After a period of therapy, a little boy who could not be kept out of trouble in the examining room on his first visit lost his hyperactivity and became a strong proponent for castor oil packs. His father used them on his tummy while he watched television. For almost a year, he would not do without a pack for a single day, and the changes in activity were remarkable enough that he was presented to a symposium of doctors as a case in point.
This little boy was first seen at six years of age, in February, 1967, because of being so very thin, with a poor appetite, severe abdominal pains and severe emotional upsets and temper tantrums. He had a history of severe upper respiratory infections until he was two years old and had had many antibiotic shots. At the time of examination, he was unable to sit still at any time and was continually active.
After two months on the castor oil packs, he was sitting quietly and turning the pages of a book in the consultation room. The mother reported that the abdominal pains were much better. He was eating well and sleeping well and was more normal in every way although he was still having temper tantrums. He looked forward to taking the packs because they seemed to relax him.
He was seen monthly throughout 1967. He continued to progress and gain weight during the rest of the year, and in June, 1968, his weight was up to forty-seven pounds, and he was continuing with the castor oil packs. He was not seen during 1968 and 1969 because he was doing so well.
When I last saw him in January, 1971, his weight was up to sixty-four and one-half pounds. He had had no colds or infection during this whole year. He had not needed castor oil packs. He was doing so well in school that he was in the top reading group in his school. He had many friends, and during the Summer of 1970 he had been on the swim team and won seven ribbons. He seemed to be very well adjusted at that time. His mother stated that once in a while he would have a stomach-ache and would begin to feel a little out of sorts and would ask for his castor oil pack.
In another case, a speech therapist wrote: “After reading one of your medical bulletins, I suggested to the mother of a student of mine (chronic hyperkinetic brain syndrome, age three, also epileptic) that she rub castor oil on the child for a half hour before naps and bedtime. Site reports that after three days the child still has difficulty in getting to sleep, but that now she sings herself to sleep instead of the whining-crying and that although she still awakens during the night, she sings instead of crying.” The oil, of course, was massaged into the abdominal area.
Our January symposium two years ago centered on this distressing problem. Now comes a report from James Satterfield (Behavior Today, July 3, 1972) that hyperkinetic children apparently have an immature nervous system. This was shown by the EEG blips evoked by auditory stimuli, which were fewer in number and of less amplitude than those in the control group. Satterfield, a psychiatrist, studied thirty-one hyperactive children between the ages of six and nine, and twenty-one normal controls.
This is of interest to us, perhaps, because of the concept that the body can be returned to normal, in balance, in development, in function, and because the primary therapy we have been working with in the problem of hyperactivity is castor oil packs applied to the abdomen. The theory behind this is that such a vibratory influence in some manner causes this central portion of the autonomic nervous system to bring about a coordination and equalization within the body which would then promote a more rapid maturation of the nervous system than would otherwise be expected.
[† March, 1973, Volume 8, No. 2, page 86, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]
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