Well a week ago Monday I went to a Naturopath doctor here in Charlottetown. I posted how I was being overwhelmed by allergies and it was driving me nuts. Since that time I’ve both gotten a doctor, and went to the Naturopath doctor.. the doctors appointment isn’t for a few weeks, so I can only speak to what I know so far.
I’ll tell you about my experience at the Health Within Holistic Center here in Charlottetown. First however, I think you should go read my post here about the incident leading up to the appointment, as I mention in that post – I am willing to try ANYTHING to rid me of this issue. I don’t know why myself and so many others I talk to just all of a sudden start getting allergies – but I can tell you that I’m not alone, and there there are MANY people that suffer from the same thing that I do, and a lot of them never had allergies as a kid either – what gives?
So heading to Health Within first thing Monday morning.. no coffee yet, not nothing. Feeling a bit uneasy and skeptical I headed in and was greeted quite promptly by a nice woman whom I was there to see. Firstly the shoes came off and the slippers went on (ok they were flip-flops), then back to the room I went with her. She explained a bit about what she as going to do, what she believes happens when an allergy all of a sudden or gradually appears. I do believe there is a lot of merit to what she said… it goes something like this:
“Say you’re eating lobster at home and the phone rings and you get some really horrible news.. you body remembers what you had in it at the time when you got really upset (on the phone).. a few months down the road you’re in a restaurant and you order lobster, you get home after the meal and you have a reaction.. your initial thought is that the lobster must have been bad. Then the next time it happens, you put two and two together and simply think.. “I’m allergic to lobster!”
This does make some sense to me whether that’s what happens or not.
She then went out and took a swab of my car… yes.. that’s what I thought too.. my car?? Then she proceed to the next thing which was a little test I think she called a muscle resistance test or something. At this point she took a number of viles out of what looked like large DVD boxes and got me to hold them in one hand, while she pushed down at my outstretched other arm. The point of this exercise was to see if I had any reaction or if my body “resisted” to what I was holding in my hand. Ok, this is that part I found hokey. Why? Well, to me.. it just felt like she was pushing harder when certain ones were in my hand.. can I prove it? No. Keep reading.
So after that test was done she put the ones which I had the biggest resistance to (turned out to be eggs and wheat .. go figure) and then put them in a little bag along with the “napkin car swab” and something else. I then held that in my other hand and relaxed on the patient bed. She gave me what I would call a cross between acupuncture and a massage.. nothing too serious.. but at this point I was almost asleep anyhow (yes.. 9am on a Monday will do this to me).
So once that was done, the session was pretty much over. She told me that it should help and I walked out very skeptical. I went to work and didn’t think twice about it, a lot of people asking me about it lately – so I figured I’d write this post. Here’s what the results were..
I don’t know how to explain it, but my ‘hay fever’ is gone. I’ve walked through fields while walking the dogs and I’ve looked for the red spots on my legs and they are no longer there when I come out. Now I don’t know if it was the therapy, but I’ve not had a problem with hay or fields since (and I’ve both done some golfing and walked the dogs in some pretty long grass which would previously affect me). My allergies however, are not completely gone.. I’ve been waking up pretty much every morning lately with a pretty good sniffling going on however I don’t think that’s hay fever – I don’t know what it is mind you, but I don’t think it’s hay fever.I wonder if there’s a naturopathic cure for hair loss? Not that I have to worry about it just yet, but I know lots of people who do!!
So in summary, I think there is certainly some validity in it. I think it did help. I do not think that it ‘cured’ me so to speak, but I can’t argue the fact that I’ve not had an allergy problem after my usual morning bout of sniffles since I went there last Monday. If I were to give some advice to someone – I would say “give it a shot, but keep an open mind”, cuz if you can’t do that.. well.. you may as well keep taking the Claritins.