Consider acupuncture--they put needles in your feet to treat pain all over the body. A person's back might hurt, but it could be nerve related and not muscle related, and the spine is like the central cable housing that bundles nerves to the brain. Another way to look at this is a car's engine might be fine, but won't start, because the electrical system (fuse) is blown). So you got the Patch to work because you (seemingly) randomly applied it to the correct point.
Senior Whelan did get this, and that was why he couldn't sell the company when he had a decent opportunity in the wayback. The reason this tech is gaining acceptance in Asia more because they have a cultural acceptance that the body works a united organism. The Western view is to treat the body as a machine with interchangeable parts.