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MUSCLE TESTING FOR
ALLERGIES Part 1
By Jimmy Scott, Ph.D.
As published
in Health Freedom News, November 1985
Orthodox allergy testing is not sufficiently accurate to
identify all allergies. In my previous article, “You May Have Hidden
Allergies” (Health Freedom News, December, 1984), I discussed three of the
reasons why allergies may be hidden: (1) the symptoms may be masked to mucus
produced by the systems as a response to allergic substances; (2) the
symptoms may not be directly observable, as in the case of an early arthritic
joint, for example; (3) the symptoms may not be recognized as allergic
symptoms — for example, high blood pressure or psychological disturbances.
Problems with Traditional Allergy
Testing
When we examine the methods traditionally used to test for
allergies, it is easy to understand why they may not be adequate to identify
many allergies, particularly those that are hidden for the reasons cited
above.
Medical allergists commonly use a variety of skin tests
for food and other allergies. In these tests a very small amount of the
suspect substance is introduced into the person's skin through a scratch of a
small injection. If there is no reaction at the skin test site in a short
period of time, the test is considered negative, while if there is a local
skin reaction the test is considered positive. A negative test does not
necessarily mean that the person is not allergic to the substance; it may be
that the test solution was too weak to produce a reaction.
Skin testing is not very helpful in identifying allergies
to foods, which are an important cause of hidden allergies. After all, it is
not normal to inject something like milk extract under a person's skin, and
it seems reasonable that there would be a reaction. It has been recognized
since the 1930s that skin testing for food allergy is not reliable.
Clinical ecologists have developed a technique known as
sublingual testing, in which a tiny drop of an extract is placed under the
individual's tongue. If the test is positive, symptoms may appear very
rapidly, including dramatic mental and behavioral reactions. In a matter of
moments after the substance is placed under the tongue, the individual’s
whole behavior may change — smiling and happy at one moment, and tearful and
depressed at the next, as the allergic reaction appears. Unfortunately,
sublingual testing may miss many kinds of allergic reactions which are not so
readily observable, such as an arthritic joint or uterine fibroids.
Recently, many nutritionally-oriented health professionals
have been using cytotoxic testing to identify allergies. In cytoxic testing,
an extract of the substance in question is mixed with a sample of the
person's blood, which is then observed under a microscope for changes in the
white blood cells. Since foods (and other substances) never actually get into
the blood in this manner, it should come as no surprise that such tests may
not be very accurate. One commercial laboratory doing cytotoxic testing
claims that its tests are “75 percent reproducible.” This is not an adequate
guarantee of accuracy, not only because it admits 25 percent error, but also
because even the effects that can be reproduced may not be a true indication
of allergy.
I have observed that if cytotoxic testing is done with a food
which a person has not been eating recently, an allergy to that food may not
show up on the test, even if that person is extremely allergic to that food.
Therefore, if you are scheduled to have cytotoxic testing, be sure to expose
yourself to as many different foods and other substances as possible during
the few days before the test, in order to optimize the results.
Cytotoxic testing does seem to be a good way of
determining whether you are highly allergic in general. If you test positive
on only a few substances on cytotoxic testing, you are probably not highly
allergic to foods, whereas if you have positive tests for many substances you
are probably generally very allergic.
One simple way that you can test for food allergies
yourself is the pulse test, first described by Dr. Arthur Coca in his book
The Pulse Test. According to Coca, if you eat something to which you are
allergic, your pulse-rate will speed up. To determine whether you are
allergic to foods, take your pulse before a meal and then at several
intervals after eating. If your pulse is faster after eating, then by trying
one food at a time you can identify the food(s) to which you are allergic.
Unfortunately, since many factors can cause an increase in pulse-rate it may
be difficult to isolate the specific items. Also, remember that sometimes a
delayed reaction can take as long as several days to appear. If the pulse
does not increase within two or three hours it may not mean you are not
allergic — only that there is not a rapid reaction. Liquids are more likely
to produce a fast reaction.
There are a number of dietary tests to identify allergies to
specific foods. Such tests often begin with a fast, and then introduce foods
one at a time, to observe whether there are any allergic reactions. A
variation on this approach, if you are suspicious of a particular food, is to
eliminate that food and related food, from your diet for about two weeks,
then eat a lot of it and see if you get a reaction. Two kinds of reactions
may occur. First, you may observe withdrawal symptoms on eliminating the food
from your diet. Withdrawal symptoms, which can vary as much as allergic
symptoms themselves, generally indicate that you are strongly allergic to the
food. Secondly, you may observe a pronounced reaction when you reinstate the
food.
This technique of withdrawing a food and then challenging
the system by reintroducing it was first developed by Dr. Theron Randolph, a
pioneer in the field of clinical ecology. This method, described in An
AlternatIve Approach to Allergies by Dr. Randolph and Dr. Ralph Moss, (1) has
proven a very effective alternative to traditional skin testing, not only for
identifying food allergies, but also for allergies to other substances such
as dust, molds, and chemicals. It is possible, however, that you can be
allergic to a food or other substance and still show no obvious reaction on
eliminating or reintroducing it. One reason is that you may be having a
reaction which you cannot directly observe. Moreover, you may have a
noticeable reaction, but it may be due to a cause other than ellergy, as I
will discuss later in this article.
Muscle Testing: A New Approach
If all the usual methods of allergy testing have their
shortcomings, how can we reliably identify allergies? A new set of
techniques, using muscle testing, is now being employed to identify allergies
with great sensitivity and accuracy. These techniques use the body itself as
a sensitive instrument to detect the imbalances that lie at the heart of
allergic problems. To understand how muscle testing works, we must first
introduce a new concept of allergy.
Allergy as Energy Disturbance
The medical model: antigen and antibody. According to the
traditional medical view, allergy develops as a result of repeated or
excessive exposure to a specific substance, or antigen. In response to this
substance, the body produces proteins known as antibodies which specifically
match the antigen in question. When the body is exposed to a certain antigen,
it produces huge quantities of the corresponding antibody, which lock onto
the antigen molecules, triggering chemical reactions in the body's cells to
disable or destroy the antigen. It is these chemical reactions which are
responsible for allergic reactions such as swelling, pain, itching, redness,
or the secretion of mucus.
The antigen-antibody model of allergy was introduced into
medicine in the 1920s, based largely on research on inhaled allergic
substances (pollens, molds, etc.), which often do involve antibody reactions
in the blood. However, it soon became evident that there were many cases,
especially involving foods and chemicals, in which it was not possible to
demonstrate an antigen-antibody reaction. These environmental sensitivities
became the province of clinical ecology, a new field pioneered by physicians
such as Dr. Randolph. Because conventional medicine clung to the
antigen-antibody model to explain all allergy, it has been unable to deal
with many forms of allergies, yet refuses to recognize the alternative
approaches which work in these cases.
Although clinical ecology has introduced many valuable
tools for identifying and treating allergy, its testing methods may still
miss some allergic reactions, and its theory does not explain why the body
becomes allergic in the first place. To understand what it is about the
allergic body that is different from the non-allergic one, we must look at
the body in terms of the energy that flows through it.
Meridian Energy and Allergy
It is difficult to talk about energy in our culture because
we do not have a precise vocabulary for describing it. Many words have been
used in various cultures to describe the vital energy that suffuses all
living things — Ch’i in China, Ki in Japan, prana in Hinduism. In the West,
this same energy is sometimes referred to as the life force or vital force,
or vital energy.
According to the Chinese system of medicine, the Ch’i
energy flows along specific pathways in the body, known as meridians.
Sickness is viewed as a derangement of the energy flow along the meridians:
if the energy flow can be restored to normal, good health will return. Thus,
in acupuncture, needles are inserted at specific point along the meridians to
affect the energy flow, and hence to influence the person's mental and
physical health.
Research in the West has shown that the meridians do have
a physical reality. Using radioactive tracers or sensitive instruments,
scientists have been able to locate and trace the meridians and specific acupuncture
points. It has also been shown that acupuncture also apparently releases
endorphins, the morphine-like brain hormones involved in pain control and
sometimes given responsibility for the so-called placebo response.
The body's energy is not confined to the energy that flows
through the meridians. Every cell in the body is a bundle of energy — as
modern physics helped us to recognize. Energy is involved in every process in
our bodies, including the biochemical changes within our cells. In this sense,
any disease or malfunction, including allergy, is really an energy
disturbance. This energy is a more fundamental life characteristic than
tissue.
When allergy is present, it means that the flow of energy
is blocked, disturbed, or unbalanced, and therefore that the biochemical
processes are not proceeding properly.
Allergy Versus Intolerance
Not all adverse reactions to foods and other substances are
due to allergies. I have been able to identify more than a dozen reasons,
other than allergy, why people may experience symptoms after exposure to
various substances. These other reasons can be broadly classified as
intolerances; they mostly involve ways of overloading the system with more of
a substance than the body is able to handle. Allergy is a disturbence of the
body energy, caused by even the smallest quantity of a certain substance. A
single grain of wheat might be enough to weaken the body's energy in an
allergic person. lntolerance, on the other hand, is a biochemical-metabolic
process as opposed to an energy process, and does not manifest unless the
person is exposed to more of a substance than the system is able to handle.
If a person’s allergy to wheat has been corrected, then exposure to a tiny
amount may not produce any reaction; but that person may still have a low
tolerance to wheat, and may get a reaction if exposed to a cupful or even a
spoonful.
How Muscle Testing Helps Identify
Allergies
Through a new set of muscle testing techniques developed
over the past 20 years, it is now possible to identify allergic substances
that are interfering with the body's energy flow. Unlike the traditional
allergy testing methods, muscle testing does not require that we observe an
actual allergic response. Rather, if a substance has the ability to weaken
the muscle being tested, we deduce that that energy is being disturbed and
that the person is sensitive to that substance. Thus muscle testing can
identify allergies whose effects are not directly observable.
The body can detect subtle energies. Every object is made
up of a web of energy within its cells or molecules. This energy radiates out
from the object in a field, interacting with the energy fields of other
objects. We can detect such energy fields in many ways. Our senses allow us
to perceive many forms of energy — for example, the color of light, or the
pitch of a sound. Using Instruments, we can measure other forms of energy,
such as proton emission or electromagnetic resonance.
An Alternative
Approach to Allergy, Theron Randolph. M.D.
and Ralph Moss. Ph.D., Bantam Books, New York, 1982.
Other Articles:
Clinical
Research Abstracts on Muscle Testing
Don't Fight the Healing Process
Protecting Our Lives and Affairs
How You Can Do So Many Bad Things to Yourself
and Still Function
Identifying and Locating a Qualified
Alternative Practitioner
Health Kinesiology: What is the HK
Difference?
Muscle Testing for Allergies, Part 2
You May Have Hidden Allergies
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