Ms Goldfarb gives an overview of alternative treatments for allergy. She explains an interesting technique using Guided Imagery that is worth trying. She describes a session by Dr William Mundy using this for a patient with pollen allergy:

You relax. Visualize you are having pollen symptoms. Now visualize when you didn’t have the pollen allergy, for example, at the seashore. Pretend there is a Plexiglas shield separating you from the pollen. Through the shield you see yourself inhaling the clean ocean air, free of allergy. Imagine good sea air particles. Now imagine the pollen particles several feet away, and as you inhale the sea air gradually allow a few pollen particles to come into the sea air area. You don’t get symptoms because the good sea air dilutes and handles the particles. You gradually increase the amount of pollen. Finally you lift the shield and you that no longer react to pollen.

Dr Mundy says, “Because we need to respect and honor our immune system, ask it if it feel comfortable in the new process. Look inside your lungs and blood vessels and realize everything is fine in there and you are breathing in a way that is pleasant, easy and comfortable for you”

We know that certain physiologic processes take place with visualization – the body sees what to do right. Unfortunately some of the recommendations in this book don’t appear to have been properly scrutinized. Even the National Inquirer checks their medical articles with other experts.

One error regards the advice on vitamin B6 – Pyridoxine. Here the author recommends B6 250 mg three times a day. Any dose over 100 mg twice a day is known to be seriously toxic.

There is a chapter on aromatherapy for allergy relief. Unfortunately during the allergy season most persons are sensitive to all odors. For example you can wear lipstick when the pollen count is low but you can only wear unscented lipstick when the pollen count is high. Certain menthol and eucalyptus products will open a stuffy nose, but when it’s allergy doing the stuffiness, any odor makes the condition worse.

Another serious error is recommending dissolving the essential oil in petroleum to place on the nostrils. Any oil that isn’t water-soluble placed in the nose can show up in the lungs – permanently! She fails to emphasize that the petroleum NOT be placed inside the nose.

There is a chapter devoted to NAET that uses muscle weakness to diagnose allergy. Every test of this program has proved that it has no validity. However, there are many personal anecdotes given of success.

It is important to remember when stressing natural remedies that Hemlock and Snake Venom are natural too, but I wouldn’t recommend them!

Categories: General