Allergy Elimination

Allergies are the most common ailment in our country today. Over 60% of Americans -- an estimated 90 million people -- suffer from food and environmental allergies. Until recently, food allergies were only thought to cause immediate problems -- like a peanut allergy or shellfish that often cause anaphylaxis (hives, swelling and passing out.)

As it turns out, most people have another type of food allergy, called a delayed-type sensitivity. That means the reaction to the food may not appear until later -- sometimes 72 hours (three full days) after you have eaten the offending food. That makes it nearly impossible to determine the connection between the symptom and a food.

Most of us are familiar with common allergens such as pollen, ragweed, dust, mold, some foods (such as dairy or wheat), or certain animals (such as a cat or dog). The symptoms we commonly think of as allergic reactions are sneezing, hives or a runny nose. In severe cases, an allergic reaction can be an asthma attack or a bout of gas, including cramping and diarrhea.

Here are some common symptoms:

Frequent abdominal cramps, gas, bloating, diarrhea or constipation?
Acid reflux (GERD), ulcerative colitis, or Crohn's disease?
Joint pain, muscle aches, fibromyalgia or chronic, relentless fatigue?
Asthma, ezcema, psoriasis, unknown rashes or limb swelling?
Unexplained and uncontrollable fatigue after meals?
Brain fog, forgetfulness, lack of focus, short attention span, ADD or ADHD?
Headaches or irregular heart beats?
Frequent colds, flus and infections?

All of these -- and more -- can be symptoms of unrecognized and untreated food or environmental allergies/sensitivities and a weakend immune system.

Allergy elimination is based on a system which was developed in 1983 by Devi S. Nambudripad Ph.D., a California acupuncturist and chiropractor. Dr. Nambudripad argued that allergies could best be explained through the principles of Oriental medicine. This perspective sees allergies as causing blockages in the body's meridian energy pathways. NAET uses muscle testing (applied kinesiology) to diagnose an individual's allergies / sensitivities and then treats the allergies by a combination of spinal stimulation and acupressure/acupuncture. After each treatment the patient must be careful to avoid the offending substance for a precise 25 hours.

Like many naturopathic medicine techniques, NAET uses muscle testing (applied kinesiology) to determine a person's sensitivity to various substances. Applied Kinesiology was developed in 1964 by an American chiropractor named George J. Goodheart, Jr.. The test is based on the theory that every organ dysfunction is accompanied by a specific muscle weakness. Thus, any disease can be diagnosed by testing the particular muscle for signs of weakness. In case of allergies, the shoulder (deltoid muscle) is usually tested for weakness. In muscle testing for allergies, the allergen is either administered to the patient by placing a quantity of the allergen in a vial, near or held by the patient. The patient then holds their arm outstretched and is told to try to resist downward pressure applied by the practitioner. If the patient is unable to withstand the pressure, the test is considered positive for that allergen. Once the offending substance is identified the allergen is treated using spinal massage and acupuncture/acupressure.

The following is a list of research related to allergy elimination and it’s emotional component which can be treated with allergy elimination techniques.

1. Muscle Testing. It has been demonstrated that muscle testing can access the physiology of the body, including the physiology of emotions (see 2), and that muscles — which initially test strong in the clear — will test as being inhibited (weaker) when saying a non-congruent statement (as John saying, “My name is Mary”). This dynamic has been scientifically validated by Monti, et. al.

2. Emotions are physiologically based. Emotions are based on minute proteins in the body called Information Substances (IS). These IS are comprised of neuropeptides, hormones and other specialized information molecules that permeate the entire body, including our DNA. This dynamic has been scientifically validated by Pert, et. al. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for over 2,000 years has embraced a mind/body model. It is only in the west that man (via Descartes) semantically spit the organism into a mind and a body. This philosophical construct held up for nearly 300 years before being discarded (at least in most neuroscientific circles) in the 1980s.

3. Pavlovian Responses. While most think in terms of Pavlovian Responses as applying to animals, humans too are conditioned — sometimes by one event (this is termed a one-time trial). While conditioning is normal under most situations, so is the physiological counterpart of the fading away or elimination of a conditioned response (called “extinction”). Simply, sometimes normal extinction does not take place, and we can utilize NET to allow the body to carry on with this natural and normal process. This dynamic has been scientifically validated perhaps more than any other in psychology starting, of course, with Pavlov, et. al.

4. Emotions / meridian system correlations. This is a 1,500 to 4,000-year-old principle. It is an acupuncture theory, known as the Five Element Law that has been clinically validated for over 1,500 years, linking specific emotions to specific meridians. An example is the link between “Anger” and the Liver meridian.

5. Repetition Compulsion (RC). One of Freud’s contributions was that of repetition compulsion, which essentially notes that once we have been emotionally traumatized (and also in our view, conditioned), we may non-consciously seek to repeat a like trauma in the future. RC. Essentially, what has traumatized you earlier in your life will often revisit you again in similar circumstances — if unresolved. (See this and other works of Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD)

6. The role of memory and physiology. When we remember a traumatic event, the body replicates the physiology that occurred at the time of the event. This dynamic has been scientifically validated by Hassan, A.M., Ward, P.S.

7. Semantic Responses. The physiology of the body can not only be reactive to say the sight of a spider, but also the word “spider” or a picture of a spider. These symbols carry the meaning of the spider. If a word carries a meaning, it is known as being semantic. And if the word bearing or inferring that meaning is a conditioned stimulus (as in Pavlovian conditioning) the response to that stimulus is known as a semantic response. Semantic responses are the result of stimulus generalization, since the stimulus or the word “spider” is a generalized form of an abstraction of the actual spider. Abstractions or stimulus generalizations are used in NET, following the model developed by Korzybski and illustrated by his structural differential.

For more information about these techniques, see the NAET and NET links found on the links page of this website or call or e-mail me with specific questions.