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Stiff Person Syndrome
Part Four

By Gary F. Zeolla

This article is continued from Stiff Person Syndrome: Part Three.

Treating Food Allergies

My first appointment with the new chiropractor was on January 14, 2001. Then as promised, the chiropractor was able to see me three times a week, usually in the afternoons. It was about a 40-minute drive to her office, so while I was undergoing my treatments I barely had time to do much of anything else. But given how serious my symptoms were becoming, I was willing to put in whatever time and effort it took to get better.

The method in which the chiropractor performs NAET is to begin with what is called “The Basics.” These are first 12 treatments listed in the NAET Guide Book. They consist of some of the most commonly eaten foods and the most important nutrients. And given how common these foods and nutrients are the avoidance period becomes very difficult. I already mentioned about the first two treatments. The third treatment is for the vitamin C mix. So with this treatment one cannot eat anything that contains vitamin C during the avoidance period, which basically means no fruits or vegetables, and even no milk, which contains a small amount of vitamin C.

But the most difficult one is the next treatment-the B complex mix. This mix contains all of the B vitamins, along with related compounds like choline and inositol. Given that almost all foods contain at least small amounts of one or more B vitamins, about the only thing one can eat for this avoidance period is unfortified white rice (which is actually rather difficult to even find). And many other treatments are almost as difficult. The avoidance is only for 25 hours, so this generally is not that big of a deal. But in my case, since I was being treated three times a week, it seem like I was almost always in an avoidance period for something. I had already lost a good bit of weight due to being afraid to eat due to my increasing food allergies, but now I was losing weight because of not having much to eat due to this avoidance period. At one point, I was down to 106 pounds-the lightest I had been since tenth grade when I wrestled in the 105-pound weight class (I’m 5’1”).

In the middle of treating the basics, we made a detour to treat for glutamic acid. Remember, glutamic acid is considered to be rather central in SPS. This is the reason for the anti-GAD antibody test. This test shows that one’s body is reacting to glutamic acid. In my case, the test was negative. However, the NAET muscle response testing showed that I was very allergic to glutamic acid. So even with the blood test being negative, it was clear glutamic acid was a problem, and it took three treatments to fully clear it.

I was really hopeful that these treatments would make a significant difference in my symptoms, but unfortunately, they didn’t. And including other items I had been treated for, by the beginning of February I had undergone 11 treatments. But I didn’t really notice any difference, neither in my symptoms nor in my food allergies. So I wasn’t sure if the NAET treatments were working or not. But it was with the treatment for vitamin A and fish in the middle of February that I finally could tell for sure that the treatments were working, at least in regards to my food allergies.

Prior to this treatment, I had become so allergic to fish that just smelling it bothered me. If someone so much as opened up a can of tuna fish near me I would immediately get congested. But after the treatment for fish, I was able to not only smell but even to eat fish without any problems. And I have been eating fish regularly ever since. And the same pattern began to emerge for other foods. Chicken, eggs, beef, dairy, nuts, peanuts, wheat, oats, spices, soy, green beans, popcorn, chocolate, and many other foods had very been problematic before. But after treatments for them I could eat them without any problems-that is if they were organic. [But note: I did not have such severe problems before I first started NAET treatments with the first chiropractor. So the NAET treatments caused such severe food allergies, then "fixed" them.]

At one point I began to notice that I was still reacting to some foods that I had been treated for. For instance, I tried eating some carrots, and they really bothered me. But I had been treated for vegetables so I shouldn’t have had a problem with them. But then I tried some organic carrots and had no problem with those. And the same pattern emerged for other kinds of produce. Organic ones were no problem but non-organics ones were. So it was clear that I had a serious with pesticides. Even more telling was the differences between organic and non-organic animals foods. Non-organic animals foods can contain not only pesticides but also antibiotics and hormones that were given to the animals. I had problems with all of these. Also very problematic were artificial food ingredients.

Many other non-food items were also proving to be problematic. I have had a problem with hay fever since high school, so I knew I had a problem with various pollens and other outdoor allergies. So eventually I was treated for such things. But indoor allergies like dust and mold were also problematic, so I was treated for these. Then there was my computer. With some investigation, it became clear that the reason I got so fatigued using my computer was because I was reacting to the plastic in the keyboard and the mouse and even the EMF radiation from the monitor. So I was treated for both of these.

Very disturbing was the problem I would have going to church and Bible studies. I would always get very congested and often would be even stiffer than usual the next day. But it took some time to figure out why. I finally tracked it down to two things. The first thing bothering me was the cosmetics products the people, especially the women, were wearing. Such things proved to be probably my worst allergen. And since just smelling them caused me such problems, it was a good thing I never actually used such products. Needless to say, I don’t use make-up and perfume. I also never wear cologne, and I haven’t shaved in at least 15 years as I wear a beard. And it’s a good thing I do. If I had been shaving, using shaving gel and aftershave all those years, my condition might have gotten even worse than it did. I always knew wearing a beard was a good idea!

In any case, the second thing bothering me at the Bible studies was the deserts and snacks that are always served afterwards. Since these deserts and snacks are usually store bought, it was probably the artificial food ingredients in them that were bothering me. Why it is that Christians seem to think it is necessary to eat such junk after studying the Bible I have never figured out. And I personally never eat any of it, but still, just being in the same room when it was being served would bother me.

Then very disturbing was when I found out I was allergic to the water I had been drinking. I had been drinking only filtered water, and I thought that a filter was sufficient to remove toxins from the water. But I was just as allergic to plain tap water as I was to the filtered water.

With reacting to pesticides, artificial food ingredients, tap water, cosmetics products, and related items, it was clear that chemicals were one of my biggest problems. But unfortunately, I didn’t notice the same dramatic improvement when being treated such items as I did with food items. Even after these treatments, I still would get fatigued using my PC, congested when I went to church or Bible studies, and problems when I was exposed to various chemicals. So I had to take steps to reduce my exposure to such things.

As the author of the book Creationist Diet, all along I had been following a healthy diet. And this included not eating foods with artificial ingredients in them. But I hadn’t been eating organic foods mainly because of the expensive involved. But now, I really had no choice. And frankly, it really was more consistent with my book for me to eat organic foods. Pesticides are just as unnatural as artificial food ingredients and can in no sense be called “God-given foods.”

Otherwise, I purchased a water distiller and started drinking only distilled water. I also started using all natural toiletry products to avoid the chemicals in commercial products. I purchased a flat panel monitor to reduce my exposure to EMF radiation. Although rather expensive, all of these steps are actually very healthy steps for anyone to take to improve their health. But in my case, they were vitally important. [The distilled water was a mistake. It caused me to become more thirsty and thus to drink more water. This eventually led to chronically low blood sodium levels. It took years to get those levels back up to normal. I did so by going back to drinking the filtered water and by using more salt. And that helped my fibromyalgia fatigue, more than the NAET treatments ever did.]

But wasn’t healthy was that I was reluctant to go to church and Bible studies anymore. As indicated, I would always have a problem when I went. So I would go periodically, stop going, and then try again later. But the same thing would happen. So eventually I stopped attending altogether. This was rather frustrating, but I had no choice. [This is when I should have realized the adverse effects NAET was having. I never had such problems before the treatments, but developed them during the treatments And now, over a decade later, I still cannot go to church, or much of anywhere else for that matter.]

Despite continuing problems with such things as mentioned above, over the spring I began to notice an improvement in my symptoms. Mornings were still very problematic when I could still barley move. Taking a hot bath would always help to loosen me up. But over time, it seemed to help more and more. So by the middle of the spring I was almost able to move almost normally during the day.

All along I had been trying to go for a walk, usually right before I left to go to the chiropractor’s office on days I had an appointment and sometime in the afternoon on opposite days. As indicted previously, back in the winter the best I could manage on these walks was about half a mile in 15-16 minutes. But by spring I was able to cover the same distance in about 13-14 minutes. So I was moving noticeably better. Also, I continued trying to stretch. And by this time I could at least do something. When doing my modified hurdler’s stretch, I was now able to bend forward a little bit. So these improvements were encouraging. And I needed the encouragement given the side effects I was experiencing from many of the treatments.

But before discussing the side effects I experienced from some of the treatments, I do want to mention that what I experienced is not the norm for people undergoing NAET. The effects I experienced were specific to the symptoms I was experiencing. Some would probably experience different effects, depending on what their symptoms were going into the treatments. And many people experience little or no side effects.

That said, when I was being treated for foods the only side effect I would notice was to get very congested. This would happen at some point during the avoidance period. But with some of the other items the effects were very severe. This was especially the case when I was treated for things in my own body. I know this sounds really strange, but according to NAET theory, one can be allergic to one’s own hormones, neurotransmitters, and other items produced by your own body. And I was treated for several such items. And treatments for these and many other non-foods items like chemicals caused some very severe side effects.

During the avoidance period after some of these treatments I would get very fatigued. Sometimes I would be so exhausted that I could barely move. And other times I couldn’t move at all because I was paralyzed. Just as the times when I was paralyzed from an exposure to an allergen, I was now getting paralyzed periodically as a result the treatments I was undergoing. There were also times when pain in various parts of my body would flare-up after a treatment. Basically, what seemed to be happening was that the treatment would exacerbate my symptoms. And since fatigue, pain, and stiffness were my three major symptoms, I would experience severe cases of all three of these at times as a result of the treatments. At times, I would also see a flare-up of other less serious health problems I have, such as insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and neurological “tics.” As a result, there were many nights when I didn’t get any sleep after a treatment.

Needless to say, these side effects were distressing. But at least they were contained to the avoidance period. I knew they would pass once it was over. But then, since I was undergoing three treatments a week, I was still almost always “in avoidance” for one treatment or another. However, whenever I would have such dramatic side effects, I would try to comfort myself by thinking that this showed that what I was treated for was probably a very severe allergen. So by being treated for it, maybe I would see a dramatic breakthrough in my symptoms. But such a dramatic breakthrough never came. However, what I did experience was a gradual but noticeable improvement in my symptoms.

And it wasn’t just the major symptoms of my fibromyalgia and SPS that I was noticing a gradual improvement in, but I was also noticing improvement in other health problems as well. For instance, after being treated for various hormones and neurotransmitters, my neurological “tics” and restless leg syndrome were almost completely under control whereas before they would flare-up periodically. And on most nights I was sleeping better than I ever have in my life. [This did not last. Now, over a decade later, all of these are still a problem.]

From the above discussion, it should be clear that I was being treated for a lot of items. And frankly, things were beginning to drag on a lot longer than I had hoped, not to mention getting rather expensive. And the chiropractor realized this. So she suggested I try doing some treatments at home. I won’t go into details in this regard here as I do so at Proper NAET Treatment Method. But I will say that one has to be careful in this regard. If these treatments are done incorrectly they can make things worse. So home treatments should only be attempted under the guidance of a trained NAET professional. That said, soy, green beans, popcorn, and chocolate were all included in the list above as food items that I had previously had a severe problem with, but after treatment I could eat them without problems. These were all actually home treatments.

Another thing I learned how to do myself was the Applied Kinesiology. There are two different ways to do this. I discuss how to do them at Self, Home, and Surrogate Testing. But here I will say learning to do this testing was a breakthrough of sorts. By being able to self-test, I no longer had to guess if I was allergic to something. If I could just get a small sample of it, I could test it and see if I was allergic to it. This is a big step in avoiding allergens. So for quite some time I would test everything before I ate it.

Another use for this testing was in regards to supplements. Applied Kinesiology can be used to determine if a particular supplement will benefit a person or not. This eliminates the time and expense of “experimenting” to see if a supplement will help or not. This is discussed at length in the article A Better Approach to Supplements. Here I will just say that this method determined that I needed to take several supplements. Taking all of these supplements can get rather expensive.

That said, I also learned how to use the self-testing in a “diagnostic” manner to determine what was causing my remaining symptoms. This would become very important later on, as I will describe shortly.

[All of this home testing proved to be nonsense. See the "Dangers" article for details.]

In part two of this article I mentioned about the first chiropractor having treated me for paint. And he was correct that toxins in my body were contributing to my symptoms. But paint was just one of these toxins. The new chiropractor found that heavy metals (aluminum, mercury, and lead) and chemicals were also present. Now, my understanding of the NAET theory in this regard has improved some from when I wrote about the treatment for paint. Then I stated that the protocol wasn’t to remove the toxin but to treat for them so that the body would stop reacting to them, but this is only partially correct.

What NAET does is to first treat the toxins as an “allergy.” The idea here is that the toxins have built up in the body since the body was having an allergic response to the toxins. As such, it was not taking the proper steps to remove them. To put it another way, in a normally healthy person, there are systems in the body to remove toxins from the body. And as long as the amount of toxins coming in is not excessive then the body is able to clear them as fast as they come in. So the toxins do not build-up.

However, if the amount of toxins coming in is excessive, or if the person’s systems are compromised then the body cannot keep up with the influx of toxins, and they begin to build-up. And one reason why someone’s toxin removal systems would be compromised is by the body is having an allergic reaction to the toxins. But once the allergy is treated it is easier for the body to remove the toxins. So NAET treats the allergy first, and then looks to see what procedures are needed to detox the system.

My allergy to heavy metals and chemicals proved to be rather significant as I ended up paralyzed for several hours during the avoidance period after both treatments. And as soon as the avoidance period was over, I could tell I was now “detoxing.” I felt quite fatigued for some time, and this is normal for people undergoing detox procedures. But in my case, I really didn’t need to do anything I wasn’t already doing. Drinking distilled water and eating lots of organic produce and taking hot baths are simple steps that can be used in detoxing. And these proved to be sufficient in my case. But it took several weeks for all of the toxins to be removed. [More nonsense. The supposed "healing crises" as the chiropractor called them were just my health problems getting worse as a result of the treatments.]

This article is concluded at Stiff Person Syndrome - Part Five.

Disclaimer: The material presented in this article is intended for educational purposes only. The author is not offering medical or legal advice. Accuracy of information is attempted but not guaranteed. Before undertaking any diet, exercise, or health improvement program, one should consult your chiropractor. The author is in no way responsible or liable for any bodily harm, physical, mental, or emotional, that results from following any of the advice in this article.

Stiff Person Syndrome. Copyright © 2001-2003, 2015 By Gary F. Zeolla.

The above article was posted on this Web site September 21, 2002.
The bracketed updates were added February 2, 2015.

Dealing with Health Difficulties
Stiff Person Syndrome: Dealing with Health Difficulties

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