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.
