Allergy Testing

I prefer using the term "sensitivity" as opposed to allergy since many times standard allergy testing may fail to demonstrate a classic allergic response even when the patient clearly has a reaction to the offending substance.This discordance suggests another mechanism underlying the reaction. It is much like the case of trying to push the same poles of a magnet together, they repell each other. This is a figurative way of thinking about energetic imbalances, which this technique evaluates and treats. Another way of thinking about it is as in the case of putting the batteries in an appliance the wrong way. The energy in the battery is there, it's just not making the proper connection. It needs adjusting in order to allow the proper energy flow to happen and allow the appliance to function.Muscle response testing is used to determine if a given substance causes a stress response (a weakened indicator muscle) as well as which acupuncture meridians (energy channels) are affected. Treatment is then applied using acupressure (not needle acupuncture) to points aligned alongside the spine. The patient then must avoid that substance for 25 hours and is muscle tested again on the subsequent visit to insure the previous substance no longer causes a weak muscle response.Within the NAET protocol, fifteen fundamental substances have been found to be universally weakening in most people. Clearing these fifteen substances then is the basic requirement of all new NAET patients. Thereafter, known offending substances such as particular chemicals, foods or pollens like mountain cedar or rag weed, etc. are tested and treated as necessary. If need be, standard allergy testing may also be ordered to determine other potential sources of irritation for subsequent treatment.Severe, life threatening allergies such as to peanut, certain medications and such are managed differently as these processes are typically very deeply entrenched. Treatment is still offered using a modification of the general technique, but with the goal of reducing the severity of symptoms associated with accidental exposures and not for the ultimate ability to eat or be exposed to that substance on a routine basis.NAET has been successfully used to help manage problems ranging from nasal allergy, asthma and hives to unusual symptoms not typically thought to be related to allergy or sensitivity.As part of a comprehensive management plan for a variety of situations, NAET stands out as a unique and effective energy medicine technique.

All dogs scratch themselves at times, but if you find that your animal scratches himself non-stop during the springtime, then the problem might be allergies. The first thing you should do when you notice your dog scratching much more than usual is to give him a flea and tick bath. Fleas and ticks are the most common reason that dogs scratch and a simple flea and tick shampoo should do the trick. If after repeated bathing your pet is still scratching himself, then it is time to confront his allergies head on.What are you options?Many pet owners simply decide to subject their dogs to steroid treatments. While steroids can get rid of the problem, they have a number of side effects and are often very unpleasant for you animal. No, the best way to treat your furry friend is to find out exactly what he is allergic to. Once the veterinarian discovers this, he can have a medication made that will instantly help reduce allergies and keep you friend comfortable and happy.In the next few paragraphs, we will be discussing the most common methods used by vets to determine what allergies your pet has.Diet TrialThe first thing the veterinarian will do after he has checked your dog for fleas or ticks is to examine your pet's diet. Make sure you bring all his foods and snacks with you. Oftentimes an allergic food reaction comes from the introduction of a new type of food into your dog's diet.Once the vet has determined that you pet does in fact have food allergies, he will immediate put him on a prescription diet that is often known as an elimination diet. These diets include ingredients like meat, fish, lamb, and potato. It is called the elimination because if your pet improves while he is on it, that means he has food allergies.After that, your pet's normal diet is re-introduced one food at a time. Once the symptoms of his food allergy reoccur, the allergy is identified and you can simply stop feeding your pet that food.Skin Testing

Fortunately, the answer appears to be 'yes'. Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, twitching, and snoring affect millions of people every day. Until now, sleep disorder causes have been primarily focused on abnormalities or malfunctions in the body, genetic causes, and obesity. However, as people are finding varying degrees of relief from sleep disorders by cleaning up the indoor air in their sleeping areas, indoor air pollution is now being seen as potentially the main culprit. And that's good news, because indoor air pollution is something that can be fixed fairly easily.More and more, the occurrence of snoring or other sleep disorders is being found directly related to the amount of airborne particles / chemicals present in the air. As recently as March of 2012, there was a study done by American Innovative Research Corporation with people that have COPD, testing to see if reducing / eliminating indoor air pollutants had an effect on sleep. The results showed conclusively that the test subjects who had an air cleaning system in the sleeping area got relatively good or better sleep and had less breathing issues the following day. Similar results have been found with regard to snoring. By cleaning up the air pollution in the home, there is less irritation of the tissues in the airway, which reduces inflammation and allows the airway to remain more open (without these tissues touching while air goes past, which is what causes the snoring sound).One air pollutant known to get in the way of 'good sleep' is mold. Mold produces spores and mycotoxins, both of which cause all sorts of allergy-type reactions when they enter the nose, throat, bronchial and lung areas. There are serious health issues that can result from prolonged exposure to mold, but the more obvious immediate problem is inflammation of the tissues in the airway, which is one thing that tends to cause sleep interruptions. Does mold have a link to sleep apnea? Mold in the home may not cause sleep apnea, but as Dr. Steven Park states,"if you have an underlying sleep-breathing problem such as obstructive sleep apnea, you'll be extra sensitive to molds compared with someone without sleep apnea." Wondering how to test for mold in your home? Simple mold air test kits are available to answer that question. These mold air test kits feature a test strip you rub on the wall, mail off in a postage paid envelope and in a few days you'll know for sure if your home has mold spores floating around, or not.What else can you do to get good sleep? Well, instead of taking herbs, an easy, natural sleep aid is a quality air purifier that is 1) designed for removing mold spores / mycotoxins, and 2) quiet enough to be used in a sleeping area. One "sleep-oriented' air purifier that is we have found perfect for mold concerns and cleaning up the air in your home in general is the Blueair 450E. This air purifier features a powerful HEPA filter that removes up to 99.99% of particles, healthy negative ions to further purify the air, activated carbon to remove chemical vapors, and an available lifetime warranty. And it's very quiet. Don't forget, however, if you have mold, you may also have a leak somewhere where moisture has allowed mold to grow in your home and that's a problem that needs to be found and fixed. Let us know if you need more information on mold removal.As always, if you have any questions, give us a call at 1-800-701-2513. The expert staff at Air Purifiers and Cleaners.com is standing by to help.

The word allergy comes from two Greek words: "allos" meaning other and "ergon" meaning work. Allergic reactions are abnormal over-reactions by the immune system to harmless, protein substances called allergens, which are contacted through the skin, inhaled or injected. An allergen is a substance that causes an allergy.Common Allergens:

Animal dander. This is material shed from the body such as feathers, dried skin, hair and feathers)
Bee stings
Foods, especially nuts, fish, shellfish
Insect bites
Medications
Plants
Pollen.

While most forms of allergy only cause misery, an extreme reaction to an allergen can possibly result in death. Those who suffer this type of allergy reaction, commonly referred to as anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock, must receive allergy treatment immediately. It is important to recognize the symptoms of anaphylaxis so you can offer the lifesaving treatment these people need.Anaphylaxis can occur when a person is exposed to a substance they are allergic to. There reactions come on quickly and their symptoms are often life threatening. Perhaps the most common forms of allergic reaction that results in anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock are those from bee stings.However, patients with food allergies who ingest a food they are allergic to can also suffer an anaphylactic reaction. It should be noted there is a difference between the terms anaphylaxis and anaphylactic shock. Anaphylaxis refers simply to a severe allergy reaction while anaphylactic shock is the most extreme form of anaphylaxis. This type of shock will result in death in just a few moments if help is not sought right away.Symptoms of anaphylaxis include trouble breathing, low blood pressure, itching, and swelling of the mouth, face, neck and throat. The allergy sufferer may also become flushed, develop hives or even become unconscious. The most dangerous symptom is the swelling around the throat which can cause the airway to become restricted. Because of this swelling, rescue breathing - which is the part of CPR where one person helps the other person breathe - may not be successful.If you or someone you know is prone to anaphylaxis be prepared in case you suffer a reaction. Be sure those around you know what to do in the case you have a reaction and aren't able to speak. For those who suffer these reactions regularly, you doctor may prescribe an anaphylaxis kit. These kits include a shot of epinephrine which can help save a person suffering from a severe reaction.The epinephrine is a form of adrenaline that speeds up your heart beat and helps keep your airways from constricting. If your doctor prescribes a kit for you, keep it with you at all times. Also, check it regularly to make sure the shot is still in date as an out of date shot may not be potent enough to help your reaction.If you suspect someone is suffering anaphylaxis and they don't have an epinephrine shot, there are some things you can do to help them. First, get them to a hospital or medical facility as soon as possible. If necessary, call an ambulance, they may be able to get to you more quickly than you can drive to the hospital.While you are waiting for the ambulance, try giving the person an antihistamine such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl). This will combat the histamines that are causing the reaction. Liquid diphenhydramine is best, but if all you have are capsules, break the capsules open and give the person the powder out of them directly. This way the medicine will immediately enter the person's bloodstream instead of having to wait for the capsule to dissolve.Anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock are both dangerous, possibly life threatening situations. Be familiar with the symptoms of this dangerous condition so that you can recognize if someone is suffering anaphylaxis and you can get this person the allergy treatment they need.

Amy was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia - a severe loss in blood platelets. A normal count for our blood platelets ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 per μl. Amy's level had dropped down to 3000 per μl - very dangerous. As a result, she didn't have enough platelets to prevent bleeding, so she was losing blood both internally and externally.Because such a condition is life treating, Amy had to be given blood platelet transfusions and other medicines to try to restore her platelet count.There are at least a dozen known causes for Thrombocytopenia. Amy's doctors theorized that her thrombocytopenia was caused by a viral or bacterial infection, and thus gave her large doses of antibiotics. After four days without improvement though, Amy's anemia was turning her complexion chalk white and her family asked for an alternative opinion.AK (Applied Kinesiology) muscle testing did not support the theory that Amy's problem was virally or bacterially induced. It appeared more accurate that Amy's immune system was causing her thrombocytopenia by systematically destroying her blood platelets.Autoimmune disorders have long been a puzzle to science. Although many theories have been proposed to explain autoimmune disorders, in the end most are regarded as idiopathic - meaning we don't have any concrete explanation for them.Thrombocytopenia is one of more than 100 autoimmune disorders that can show up whenever our immune system becomes too sluggish or stops working altogether. In worse case scenarios, like Amy's, our immune system can attack us directly - as though we are no longer the host in our own body, and have instead become its enemy.ACT, short for Applied Consciousness Therapy, offers an easy to understand yet difficult-to-research explanation as to why our autoimmune disorders exist. It begins by reminding us that "who we are" as an energetic being has a relationship with all parts of our body, including one with our immune system. It would be nice if we were compatible in each of our relationships. Unfortunately we are not. In some of them we are only neutral. In others still, we are totally and utterly incompatible.ACT defines allergies as any adverse response we have to any relationship we are not 100% energetically compatible with. Such would be the case if we were not fully compatible in our relationship with our immune system, and as a result it was doing something very wicked in our body - like eating up our blood platelets!OK, you might ask - BUT WHY would this so-called "core essence" of ours decide to create an incompatible relationship with one or more of our body systems?

For years, I used to wake up every morning with a stuffed-up nose. I used to think I had the type of body constitution that was naturally susceptible to colds. But I wondered why, despite all my precautions to keep warm before bedtime, I would still wake up with a stuffed-up nose in the morning. I always asked myself, I don't feel like I have a cold but why is my nose stuffy?I finally discovered the reason why about a year and a half ago. It was an allergy. Apparently, having a stuffed-up nose when you wake up in the morning is a sure sign of an allergy. So it wasn't an all-year-round cold after all. I was surprised. I always thought that allergies only affected the skin, but nothing could be further from the truth.Ok, so I had an allergy. The next step was to find out the source of my allergy. A doctor can help you by administering a series of tests. The most common medical method is by scraping your skin and dabbing it with some substance in order to see the skin's reaction to it. Among the most commonly tested substances are grass and pollen. Sometimes, doctors can try one substance after another before finding out the source of your allergy.The alternative to visiting a doctor is taking a simple allergy treatment that is probably available over the counter at your local drugstore.It was my friend, Eric, who told me about these allergy treatments. As a kid, Eric has his share of allergies, especially during spring and summer when his nose was constantly runny and just wouldn't stop twitching all the time. He carried around a box of tissues everywhere he went and, as such, was the constant butt of what he called an endless stream of jokes.After enduring those daily taunts and his stuffy nose for several years, Eric finally discovered that he was allergic to hay (he lived on a farm) and as soon as he started taking allergy treatments regularly, his nose problems stopped. And thankfully, so did the teasing of his neighbors and classmates.

Allergy intolerance testing can be used to establish the specific allergen at the root of your condition. There are a handful of allergy tests available performed by medical Doctors as well as holistic practitioners such as Nutritionists, Naturopaths, Herbalists, Homeopaths and Kinesiologists. Testing aims to identify the presence of the IgE antibody or, in the case of food intolerance, the IgG antibody. Common methods used to identify allergens include blood, skin prick and patch tests. The type of test used depends on the symptoms and condition of your skin.

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE or EE) Treatment OptionsEosinophilic Esophagitis is a rare condition in which the esophagus becomes inflamed due to an allergic response in the esophagus. Since the disorder is complex, it can sometimes be difficult to treat. There has been a significant rise in the number of patients diagnosed with EoE so more treatment options are being explored by allergists. It is important to first understand that while there are drug therapy options available for those suffering from Eosinophilic Esophagitis, none of them are currently FDA approved.EoE Treatment: Swallowed Inhaled SteroidsSwallowed Inhaled Steroids, otherwise known as topical steroids, are one of the most popular Eosinophilic Esophagitis treatments. This particular drug therapy requires the patient to swallow what was originally intended to be an inhaled medication for asthmatics. People with asthma use these medications to treat lung inflammation, and those who are in need of an EoE treatment use the medication to rid the inflammation that is prevalent in the esophagus. For those who have Eosinophilic Esophagitis from allergies, topical steroids are one of the main ways to treat it; in fact, it is often the only way in which these particular patients choose to treat this disease.The two most popular types of steroids are budesonide (Pulmicort) and fluticasone (Flovent). If a patient decides to use Flovent, they should know that it is a metered dose inhaler (MDI). This type of medication is pumped manually in order to aerosolize the steroid. It is then pumped into the mouth and dry swallowed. Pulmicort, on the other hand, usually comes in a solution that is aerosolized through a nebulizer that is used for asthma patients. For those who want to use Pulmicort as an EoE treatment, it is typically combined with another element such as Splenda to produce a type of Slurry that is swallowed.People who have an issue dry swallowing the Flovent medication prefer to use the Pulmicort. Patients who use swallowed steroids should not eat or drink anything for at least half-an-hour afterwards; this way, it will have enough time to properly coat the esophagus. In addition, it is highly important for anyone using these steroids to brush their teeth after every use to remove any residue. This is extremely necessary because if there are remnants of these steroids left over they can cause negative side effects.EoE Treatment: Swallowed Inhaled Steroid Side EffectsUnfortunately, using swallowed inhaled steroids as an Eosinophilic Esophagitis treatment can lead to negative side effects. The most common side effect is called esophageal candidiasis, and it is basically a yeast infection of the throat. This condition begins with an intense pain in the throat. If a patient is experiencing this, it is imperative that they notify their physician immediately; esophageal candidiasis is typically treated with anti fungals. There are some who cannot use swallowed inhaled steroids as an Eosinophilic Esophagitis treatment because they have repeated throat yeast infections. Another side effect that has occurred with topical steroids is dry mouth. In addition, there has been one report of a patient contracting herpes infection of the esophagus after using fluticasone.EE Treatment: Multidisciplinary Centers

DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid refers to the genetic material in the cells of a human body. Every human being receives half of the DNA from the biological mother and the other half from the biological father. With advances in technology, DNA evidence has become a vital forensic technique to identify criminals when biological tissues are found at the crime scene. A single hair root, saliva, blood or semen can help in the identification and conviction of criminals. Sweaty shirts, fingernail clippings, urine, chewed gums, used tissues and licked stamps can also be used for testing. DNA can be used to make the portrait of a probable suspect. DNA evidence is also useful in determining skin color and eye color. DNA fingerprinting, which is also known as genetic fingerprinting, is a very important tool in the identification of criminals.The majority of DNA of one person may match the DNA of another person. This makes the process of differentiation between two people extremely difficult. Microsatellite is a particular type of DNA sequence that simplifies the process of identification. Microsatellites are small pieces of DNA that occur repeatedly in a person's DNA. They tend to vary in a particular area and their comparison helps in identifying a person quite effortlessly.It is almost impossible to eliminate all the physical traces of a person's presence at a place of crime. A single cell is sufficient to identify victims even in situations where the body is completely destroyed. DNA fingerprinting is not accurate as a regular fingerprinting process but it does provide some clue to begin an investigation.In post conviction cases, DNA testing also helps attorneys prove a client's innocence. In cases where the biological evidence was collected but DNA testing was not carried out, the evidence can be subjected to DNA testing to absolve the client. In cases where biological evidence was never collected or biological evidence was destroyed, post conviction on the grounds of DNA testing is not possible.