Allergies can take over your life. Does every room in your house have a Kleenex box? Afraid to try a new shampoo or laundry detergent? I used to live like that! Have a list of foods you can’t or don’t want to eat? You know what I’m talking about.
But allergies can have consequences you’d never expect. Did you know people can be allergic to the pregnancy hormone? (I was.) Or allergic to your body’s blood thinners (phospholipids) which can cause troublesome blood clots in the just formed umbilical cord, thwarting your pregnancy even before you know you’re pregnant? Did you know you can be allergic to vitamin C, calcium, and B vitamins, preventing you from getting proper nourishment from your food?
Mainstream methods for dealing with allergies can be dissatisfying in several ways. Testing alone is problematic. (See An Overview of Cows Milk Allergy In Children for a review of allergy testing limitations.) Traditional “patch testing” for allergies can be inaccurate and it can also be dangerous.
The Beginning of a Rough Road of Allergy Treatment
Blood testing for allergies also has its accuracy problems. Allergy shots take years to take effect, and they don’t always work. In addition, many people never start allergy shots simply because the find the idea of getting injected with things they know they are allergic to to be entirely off-putting. Sophisticated over the counter allergy drugs such as Claritin which have fewer side effects can be a Godsend–but many people who must use them wonder if they really want to be dependent on this drug/combination of drugs for the rest of their lives. A voice inside asks, “What will this do to me over the years?”
Another method of treating allergies such as pollen allergies is finding out which foods you are allergic to and eliminating these from your diet, thereby reducing the allergic load on your immune system and hopefully eliminating troublesome problems such as pollen-induced allergies.
Another less mainstream solution for allergies is NAET and its offshoot, Bioset. These allergy-eliminating methods are very effective and well worth looking into–they changed my life from one where I felt constantly “attached to a kleenex box” to one where I almost never remember to take Kleenex to the park for my son because we almost never need it. In addition, NAET allowed me to get pregnant with my son–allergies to the pregnancy hormone and other hormones were preventing me from getting pregnant. My doctor, the late great Dr. Alan Beer, had no treatment for my pregnancy hormone (hcg) allergy–until I introduced him to NAET.
NAET stands for Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique. It was discovered by Dr. Devi Nambudripad, an acupuncturist and now medical doctor in Southern California who was so beset with allergies to foods that for two years all she could eat was broccoli and white rice. One night when she was preparing dinner for her family, she absent-mindedly popped a carrot into her mouth. As she recognized the signs of anaphylactic shock beginning, she called her husband, also an acupucturist, and asked him to come home to treat her. While she waited for him, she laid down on the couch to rest. Her husband came home and treated her with acupuncture and she fell asleep on the couch.
When she awoke, she realized she had been holding the carrot in her hand the whole time, and her hand was not inflamed. So she ate the carrot. She was amazed and excited to find she was no longer allergic to it. She had discovered a way to eliminate allergies.
This is the basis of NAET and Bioset. Find the things you are allergic to, and one by one, eliminate the allergies using acupressure down the spine while you hold the substance to which you are allergic. Patients must avoid the substance for which they were treated for 25 hours after treatment; then they are no longer allergic to it.
Dr. Nambudripad is experienced and her methods work to eliminate allergies. She adheres strictly to the protocol she established, and reports that about two-thirds of her clients get relief of their symptoms within the first 15 visits.
Bioset was developed by Dr. Ellen Cutler, a brilliant chiropractor and now medical doctor in Northern California who trained with Dr. Nambudripad. Dr. Cutler took NAET and modified it to eliminate the avoidance period. This is particularly helpful for small children who would have trouble complying, and also helpful for adults who would find it uncomfortable to comply with avoidance procedures for certain treatments, such as pollen allergies, by wearing cotton gloves and a mask for 25 hours post-treatment. She also developed a home treatment program outlined in this book which, if you and a partner are dedicated to it, you can implement at home at little cost. My husband and I did Bioset for years. It changed our lives.
Bioset and NAET can be expensive. Treatments may be covered by insurance (as acupuncture or chiropractic) or they may not be. Whether or not they are covered, the cost of treatments adds up, since you have to treat allergies one at a time. This is why it’s very helpful to have a dedicated partner willing to do the treatments on you at home for free.
Bioset and NAET are remarkably effective. Sometimes, however, a few allergies can return. This is especially common with sugar, a substance virtually everyone is allergic to. This can be minimized by consistent use of digestive enzymes which keep the bloodstream free of undigested food and will act to minimize the allergenic load on the body. We have found Dr. Ellen’s enzymes, while expensive, to be the best of those on the market that we’ve tried.
Bioset and NAET are amazing in that they completely eliminate allergies that you always believed would be with you for life. You will be much healthier and better nourished as a result. But wouldn’t it be better if you could heal the source of all those allergies? What made you allergic to all that stuff in the first place?
Let me just reiterate before I launch deeper into this topic, that I am an experienced medical consumer, not a doctor. But based on my experience, I have to suspect the underlying problem in with allergies in many cases is undiagnosed, untreated infection. Perhaps even infection you were born with. I was shocked to find out (see fertility problems) that you can have a chronic infection that the standard labs never catch. This can infect your digestive system and make it weak and leaky, leading to undigested food in your bloodstream. This activates your immune system to attack the “invader,” and voila–a food allergy is born. As your system becomes overloaded, other allergies crop up. (Further argument in support of digestive enzymes!)
The only method I have found which will effectively treat underlying problems such as allergy-causing infections is homeopathy. With one or two doses of the right remedy, your allergies can completely disappear and you will feel better than you have in years. Massive antibiotics might be helpful if you can find a doctor willing to prescribe them, but antibiotics at that level do harm and require close monitoring. Few of us would want to take that approach. Homeopathy is much gentler and more globally healing, which is what we’re all after. We have found homeopathy to be completely amazing. See my post on homeopathy for more on this subject.
Update September 22, 2009: I have great news. We found a new method that is much faster than homeopathy, but accomplishes the same ultimate result. The bad news is I only know one person who does it: Paul Tom in Cupertino/San Jose (See BioElectromagnetics). I will get information from him on other practitioners who do the same type of work. I know there are at least two others. If you are interested in this work, and coming to the Bay Area is not feasible, look into Qi Gong. It is similar, very powerful energy work. But be very particular about the practitioner you go to — he or she must be a very loving person who respects your boundaries. Qi Gong is powerful! You must trust your practitioner completely.
Update on March 3, 2010:
I am now experimenting with an object, I’ll call it a “wand” that is filled with a bit of volcanic ash–the stuff we are all made of. Paul Tom gave it to me to help balance my system. I have been carrying it with me all day, and I stir my water with it. It changes the water to be more hydrating. Please don’t ask me how–it’s an energy thing and I wouldn’t be the one to explain it to you.
I have been feeling great with this thing. I feel energetic, even tempered, able to handle stress gracefully, and no longer need my homeopathic remedy. After a couple of weeks I got itchy hives but they went away in a few days. I also got a bout of tendonitis in my elbows–odd because I haven’t had that since I rowed 15 years ago–but it’s gone now too. It’s very exciting to think that this little wand is causing me to go through all my past ailments and heal them–I think that’s what’s happening. Amazing! More info on this later. I do not know if it is commercially available yet, but of course I’ll let you know.
Update on April 20, 2010: OK! Time for a wee little update on this crazy wand thing. Funny that volcanic ash is in the news, since that’s what my wand has in it…it’s volcanic ash contained in a lucite wrapper shaped like a stir stick. It made me feel so good I couldn’t believe it! Until…I carried it for about three and a half weeks. That was at least a week too long. I felt better and better and then got a little tired, then started getting hives all over my body (!!), then the toes on my left foot started getting a little numb, then one day my husband came home having carried his wand all day, kissed me hello, and my leg went numb! So, I have a *very* healthy appreciation for volcanic ash now. Paul views it as the raw material of life. He believes you need a little tiny bit of everything it contains, even the very toxic substances. Of course too much isn’t a good idea, as I discovered. Mind you, I wasn’t eating or drinking it, just living in proximity with about a teaspoon of it encased in plastic. But Paul tells me I over-energized myself. I had to take a big long break. It’s been a while now and I am starting to drink a half a glass of wand-stirred water daily which is picking up my energy. I feel pretty good. My husband, who has been working too hard and who has been snarfing down quantities of wanded water is now sick again…so I can’t help but wonder if this entire wand idea is just too out there even for me. My recent experiences are bringing out the conservative in me.
Anyhoo, if you are stuck in Europe right now breathing just a bit of volcanic ash, know that the ash will probably do you a world of good in the long run. Think of all the vital minerals you’re getting that commercially-produced food you eat no longer contains! Oh that’s right you live in Europe and you all take much better care of your food than we do here in the US but still…I am sure it will all come out well for you in the long run. Maybe an occasional volcanic eruption is part of the evolutionary plan for keeping the planet healthy!