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Testing
& Treating Allergies
TYPE 1
IMMUNE REACTION
Less than 5 percent
of the population suffer from what is classed as a Type 1 Immune
Reaction and these mostly occur in children. In a Type 1 Immune Reaction
a rapid reaction usually occurs within 2 hours, resulting in stomach
cramps, diarrhoea, skin rashes, hives, swelling, wheezing or the most
dreaded Type 1 reaction - anaphylaxis. If you or one of your nearest and
dearest fall into this category you should always carry an EpiPen and go
directly to the nearest Accident and Emergency department should a
reaction occur.
We can substantially
improve the situation mainly dependent upon one thing - willingness to
stay the course, because somebody with a Type 1 reaction is going to
need many months of careful systematic treatment. Given this our
treatment plans really do work well.
SENSITIVITIES
Most people who come
to see us do not have an allergy. They have what nearly all of us have:
a sensitivity to foods we eat too much of too often, which our organisms
aren't that good at dealing with.
If we can find out
what foods are good for us and which are not, our health and general
well-being improves noticeably.
TESTS
We are not
keen to supply long lists of foods you are 'allergic' to. In our
experience when there is a problem caused by over consumption of a
particular food or foods it is often due to only one or two things.
Nor will we advise you to exclude something from your diet based
solely on a test. No test, not even the RAST test, is perfect.
If we suspect
something is causing problems we advise you to exclude it from your diet
for two weeks. If there seems to be some improvement we continue for
another two weeks. After one month there is usually no doubt.
The only thing in
our experience which really convinces any of us to give up something
which really does undermine our health is to cut it out for at least two
weeks, preferably four, and see what happens. When it is undermining you
health, when it is a "maintaining factor", there is no denying it and we
feel sooooo much better we are far more likely to keep it out of our
diets or at least limit it severely on the long haul through life.
And the best thing
about cutting out something bad for you is you nearly always lose
weight. How nice!
The longer we spend
in practice the more we lean toward being convinced that eating,
drinking or smoking the wrong things (can you smoke right things?)
sometimes cause and often maintain many illnesses. Our bodies expend so
much energy in dealing with the rubbish we consume that when we become
ill we do not have the necessary energy to get better; due to being
already full of, or suffering from, the effects of substances toxic to
us, and happily continuing to 'nourish' ourselves with them during the
illness or at worst, as soon as possible.
We also lean towards
believing that going organic can be a red herring. Sugar and gluten are
both stressful for some digestions, and I don't think our poor bodies
care whether they're organic or not. If there is a problem just don't
eat them please!
WHAT TEST DO WE
USE?
We use a simple
applied Kinesiology technique. The pectoralis muscle is connected to the
stomach meridian and is therefore good to use when testing foods. You
can test while the patient, stands, sits or lies down. We prefer lying
down mainly because it is faster. We usually obtain useful information
in about six or seven people out of ten. Of these perhaps three or four
are very good subjects and the other two or three good
enough.
A TYPICAL
CASE
You are sent a
questionnaire when you first make an appointment. Fill this in and bring
it with you. It covers many of the questions we need to know and saves a
lot of time. We use it as an aide-memoire for both of us at the same
time as taking your case.
We then ask the
patient to take off shoes and jacket and lie down on their back. We use
numerous test kits for a wide range of foods and drinks and various
environmental and food additive and colouring samples. We test each box
to see if any make their pectoralis muscle weak. If one does, it is put
to one side and each item inside is then checked
individually.
MULTIPLE
ALLERGIES
We will find that
people who do suffer from allergies tend to suffer from lots of them and
their sensitivity to things changes - a lot. There has been a long
debate among the allergy fraternity regarding RAST tests in which a lab
exposes a sample of your blood to different test allergens.
Allergen-specific IgE antibodies will attach to a substance if you are
allergic to it.
It is possible for
someone to have an anaphylactic event after, for example, a wasp sting,
be admitted to hospital, recover, go to the allergy consultant and tell
them, "Doctor, doctor I'm allergic to wasps!" The doctor gives them a
RAST test, which is taken as being the most reliable of tests, and they
test negative for wasp venom. They are then told they are not allergic
to wasps.
It is hoped that the
Royal College of Surgeons is about to establish that a negative RAST
test doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility of being diagnosed
allergic to something. So this may change.
The point is, truly
allergic people do change frequently dependent, we have come to assume,
upon whatever is around at any one moment. They are below a plateau of
health and it is our job to help them crawl back up. We often have to
gradually improve kidneys, adrenals, spleen and liver as well as
frequent involvement of the small and large intestines by whatever
means.
AIR-BORNE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ALLERGENS
Airborne allergens
such as formaldehyde, cat hair, pollens, grasses, diesel, and so on do
respond very well to desensitisation therapy - giving the patient a
homeopathic potency of the substance. We were interested to read in the
Daily Mail on Monday 14th April 2003 that two researchers have patented
a vaccination for people with asthma caused by cat hair. It works very
well. It also works very well in homeopathic desensitisation potency. We
don't think we have had anyone not improve noticeably when taking the
homeopathic Cat Hair desensitisation remedy.
HAYFEVER
Hayfever or allergic
rhinitis is the most common condition seen during summer months and we
see a lot of people with chronic rhinitis year round. Although we don't
think chronic rhinitis is usually due to allergies. We would say it has
more to do with what was once called a 'gouty constitution'. There is an
organ somewhere unable to discharge toxins in an efficient manner and so
uses the nose via the lymphatic system. Chronic rhinitis is not so easy
to treat in so far as it takes time as we have to locate and fix the
discharging organ.
Allergic rhinitis or
hayfever is easy to treat, even really bad cases. We have many
patients who used to be in misery every single day, barely able to work
during the summer months. In the worst cases after two seasons of
treatment they may still have the odd bad day but are mostly completely
symptom free. This makes them very happy.
IRRITABLE BOWEL
SYNDROME
We like Irritable
Bowel Syndrome! We expect to get eighty to ninety percent better. There
is a fashion doing the rounds that it's caused by allergies. We would
rather say it is often aggravated by sensitivities. A lot of these
patients do really well if they cut out wheat, some if they cut out
dairy and a few white rice. A combination of homeopathic and herbal
remedies work really well to restore the efficiency of the alimentary
system.
A FEW THOUGHTS ON
ALLERGY
The Concise Oxford
dictionary definition of an allergy is: A damaging immune response by
the body to a substance (esp. a particular food, pollen, fur, or dust)
to which it has become hypersensitive. And of course most of us do
not exhibit hypersensitivity. In fact I think most of us exhibit
hyposensitivity due to eating too much of something that actively
damages or clogs up various body systems, slowing us down in more ways
than one.
We've studied
nutrition relatively extensively over the years and most orthodox
nutritional authorities dislike the Atkin's Diet. They warn of the
dangers of mineral and vitamin deficiency when leaving out
carbohydrates. We too think Doc Atkins a tad fussy, especially in
cutting out fruit and vegetables to begin with - they're carbohydrates
too you know! However something he says I find VERY interesting.
Heart disease before
the 1920s was relatively unusual. It was not a common way to shuffle off
this mortal coil. Then in the 1920s deaths from various forms of heart
disease increased rapidly. In fact the graph looks exactly like an
epidemic's. Atkins makes the point that refined carbohydrates, wheat and
rice, first reached the tables of the masses in the 1920s. Before then
they were not common.
He thinks untold
damage has been done through the mass eating of refined carbohydrates.
I read a very
interesting article in the Guardian a few months ago. It said that over
the past five years some very big research programmes had been operating
looking into the effect of carbohydrates on obesity and diabetes. The
reason for these programmes is because for the last 35 years government
health departments all over the western world have been warning people
to reduce fat and increase carbohydrates. The result has been a huge
rise in obesity and diabetes. The article said that although no findings
had yet been published, many independent studies had been finding the
same thing: if you reduce starchy carbohydrates everything starts
working better. Maybe Atkins was right!
CHILDREN AND FOOD
ADDITIVES
Definitely, if you
can prevail upon someone to give up processed foods, fizzy drinks,
chocolate, sweets, their asthma and eczema will often improve, sometimes
disappear. The problem is in the prevailing, especially with kids. They
have their own pocket money, time and desires. They either have the
condition badly enough to be motivated, be in a school where everyone is
doing it, or happen to be unusually intelligent and disciplined.
It is unusual for
someone to have asthma or eczema with no evidence of it being in their
families. It nearly always is. There is a family disposition. So I
assume that although asthma or eczema can be exacerbated by 'allergies'
it is not caused by them. Although one could argue that perhaps the
family has a disposition to not easily deal with various environmental
toxins and foods.
I have seen plenty
of cases or asthma badly aggravated by animal hair of various kinds and
also formaldehyde.
IS THAT
ALL?
For now. The main
message is that allergies can be treated very successfully using
homeopathy, herbs and common sense. Whether you suffer from allergies or
have intolerances or sensitivities to certain foods and chemicals,
knowing what they are and how to deal with them can really improve your
overall health.