Nutritionist Michaela Rose describes an allergy treatment which seems to have considerable potential.

As a nutritionist and allergy sufferer, I am always on the look-out for new allergy tests and treatments. So, when I read an article about NAET last year, I was intrigued. It sounded too good to be true. It seemed to suggest that here was a technique that really could clear my allergies.

This would be great news not only for me, but for all my patients with wheat and dairy problems. My experience has been that some people can clear intolerances by simply avoiding the foods for long enough and looking after their gut, liver and immune health. But some, including me, can’t.

Can it be true?
With my usual healthy dose of cynicism, I started to research NAET. The more I read, the more unlikely it sounded, but I couldn’t find a bad word written about it. I spoke to a couple of UK practitioners who seemed to confirm everything I was reading. I discovered there was a basic training seminar in the UK coming up and booked myself onto it. I went, I scoffed, I disbelieved, but I gained my certificate; it all felt far too improbable. (I’ve since found out that most NAET practitioners, and indeed patients, feel this way at the start!)

Since completing my training, I have had successful treatment myself from an experienced practitioner, I have treated myself for food allergies and I set up a three- month trial with ‘guinea-pig’ patients to see if it would work - which it has, so far. I have also been in regular contact with other practitioners on the same training course who seem to have found the same as me. This article describes what NAET is and what I have found so far.

What is it?
NAET was invented by Dr Devi Nambudripad. She was born in India and moved to the US in the 1970s. From birth, she suffered from severe allergies and subsisted for years on a diet of white rice and broccoli to control her symptoms. On her quest to find help, she trained in medicine herself, first as a registered nurse and later as a doctor and an acupuncturist.

She has a PhD in oriental medicine, is a qualified chiropractor and kinesiologist. In 1983, still trying to find an answer to her own allergies, she combined several of the techniques she’d learned and pretty much stumbled onto the solution.

A clash of energies
Dr Devi does not see ‘allergy’ in the same terms as Western medicine, but from an Eastern medical perspective - as a sort of ‘clash’ between the energies of the substance and the person.
We are all energetic beings and everything on earth has its own energetic fingerprint and electromagnetic field. Sometimes, these energies can affect one another adversely and cause blockages along our own energy meridians which, in turn, can affect the functioning of our organs and systems.

Brain confusion
It seems that the brain perceives a substance wrongly and sort of mis-categorises it, thinking of it as a threat. It then mobilises the immune system against the intruder and the normal allergic reactions result. Why the brain does this is still a mystery, although Dr Devi does hypothesise that it could be due to cellular mutation or damage that has taken place over generations and/or as a result of the changing toxins in the environment.

‘Rebooting’ the brain
As Dr Devi developed this theory, she discovered that if the roots of the sympathetic nervous system along the spine are stimulated, the brain will receive messages that enable it to correct its faulty perception of the substance. I think of this like a computer having a virus and the treatment rebooting the brain after a virus software update!
Once the short treatment is complete, further acupuncture points are stimulated, the patient is allowed to rest and then has to avoid contact with the allergen for 25 hours. After this, the ‘clash’ of energies should have gone and there should be no further reaction to the allergen.

Practitioner experience
This technique has been developed and used for over 20 years in the US, with great success. It has only recently been taught to practitioners across Europe and there are so far around 30 or so practising therapists in the UK.

My experience with it so far has shown me – and my patients – that it does work, although my patients laugh when I say I haven’t really got a clue why! Straight after the training, I went to see a practitioner in Leicestershire for treatment for an allergy to garlic. I had always suffered health problems myself but had largely found that if I avoided wheat, gluten and dairy, I was fine.

However, over the previous year, I had begun to get intense itching, especially in my ears, and would often lie awake at night suffering, waking in the morning with swollen ears and blood all over my pillow. I gradually tracked it down to whenever I ate garlic.
I had one NAET treatment for garlic, avoided it for 25 hours and then ate a raw clove – with no reaction over the next few days. I ate it again and again, and have been fine ever since.

Clearing basic allergens
I must make it clear that carrying out treatment for a substance like garlic first of all is a little unusual as you have to clear a certain list of basic allergens first.

Every patient is tested and treated for any allergen found first. (I use the MRT muscle testing technique – an adapted form of kinesiology.) These allergens are the basic building blocks for the body to work properly and later, deeper and more complex treatments are more likely to be successful after these ‘basics’ have been cleared.

The basic allergens include things like B complex, minerals and sugars. The list has been developed over the years as being the most common and those that need to be cleared for true health.
Most people find their health has improved significantly by clearing their ‘basics’ and I have even found that people’s allergies to other substances clear as a result of clearing one or two basic allergens. For example, a wheat allergy could clear because the person was allergic to B vitamins within the grain. Or it may be that if you clear a really important allergy for you, all of the others clear as a result. This happened to one of my guinea pig patients.

‘Guinea pig’ success
I asked my guinea pigs not to tell me what their problems were and used the muscle testing technique we had been taught to discover what was wrong.

One lady had severe allergies to wool and dust. We treated her for her first ‘basic’ allergen - egg mix (a mix containing the energetic fingerprints of egg white, egg yolk, chicken, feathers and tetracyclines, a common antibiotic used in chickens). Her wool and dust allergies cleared. We were both stunned – I thought I’d done something wrong and didn’t trust my testing. I sent her home to wear her worst woolly jumper and she has had no reaction since. Over Christmas, she cleared out her very dusty loft and again had none of her usual flu-like symptoms.

My other guinea pigs included a patient with quite severe health problems, similar to MS in terms of loss of muscle, brain and system function, but who had defied a diagnosis. She recently wrote to say that since starting NAET, she has ‘lost the feeling of being ill and now feel I am getting back to a level of normality.’ That’s the best thing a practitioner can hear, especially from someone with such severe problems – and after only five NAET sessions for her basic allergies.
After the third basic allergy treatment, another patient with eczema had improved dramatically. Her skin is no longer as angry or raised and is showing clear signs of healing new skin underneath.

One lady had such severe food intolerances, she became panicky and anxious after almost everything she ate. She has only had 2 treatments so far, but already is eating foods she was previously reacting to. Yet another lady felt like her ‘battery had been recharged’ after a treatment for iron. After the 20 minutes rest, she was hot, flushed and red all over.

Sugars
I personally have cleared sugars, which was a really important allergen for me. I have an on-going health problem of polycystic ovary syndrome which is related to insulin resistance. I have craved sugar all my life – wanting to know what’s for pudding before I’ve eaten my main meal. My blood sugar can be all over the place and I get dizzy if I miss meals.

It took me four treatments to clear the sugars with NAET, and I knew it had worked immediately after the last treatment because I felt completely different about sugar. I described this to someone recently as like being let out of prison. Other patients have recently said they have completely lost sugar cravings too, which has
certainly helped them.

So, with NAET, it is early days for me and my patients, but so far, so good. The other practitioners on my course seem also to be having good results. I will continue into more complex treatments as people clear their basic allergies – and the true test will be when I clear my own wheat and dairy allergies, which have plagued me for years.
I will let you know what happens…

For more information on NAET or your nearest practitioner, go to www.naet.co.uk
or read Dr Devi Nambudripad’s book Say Goodbye To Illness.

First Published in 2006