Monday, March 4, 2013

NAET Allergy Treatments

Hi to everyone who still reads this abandoned blog. :) This will be my final blog entry on The Gluten Free Gathering....however I will be leaving the blog up.

I wanted to share how after being gluten and dairy free (and nut and soy and egg free) for the past 18 years, I no longer have any allergies.

I am going to paste what I wrote on our private family blog and you can do what you like with the information. I know a few years ago, someone wrote about something similar - how their family (3 out of 5 family members had severe gluten/milk allergies) had their allergies healed/treated/fixed through some alternative medicine. I totally dismissed the idea thinking it was impossible....but it's not. My hope is that this could help you in your own GF journey. Anyway, here is what I wrote...


ALLERGY TREATMENTS

So I have been wanting to write about the treatments that we have all had. It is complicated, but at the same time very simple. I'll explain a little of process.

We went to a naturopath doctor who practices NAET (Nambudripad's Allergy elimination Treatments).
We had been told about this treatment by  friends whose little boy had developed fairly severe milk and gluten allergies. They told us about the treatments - and while it sounded kind of weird, we also knew that this couple was very conservative and would not get involved in any new-age stuff. I am very open to alternative health care - I study herbs and use them in my own family's health care. I try to be proactive in preventative medicine - still this seemed far out.

One of the first things we did was research NAET on the Internet. The results were not very promising! About 95% of the reviews we read were negative - it didn't work - it was hokey - it was a money grab, etc. We already knew that there would be more negative than positive as that is just the way the Internet is...but this seemed bad! But when we talked to our friends again - their boy was still fine on milk and gluten.

Last fall, Steve and I were out for dinner, planning different goals for the family. On the top of my list was to at least TRY the NAET treatments. 
If they didn't work...well, we would lose some money.
If they did work - or even help a little, it could really make it easier for the family especially as the older kids are out doing different activities, working and singing more.

Steve and Emily went in first. Steve is very sensitive and he said that he had no "bad vibes" or whatever from either the Dr.'s or the treatments.
Emily had the most severe allergies and we wanted her started first. She had a lot of different things to deal with and she still has some treatments left (though she is leaving them for now as they are not severe).

They responded well to the treatments and as we could afford to, we started the next person. I was about 5th in our family to go through and unbelievably, after over 18 years with gluten intolerance and milk allergy - ALL MY ALLERGIES ARE GONE!
I can eat anything and feel well! it is MOST amazing!

I told Steve that just finding out exactly what I was allergic to was worth it as it wasn't what I thought I was allergic to. Interestingly, I was not allergic to gluten - only to oats and barley. With the dairy, I was allergic to the casein and milk fat. With nuts it was just almonds. I was also allergic to a variety of vegetable oils (thought I had gall bladder problem but I was not able to digest the oils properly). The night shade family (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes) was a surprise allergy for me.

As to the process of the treatments....
Just a word of advise: before going to a naturopath using the NAET treatments,  confirm that they are registered and trained to do it properly. From what we read on the web, there are many people out there just pretending to know what they are doing...and people are getting duped.

When we had our treatments, the Dr. would first test for different allergies. We would lay down and hold an arm strait up in the air and they would apply pressure (trying to push our arm down) to test how strong we were. Then, in our other hand, we would hold a small glass vial with a concentrated form of an allergen in it. The Dr. would push on our upraised arm again and if we reacted (or were allergic) to the substance we were holding, our upraised arm would be too weak to hold up. If we were not allergic, we would have strength to resist the pressure and we could hold our arm up.

Then to treat each allergy, we would hold the allergen in one hand and lay on our tummies. The Dr. would gently massage down either side of our spine (where the main nerve impulses run) several times. Then they would use a little vibrator on about 10 pressure points on our hands and feet (the whole process is very non-invasive). Then we avoid that allergen for 25 hours (one full day cycle) - then start trying to eat that allergen. In all but one case, we were "fixed" the first time around - Emily needed two treatments for one stubborn allergy.

The treatments uses principles of acupressure, kinesiology, and magnetism. I am sure that some naturopaths mix the NAET treatments with other eastern healing techniques that could get weird. You would just have to use your own discernment on a case by case basis. 

Hey, I'm not sure if I made this all very clear or just muddied the waters, but please feel free to ask me any (nice) questions you might have about this. If you are in Alberta, I can give the the name and number or the Doctors that we used (a husband and wife team) in Red Deer.

 This has really changed our family life! 
We can order pizza! :)
I make home-made wheat bread that rises lovely and tastes SO good.
Everything has become simpler with cooking and traveling and eating out!

Our grocery bill has NOT gone down. Did you know our family could easily eat our way through over $75 dollars worth of cheese in a month?!?!

We have a few treatments left - Will, Stella and Pearl have several each and Steve, Gray and Emily have 1 or 2 each. It has been expensive - costing us over $3500 (Canadian $).
The Lord kept providing for us through this - and to see my kids able to eat good healthy food and also have the freedom to eat out with friends or at singing events....it was so worth it!

4 comments:

Carmen said...

Hi Jenny,
Yes, I still exist. :) This post has pulled me back into blogland. ;) My mom tried treatments that sound something like this, but was told she could now have the things she was allergic to in moderation (like 1 or 2x per month.) This didn't seem worth the expense and bother to me. We did try the technique her doctor used to identify allergens - and discovered some we hadn't thought of, but that make a lot of sense. Not sure what to think yet about the treatments. Glad you've had such a positive result, though!

jennstar said...

I was actually going to email you today Carmen - I've missed hearing about your family! Yes, I understand being unsure about this! It took us over a year from when we heard of it to when we tried it. The results very with each person...and our Emily has had continued complications (needing more than one treatment for some allergies and being fine with two different things by themselves, but not together). Still, the help we have recieved has been worth it. We do continue to rotate grains and we try not to over-do on a food that we had been allergic to.

Amy McKenna said...

I am about to begin NAET treatment soon with a certified practitioner, and I stumbled upon your blog post when I did a google search for NAET and gluten. My family has been gluten free for two years due to sensitivities and I am intrigued by your story. I realize this post is a few years old, and I'm curious if your family is still able to eat gluten and other foods you couldn't tolerate before NAET? Thanks!

Pure Herbal said...

This material is astonishing! It's brimming with sharp data and the focuses you make are judicious and strong. I concur with a lot of this data. For more information visit here Kharish ka ilaj

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin