How to Prevent Colds With Throat Massage
3. The Effects That You Can Expect From Throat Massage
4. What to Do, If Suffering from a Cold or Sore Throat
5. A History of Colds in my Youth
6. For Baby and Children's Cold Prevention
1. Judging Your Susceptibility to Catch Cold
Let's examine your susceptibility to catch cold in order to recognize the necessity of cold prevention.
I think that 60-80 percent of people catch cold starting in their throats. Here is an easy method to test your susceptibility to catch cold.
First, place your thumb and index finger about 5cm on your collarbone (on two star marks). Next, press those two fingers squarely into your throat, and pinch your throat strongly with two fingers as in the illustration to the right.
Did you cough or not?
- A person who coughs violently is a person who tends to catch cold easily.
- A person who coughs lightly is a person who tends to catch cold on occasion.
- A person who hardly coughs is a person who tends to hardly ever catch cold.
- A person who doesn’t cough at all is a person who doesn’t need to read this website.
2. How to Prevent Colds With Throat Massage
If you are susceptible to catching cold, try preventing colds with throat massage.
Which part of the throat is responsive to massage?
My regimen is to massage the area between the part of the throat where you experienced a cough when pinching your throat, and the part about 5cm above that; in other words, the area from the base of the neck to the Adam's apple.
You may massage this area from both side (right side and left side) with both the thumb and index finger, but in the first few massage sessions, you may find that you can hardly continue because of coughing.
If such a case occurs, alternate between massaging one side of the throat and then the other.
For how long should you massage your throat?
I massage mine for about 100 finger strokes per massage. It takes about 1 minute for a 100-stroke massage. You have enough time to massage while driving or while watching television.
You had better to massage softly your throat to prevent side effect. I am taking care to massage it softly when the part where the bone or the nerve exist under the skin.
3. The Effects That You Can Expect From Throat Massage
I guarantee that you will actually feel the effects of throat massage after 2-3 weeks of daily practice.
At that time, please test once more your susceptibility to cough by pinching your throat in the method described above.
Perhaps you will have a slight cough.
You might find that phlegm is present in your throat as your condition gradually improves.
I think that this phlegm is a pus residue of the bacillus in your tonsils that has been attacked by white blood cells, etc. Over time, the phlegm gradually becomes highly viscous, similar to the viscous phlegm you experience during recovery from a cold. So you may experience viscous phlegm in your throat.
By continuing with the massage regimen, you will reach the point at which you hardly cough, and your constitution will actually become resistant to catching cold.
You may need to make an appointment of your work after 2-3 months, and in some cases after over half a year if you are a member of the workforce. Once I reached the state of not catching colds anymore, I could make that with conviction.
4. What to Do, If Suffering from a Cold or Sore Throat
I used to experience sore throats and colds about 2-3 times a year until I started this massage regimen for the prevention of colds 25 years ago.
I have hardly caught a cold for these twenty years or more. But I very unusually got a light sore throat, when I neglected throat massaging.
In the combating a sore throat (as the first stage of a cold) the first step for half a day or one is very critical. At this stage I have recovered from colds that I experienced for past twenty years or more.
In this step I massage my throat 5 to 10 times a day. This amounts to 500-1000 finger strokes a day.
You might think that such a frequency is impossible; nonetheless, I think that you spend much less time on these frequent massages than on sleeping once you have succumbed to a cold.
It is very effective to lick the troche with throat massaging. The troche salivates, and the enough saliva and the throat massaging soothe the sore throat.
I choose the troche that includes xylitol for oral health. In Japan one pharmaceutical company sells the troche for a cold including xylitol.
I cut one tablet of the troche to 4-8 pieces, and contain 1-2 pieces in my mouth. I think that the tablet-size of this troach is too big, so it may sticks in my gullet while I am sleeping.
5. A History of Colds in my Youth
I was very susceptible to catching cold when I was young.
I often had a sore throat the day following a night on the town.
Moreover, when I lived in a dormitory for singles, occasionally on Sundays I hung my futon out to dry, expecting a thorough airing to be good for my health.
However, some Monday evenings I suffered from sore throats which developed into colds on more than several occasions.
Some years later, I noticed that one cause of catching cold was from beating the dust out of a futon. The dust irritated my throat, provoking a cold. It took one or more weeks or more to recover from each cold. Once I ha
It took one or more weeks or more to recover from each cold. Once I had caught a cold, I suffered from a sore throat, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, lethargy, excessive sleeping, and viscous phlegm stuck in my throat.
I came to consider self-massage as a regimen to prevent colds, because my constitution was so susceptible to catching cold.
6. For Baby and Children's Cold Prevention
I practiced this massage regimen on my throat for 25 years or more, and during that time I never caught seasonal influenza. I had bronchitis only once, and 2 or 3 times I caught colds that were not serious.
Even when people I was in proximity to had influenza, for example in the office, I didn’t dare gargle. The reason was that I wanted to verify the effect of throat massage.
Because I am convinced of the effect of the massage from such an experience, I would like to recommend to use throat massage for the cold prevention of the baby and children.
Here are the numbers of colds that people have per year.
In Japan (according to website of the Association of Doctors of Nagasaki Prefecture),
Baby: seven times or more; infant: 5-6 times; school child: 3-4 times; and adult: 1-2 times.
In USA(Wikipedia)
children; 6-12 times; and adult: 2-4 times.
From these infomation, it is clear that baby and children have tendency to catch cold easily.
It is serious problem for working mothers and fathers that their children catch a cold.
And it is not preferable that the pregnant woman takes the cold medicine.
I hope to use the massage to preserve baby and children's health.