Alternative Allergy Treatment With NAET - What is it and How Does it Compare to Standard Treatment?

Nambudripad's allergy elimination techniques or NAET for short, is a holistic method of allergy identification and neutralization. It was developed by Dr. Devi Nambudripad of Buena Park, California. It is based on alternative medicine health principles taken from the worlds of chiropractic applied kinesiology and traditional Chinese medicine.

Allergy by NAET standards is defined broadly to mean any unexpected reaction that occurs from a given substance which would otherwise not produce those reactions in most people. This is somewhat different from the traditional western medical definition which defines allergy as a set of signs and symptoms that develop due to specific biochemical and immunological interactions measurable through standard lab tests.

Within the NAET definition, some but not necessarily all allergens might be measurable through standard medical tests. The reason for this is because the cause of the imbalance is believed to be due to weakened energy meridians. This is where NAET's connection to traditional Chinese medicine occurs. Briefly stated, within the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, twelve primary energy channels, or energy meridians have been defined. Meridians circulate "chi" which has various meanings, but essentially could be defined as "vital energy". Each meridian individually corresponds to a specific organ system. The health and vitality of each organ system is then dependent on the free, unobstructed flow of chi through an unobstructed meridian. Within this understanding, an allergen then could be thought of as anything that blocks the free flow of chi.

Within the NAET definition, things like pollens, dusts and foods could be allergens. Most of these would meet the western medicine definition, but other things like vitamins, hormones, or even thoughts, beliefs and emotions could be viewed as allergens as well as they might block the free flow of vital energy or chi.

The methods of allergy determination and treatment are also very different between the western medical approach and NAET. With NAET, muscle response testing is used to determine if various acupuncture meridians become weakened when a sample of the allergen is held by the patient.

Muscle response testing is a simple method of determining what I call a "stress response" from the body. A subjects muscle that is initially tested to be strong when given a neutral stimulation may then be found to test weak when challenged with an irritating substance, like an allergen. Though this definition is an oversimplification, this basic meaning is accurate.

Once it is determined which allergen is producing a stress response, a gentle form of acupressure is then applied to the patient, with particular emphasis in treating the weakened meridians. After adequate treatment is verified again with muscle response testing the patient simply must avoid that allergen for 25 hours for the treatment to take.

Within the conventional medical approach, some allergens, like foods are not believed to be treatable and complete avoidance of the substance is the only viable treatment option. In other cases, immunotherapy or "allergy shots" are recommended along with prescription medication to block allergy symptoms. Testing is generally performed by skin scratch or patch testing or sometimes with blood work.

Chi and muscle response testing are foreign concepts to the conventional medical approach, but as previously noted are part of two well established and credible healing arts, namely traditional Chinese medicine and Chiropractic.