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Allergy Treatment - Allergy Shots - Immunotherapy

M Paine

Senior Member
Messages
341
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
Greetings,

I've read and heard that allergies and sensitivities can become worsened with CFS. I've gone from having mild hay-fever and discomfort in very dusty places, to now being acutely sensitive to dust, and requiring year round medication for hay-fever.

I've also noticed that over time, I have developed dark patches under my eyes, which could easily be unrelated and more a symptom of malaise, but I'm hoping it's something that can be improved via allergy treatment.

Has anyone gone down the immunotherapy route? Did you find it helpful?
 

Skippa

Anti-BS
Messages
841
Oh hi, hope you get some answers, I too went from summer to all year round antihistamines at ME/CFS onset and also developed black circles under my eyes. The dark circle intensity is now an energy envelope/PEM indicator.
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
Greetings,

I've read and heard that allergies and sensitivities can become worsened with CFS. I've gone from having mild hay-fever and discomfort in very dusty places, to now being acutely sensitive to dust, and requiring year round medication for hay-fever.

I've also noticed that over time, I have developed dark patches under my eyes, which could easily be unrelated and more a symptom of malaise, but I'm hoping it's something that can be improved via allergy treatment.

Has anyone gone down the immunotherapy route? Did you find it helpful?

This may help: http://www.odysseyofthesoul.org/freomm/allergy.html

If you click on this link and scroll down a little more than halfway to "Neuromuscular Response for Allergy Testing", it gives a tapping method to actually clear allergies. I know this probably sounds crazy -but it works. My sister had a severe allergy to cats but wanted very badly to keep my parents' cat after they died, and with this tapping method, she can now have a cat without terrible symptoms. We have to redo the tapping maybe every 6 months or so, though as time has gone by, we do it less frequently. We've done it also with various foods she's allergic to. Plus it's been very effective with seasonal allergies she had - she has a lot of allergies!

I have a strong dust allergy and it's been helpful with that too --

FWIW - it's free, and non-toxic -- you have to read the directions carefully, might have to do it a couple of times at first.
 

Helen

Senior Member
Messages
2,243
Has anyone gone down the immunotherapy route? Did you find it helpful?
Did you have a look at LDI (low dose immunotherapy) by Dr. Ty Vincent and his collegues? I haven´t used it myself but read some promising stories. You can find videos on Youtube and at least one thread here on PR about the treatment.

i think @serg1942 and @Sushi are the most experienced and knowledgeable here.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Did you have a look at LDI (low dose immunotherapy) by Dr. Ty Vincent and his collegues? I haven´t used it myself but read some promising stories.
I use LDA--low dose allergy therapy--with Dr. Vincent for allergies and LDI--low dose immunotherapy--for pathogens. I have had encouraging results though finding the dose that works well for you takes time. I no longer need antihistamines which were needed daily previously.
 

Dechi

Senior Member
Messages
1,454
I have always been an allergy sufferer. Since I was 20, a long time before being sick. Now my allergies are very few, and when my asthma starts again, I take this new natural medication I have found that works. And it works so well, even though I should be taking it often I forget most of the time and only have it once every few weeks.

Believe it or not, what works so well are.... olives ! I read about it and decided to try it, because my new dog was giving me asthma. I hate olives with a passion. I went ahead anyways and bought those big green ones without the stuffing. I eat 4 per day and no more asthma !

You could start by eating 8-10 maybe for 2 weeks or so and see how it works. It works quite fast, I think it took me just a few days before it worked. There is good info about it online.
 

M Paine

Senior Member
Messages
341
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
Sounds like a tasty option :)

I'm already scheduled to have injection immunotherapy. I guess I was mainly asking to see if people had experience relating to CFS and allergy treatment. I wondered for example, if allergies are contributing to fatigue by means of increased inflammation. So perhaps it could help to suppress general fatigue, I don't know.

But to be honest, I'm mostly hoping that the dark circles around my eyes will disappear.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
I've had EPD at the London Homeopathic hospital off and on since the late 80's. Sadly, I've not been well enough to attend for the past 5 years.

This has helped with inhaled allergies and food allergies. Less hayfever if I have the injections in a year and less food reactions.

However, for my core ME symptoms (viral and neurological) it has made no difference at all.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
However, for my core ME symptoms (viral and neurological) it has made no difference at all.
Agree about EPD (which is more or less the same as LDA in the States), but LDI works with pathogens and when I get an effective dose, I have very noticeable positive changes. They aren't lasting very long yet--though others who have been doing it longer report a nice bump-up to a higher level of function.
 

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
Believe it or not, what works so well are.... olives !

Olives (and anything pickled or fermented) are very high histamine and to be avoided if MCAS is the cause of someone's allergic reactions. It does not mean you are allergic to the olive per se vs. the process of making the olive which allows histamine to build up to high levels. Am just putting this out there in case it is helpful for anyone else.
 

Dainty

Senior Member
Messages
1,751
Location
Seattle
This may help: http://www.odysseyofthesoul.org/freomm/allergy.html

If you click on this link and scroll down a little more than halfway to "Neuromuscular Response for Allergy Testing", it gives a tapping method to actually clear allergies.

Thank you, @Mary. From what I've read of it so far this looks like NAET treatment you can do at home for free. I have known several people who've experienced remarkable improvement from allergies with NAET, but it's expensive. I did acupressure NAET for a while, but it actually started making things worse! It was during a time of extremely high stress and trauma, and my theory is that instead of teaching my body that these substances were benign, it linked them to the crisis state, teaching my body the opposite. I've been waiting for the stars to align for me to try NAET again, but I think I'll try this first. Very helpful!

I'm already scheduled to have injection immunotherapy. I guess I was mainly asking to see if people had experience relating to CFS and allergy treatment.

I did mainstream allergy shots as a teenager before my CFS became severe. Soon after starting them, I began having severe fatigue afterwards. It got worse and lasted longer each subsequent trip. The doctor there insisted there was no way it could be related to the shots. It got so bad that I would receive a shot, and then immediately spend basically 2-3 days straight sleeping, unable to stay awake beyond bathroom breaks and eating a few crackers. I finally quit the shots, amidst protests from the doctor and nurse alike that the two couldn't possibly be related.

I later learned, from a different allergy specialist, that the symptoms I was experiencing are actually a version of low level anaphylaxis. Lucky I had the common sense to stop! It's possible, had the doctors recognized this and adjusted the dosage accordingly,I would have been able to tolerate the shots without this symptom. We'll never know because I don't plan to go that route again!

Another alternative to standard injection immunotherapy is Low Dose Allergy treatment. You could scroll down to the bottom of this page for info on how the two compare.

Hope it works out for you!
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
@Dainty - I think you could be right, they're very similar. I'd heard of NAET but never knew what it was. One difference I noticed is that for NAET (on Wikipedia), it says to hold the substance for 20 minutes after clearing it, which can be rather time-consuming. The method my sister and I used did not require this - we were able to "clear" 3 things, one at a time, in one sitting, and no waiting around afterwards. If you want to do more than 3, though, you do need to wait I think a few days (I think 3 in one sitting was the limit - it's been awhile since we've done it).

I've had muscle testing done by chiropractors for over 20 years (but not NAET) and muscle testing has helped me a LOT with various things, particularly digestion issues (including gallbladder and liver problems) and weak adrenals and even more. I would be much worse off without it, and it's cheaper than a doctor visit. I did give doctors first chance at all these problems and in general they never were able to help me, whereas the chiro would very often figure things out in a few minutes. (though they've never been able to help with PEM)
 

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
For anyone doing antigen therapy, ask the allergists how many ratings they do after they inject the test allergens. Pick the one that does the most ratings.

Years ago I had a horse with severe respiratory allergies. I took her to a veterinary allergist for testing and treatment. She was reactive to so many things that there was no way we could treat them all. The vet explained that he would select two groups of things to treat. One was the things which produced the most immediate strong reaction and which were causing her acute symptoms. The other was the things to which she reacted the longest and which would do the most long-term damage to her respiratory system.

We spend several hours at his office. He did a few ratings, explaining to me how he was doing it. I then did a few ratings until he was happy with what I was doing. I then went home with the rating form to finish recording the ratings. I did the last rating 72 hours after the test injections.

Some years later a friend had her son tested for allergies. The human allergist did the test injections followed by ONE rating. Obviously her son was being treated for only the things that caused the immediate, acute reactions; while the things that caused the sustained reactions and long-term damage were being ignored. I was absolutely appalled. In a child especially, I think think this constitutes medical negligence. It is no wonder that allergy treatment in humans has such variable success. :bang-head:
 
Last edited:

M Paine

Senior Member
Messages
341
Location
Auckland, New Zealand

M Paine

Senior Member
Messages
341
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
Just wanted to come back here to say that I've been on conventional allergen-specific-immunotherapy (AIT) for a long period now, which has consisted of weekly injections for a few months. I'm now into maintenance dosing (once a month for the next 5 years).

I have noticed a profound difference in energy level. I would describe it as there being a different type of fatigue associated with the allergies which has lifted. The puffiness around my eyes has improved, and I seem to feel better in the mornings, where typically I used to have discomfort in my eyes and a low level of general discomfort which is hard to put into words. My head feels clearer, where before the allergy related discomfort was noticeable. For me the change was drastic and sudden, a little earlier than when the doctor had suggested that an improvement would be likely. I literally woke up one morning to find that my nose was clear, and since then every morning has been the same. Only now that it's gone, can I appreciate how bad it was getting.

The dark patches around my eyes have noticeably started to lighten, and I'm hopeful that trend will continue. My tollerance to dry air is slightly improved, but I'm still prone to problems when I overdo things. As soon as my ME related symptoms flare, I notice my eye discomfort worsen.

I do genuinely believe that the tiredness that I associated with my allergies has improved, but I wouldn't be able to say either way if it has helped with the ME. I like to think that in general, it has been helpful.
 
Messages
33
@Dainty - I think you could be right, they're very similar. I'd heard of NAET but never knew what it was. One difference I noticed is that for NAET (on Wikipedia), it says to hold the substance for 20 minutes after clearing it, which can be rather time-consuming. The method my sister and I used did not require this - we were able to "clear" 3 things, one at a time, in one sitting, and no waiting around afterwards. If you want to do more than 3, though, you do need to wait I think a few days (I think 3 in one sitting was the limit - it's been awhile since we've done it).

I've had muscle testing done by chiropractors for over 20 years (but not NAET) and muscle testing has helped me a LOT with various things, particularly digestion issues (including gallbladder and liver problems) and weak adrenals and even more. I would be much worse off without it, and it's cheaper than a doctor visit. I did give doctors first chance at all these problems and in general they never were able to help me, whereas the chiro would very often figure things out in a few minutes. (though they've never been able to help with PEM)


Hello,

I have experience with NAET. The NAET protocol defines allergies in a different way than does western medicine. NAET regards allergies as anything that causes sensitivity or weakness. Western definition of allergy is a histamine reaction. To illustrate, I had an allergy test and it showed no food allergies. When tested by the NAET practitioner, I was found to be "allergic" to ALL the foods tested. Here's what I learned: I realized after several treatments that the reason I reacted with weakness to all foods is related to having been neglected and not fed regularly as a child. (I tested "allergic" to my mother too, who was the source of this neglect.) Therefore, I became threatened by food, subconsciously, and developed eating disorders as an adult which I have mercifully healed from. NAET is supposed to clear your resistance to whatever you are "allergic to" (made weak by). It will only work if energetic healing work is part of your belief system. In my opinion, any spiritual practice which makes letting go of attachment its goal will help with those issues.

I came on this thread to learn about folks' experience with immunotherapy for allergies and asthma. My asthma doctor wants me to take allergy shots but I am adverse for personal reasons. I agreed to compromise and consider taking sublingual immunotherapy in the form of Grasstek and eventually Odactra (dust mite) once it's released to the public. I have CFIDS and dysautonmia. Who's had success with immunotherapy? Any compelling arguments for not pursuing this?

Thanks!
 

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
Messages
1,691
I have been having good results with allergy desensitizing drops, prescribed by my allergist. He prefers drops rather than shots.

I have such a sensitive system that I've really had to go slow with these drops.