Archive for November, 2008
Conventional allergy treatments typically consist of two main approaches: suppression of symptoms and gradual desensitization of the patient to allergens over time. Symptom suppression utilizes a variety of medications to decrease the release of and/or block the effects of immune chemicals like histamine in the bloodstream.
Decreasing the amounts or effects of these immune chemicals reduces the intensity of the body’s allergic responses and symptoms such as sinus congestion, irritated/itchy eyes, and skin reactions like hives diminish. In severe allergic cases, corticosteroid drugs such as cortisone are often used to strongly suppress the inflammation responses of the body.
The other common approach to allergy treatment is desensitization, usually in the form of allergy shots. Allergy shots deliver small amounts of the person’s allergens into the body on a regular basis. The concept here is that over time the body will grow accustomed to the allergen and stop reacting as strongly to it.
Basically, the idea is that the body will get “tired” of producing an immune response to the allergen if it encounters it often enough. Allergy shots are effective at eliminating allergies in many cases, but it is a slow process. There is a new way of desensitizing the body to allergens that is much faster and does not require injections, as we’ll discuss shortly.
Allergy and Sensitivity Elimination and Reprogramming Technique (ASERT)is the newest method of dealing with allergy problems in the body. This is a method that uses muscle testing and homeopathic substances to evaluate the body and then uses a form of acupuncture point stimulation to reduce the body’s sensitivities to allergens. This is a relatively new technique that is an updated version of an older, but more widely-used method called NAET (Nambudripad Allergy Ellimination Technique).