Re: NAET -- quack or cure.

Hi,

I recently endured a similar NAET experience. It was my first, and last time with NAET.

The woman is an acupuncturist who has a good reputation.
I think she was suckered into the NAET thing, she sure bought into it hook, line and sinker. She said "NAET is the cutting edge of alternative medicine". YIKES!! I believe in many alternative therapies, and have benefited from using them, but quackeries such as NAET only discredit alternative medicine. Especially now that the medical establishment is out to debunk it.

I have chronic Lyme disease, there are medical records proving that I was diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease.
And yet, the NAET "test" showed no Lyme disase. It also
supposedly showed no allergies to substances that I really AM allergic too. I had numerous allergy tests as a child due to several allergies. Some of which persist to this day.

The NAET practitioner "diagnosed" me as being allergic to calcium and several other substances that I have never reacted to in real life. She assured me that my persistant Lyme sypmtoms would go away after the NAET "cleared" me of those other allergies, which would allow my immune system to focuc on the Lyme. Curously, she said a few times after a "test" "Yep, that's what I thought!"



After that NAET treatment I did some reading about NAET.


In her book, Say Goodbye to Illness, Nambudripad states that she "suffered from childhood from a multitude of health problems." These included severe infantile eczema until age seven or eight and Arthritis beginning at about the age of eight. As a young adult, she suffered from bronchitis, pneumonia, insomnia, clinical depression, sinusitis, and frequent migraine headaches. During this period, she said, she tried many medicines, changed doctors, and consulted nutritionists, but:

All the medicines, vitamins and herbs made me sicker, and the good nutrition made me worse. I was nauseated all the time, Every inch of my body ached. I lived on aspirin, taking almost 30 aspirin a day to keep me going [1:xi].

During her chiropractic training, acupressure administered by a guest speaker helped her feel better and later advised her to eat nothing but broccoli and white rice. Then:

After a week's restricted diet, I tried eating some other foods. My previous complaints slowly began to conquer me. I went on eating a white rice and broccoli diet. This time, I ate this food for three and a half years. Once in a while, I might try a bite of other foods, but my arthritic symptoms would return. I could not eat salads, fruits or vegetables, because I was very allergic to vitamin C. I could not eat whole grain products because they contained B complex. I could not eat fruits, honey, or any products made from sugars. These made me extremely tired, because I was very allergic to sugar. I could not drink or eat milk or milk products, because I was very allergic to calcium. I was highly allergic to fish groups, because I was allergic vitamin A. I was allergic to egg products, because eggs gave me skin problems. I was allergic to all types of beans, including soybeans, they gave me severe joint pains. Spices gave me Arthritis of all the small joints. Almost all the fabrics, except silk, gave me itching, joint pain, and extreme tiredness. My teacher at the acupuncture college confirmed my doubts. I was just simply allergic to everything under the sun, including the sun by radiation. [1:xiii-xiv]

After "eating rice and broccoli for three and a half years," she suddenly felt better after an incident in which she had given herself acupuncture while in contact with some carrots. She then ate some carrots and found she was no longer allergic. She then reasoned that the carrots had been present in her electromagnetic field and that:

During the acupuncture treatment, my body probably became a powerful charger and was strong enough to change the adverse charge of the carrot to match with my charge. This resulted in removing my carrot allergy. I tested and treated my husband and son. In a few weeks we were no longer allergic to many foods that once made us ill. . . . Later I extended this to my patients who suffered from a multitude of symptoms that arose from allergies. [1:xvi]


I have some problems with Nambudripad's story:

· Taking "almost 30 aspirin a day" is likely to cause extremely severe side effects. The adult aspirin pill contains 5 grains (325 mg), so 30 would contain 9750 mg or 9.75 grams. Doses above 4 grams per day are likely to cause ringing in the ears, dizziness, increased breathing rate, and serious metabolic imbalances. High doses can also cause severe stomach upset and a tendency toward abnormal bleeding. Death has been reported from single doses of 10-30 grams [1].

· Allergies occur to proteins, not to vitamins, minerals, or sugars. It is possible to be allergic to eggs, fish, and or milk, but the claim that she was allergic to vitamins A, C and B-complex (a total of 10 out of the body's 13 vitamins!), calcium, and sugars is absurd.

· A diet consisting of rice and broccoli would contain no vitamin B12 and inadequate amounts of iron, protein, and several other nutrients. Curiously, it would be very high in vitamin C and high in vitamin A, both of which Nambudripad says she was allergic to.



1. Goodman AG, Goodman LS, Gilman A. The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 6th edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980, p 695.
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The only studies I could find about "muscle testing" showed it to be no more accurate than guessing:

Is there well done research to support applied kinesiology?

There are no well designed and controlled studies supporting AK. Important findings from such studies include finding:

One study [1] found the following:

Three different practioners examining the same 11 patients arrived at vastly different "diagnoses"


Responses to "nutrients" did not differ from placebo


Diagnoses of nutritional deficiencies did not correspond to blood serum levels of these nutrients
Other studies have found:

No effect from administering the nutrients "expected" to strengthen a muscle diagnosed as "weak" by AK practitioners [2]


Muscle response appears to be a random phenomenon [3].
Another study [4]concluded that a patients suggestibility can influence testing outcome. During part of this experiment, college students were told that chewing M&M candies would give them instant energy that would probably make them test stronger. Five out of nine did so.


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1. Kenny JJ, Clemens R, Forsythe KD. Applied kinesiology unreliable for assessing nutrient status. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 88:698-704, 1988.

2. Triano JJ. Muscle strength testing as a diagnostic screen for supplemental nutrition therapy: a blind study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 5:179-182, 1982


3. Haas M and others. Muscle testing response to provocative vertebral challenge and spinal manipulation: a randomized controlled trial of construct validity. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 17:141-148, 1994.


4. Applied kinesiology - Double-blind pilot study. Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry 45:321-323, 1981.


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Complement Ther Med 2001 Sep;9(3):141-5
Test-retest-reliability and validity of the Kinesiology muscle test.
Ludtke R, Kunz B, Seeber N, Ring J.
Karl und Veronica Carstens-Stiftung, Essen, Germany.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the test-retest-reliability and validity of the Health Kinesiology muscle test.

PATIENTS: Seven patients with clinically and allergologically confirmed wasp venom allergy.

DESIGN: Four Health Kinesiology-examiners tested each patient in a random order for 10 verum and 10 placebo bottles. All examiners used the anterior deltoid as indicator muscle. Patients and examiners were completely blinded.

OUTCOME MEASURES: Weak muscle holds were rated as 'sensitivity' towards the test substance, stable holding as normal (not sensitive).

RESULTS: An overall kappa of 0.03 (95%-CI: -0.02-0.07) indicates the test is not reliable. Individual kappas do not substantially vary from examiner to examiner. Sensitivity and specificity were estimated at 40% and 60%.

CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the use of Health Kinesiology as a diagnostic tool is not more useful than random guessing. This should at least be true in patients.



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J Am Diet Assoc. 1988 Jun;88(6):698-704.


Applied kinesiology unreliable for assessing nutrient status.

Kenney JJ, Clemens R, Forsythe KD.

Pritikin Longevity Center, Santa Monica, California.

Applied kinesiology is a technique used to assess nutritional status on the basis of the response of muscles to mechanical stress. In this study, 11 subjects were evaluated independently by three experienced applied kinesiologists for four nutrients (thiamin, zinc, vitamin A, and ascorbic acid). The results obtained by those applied kinesiologists were compared with (a) one another, (b) standard laboratory tests for nutrient status, and (c) computerized isometric muscle testing. Statistical analysis yielded no significant interjudge reliability, no significant correlation between the testers and standard biochemical tests for nutrient status, and no significant correlation between mechanical and manual determinations of relative muscle strength. In addition, the subjects were exposed in a double-blind fashion to supplements of thiamin, zinc, vitamin A, and ascorbic acid and two placebos (pectin and sucrose) and then re-tested. According to applied kinesiology theory, "weak" (indicating deficiency) muscles are strengthened when the subject is exposed to an appropriate nutritional supplement. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in the response to placebo, nutrients previously determined (by muscle testing) to be deficient, and nutrients previously determined (by muscle testing) to be adequate. Even though the number of subjects (11) and nutrients (4) tested was limited, the results of this study indicated that the use of applied kinesiology to evaluate nutrient status is no more useful than random guessing.

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It's difficult enough dealing with chronic Lyme disease without being preyed upon by quacks.



http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/alerts/lyme.html

Clinical Alert: Chronic Lyme Disease Symptoms Not Helped by Intensive Antibiotic Treatment
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)
12 June 2001

Results of the first randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials testing Antibiotics in patients with a stubborn form of Lyme disease those whose symptoms persist after standard courses of Antibiotics validate that these patients suffer significant pain and other disabling symptoms. The two trials found, however, that a 90-day course of intravenous and oral Antibiotics was no better than placebo at improving these chronic symptoms.

"Although we still have much to learn," says Dr. Klempner, "we know much more about chronic Lyme disease now than we did when these studies began." Besides the information obtained about the efficacy of intensive Antibiotic treatment, the investigators found that the impact of Lyme disease on physical health was at least equal to the disability of patients with congestive heart failure and osteoarthritis. Some patients were also found to have cognitive impairment.


"Our results suggest that we need to define the cause or causes of the debilitating, persisting symptoms experienced by some patients with Lyme disease. Understanding the origin of these symptoms should lead to more effective therapeutic approaches to ameliorate these symptoms," says Dr. Klempner


http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000807.html

"Lyme is much more serious than the public recognizes," says Dr. Brian Fallon, director of Columbia University's Lyme Disease Research Center. "People can have severe cognitive problems for the rest of their lives."
The medical establishment, however, remains unconvinced, and a few doctors have been penalized for their treatment of recurrent Lyme. Pat Smith, head of the Lyme Disease Association, a nonprofit group calling for greater research on the disease, thinks pressure not to recognize the
chronic form comes from insurance companies: "They don't want to pay."


The illness is also the subject of a growing debate. While most doctors believe that Borrelia burgdorferi, the tick-borne spirochete that causes Lyme, is quickly killed by medication, many patients complain of arthritis, irregular heartbeat, memory loss and motor-skill problems long after they have undergone the standard two-to-four-week treatment regimen. That has led some researchers to conclude that Lyme can return as a chronic illness in perhaps 10
percent of those thought to be cured.

Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future

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