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About Allergies and Manic Depressive or Bipolar Disorder

You can have sensitivities or allergies to anything you eat, drink, inhale, or touch or are touched by, such as fabric, cosmetics, chemicals, and environmental pollutants. In many cases, people are not aware of their allergies. They may even crave the food or other substance that they are allergic to.

“An allergy can manifest as an addiction or an aversion,” explains Dr. Nambudripad (founder of NAET^® -- Nambudripad 's Allergy Elimination Techniques). “It can go either way. I treat people with addictions for allergies because they’re allergic to something that is causing them to be addicted to the substance.” Once you clear that allergy, the addiction disappears, she says. Conversely, some people strongly dislike certain foods or other items, and they are actually allergic to them. After you clear the allergy, the aversion is gone as well.

Five Basic Groups of Common Allergens

For the purposes of clearing people of their allergies more quickly, NAET combines the most common allergens in five basic groups: egg mix (egg white, egg yolk, chicken, and the antibiotic tetracycline); calcium mix (breast milk, cow’s milk, goat’s milk, milk albumin, casein, lactic acid, calcium, and coumarin, a phenolic or natural component found in milk); vitamin C (fruits, vegetables, vinegar, citrus, and berry); B complex vitamins (17 vitamins in the B family); and sugar mix (cane, corn, maple, grape, rice, brown, and beet sugars, plus molasses, honey, fructose, dextrose, glucose, and maltose).

You may wonder why tetracycline is included in the egg mix. The answer is that chickens are routinely fed this antibiotic to keep infections that might kill them from doing so and also to prevent the spread of infection from chicken to chicken. Thus, tetracycline is a component of commercial chicken products and, as such, has become a common allergen.

For some people, it is sufficient to clear the five basic groups, but most people with severe conditions such as bipolar disorder have more extensive allergies. The larger basic collection of allergens includes magnesium, essential fatty acid oils, amino acids, grain mix (including gluten), yeast mix (including acidophilus), artificial sweeteners, food additives, and food coloring, among others. A number of these substances have implications for bipolar disorder.

Allergies Lead to Deficiencies

Deficiencies in magnesium, essential fatty acids, and amino acids are common among people with bipolar disorder. If a person is allergic to a nutrient, the body cannot absorb it and thus becomes deficient in it. An allergy to these nutrients might explain the deficiencies. An allergy to gluten (a grain protein) could also contribute to the amino acid deficiency common in bipolar disorder, as the body cannot properly digest this food and therefore cannot assimilate the amino acids it contains.

Digestive problems have an impact on the brain. An allergy to acidophilus means that this beneficial bacteria is unable to perform its function of keeping the Candida population in the intestines in check. The result is digestive dysfunction.

Artificial sweeteners, food additives, and food coloring contain chemicals that are neurotoxic to some individuals. NAET practitioners would say that the neurotoxicity stems from the fact that the individuals are allergic to the substances. Once cleared of the allergy, in most cases, people can eat foods containing these additives without suffering the negative effects. The same is true of gluten and casein (in the calcium mix), which is good news for those who have struggled with a gluten-free and/or casein-free diet.

It is worthwhile to note at this point that people can develop allergies to anything, even to nutrients that are natural to and required by the body. Says Dr. Nambudripad, “Any substance under the sun, including sunlight itself, can cause an allergic reaction in any individual.” The body can even develop a reactivity to its own tissue and brain chemicals, such as an allergy to one’s own brain, hypothalamus, nerves, lung tissue, and neurotransmitters such as serotonin.

The Nature of Allergies & Chronic Allergic Reaction

Allergic reactions tend to affect certain organs or meridians in individuals, depending on where their weak or vulnerable areas are, says Dr. Nambudripad. The organ most affected is known as the “target organ.” The weakness can be genetic in nature or created by environmental factors such as toxic exposure or lack of adequate nutrition. The target organ can be the nervous system or the brain. If that is the case, chronic allergic reaction can negatively affect brain and nervous system function.

In the case of food allergies, “with the first bite of an allergic food, the brain begins to block the energy channels, attempting to prevent the adverse energy of the food from entering into the body,” says Dr. Nambudripad. Chronic blockage of the Stomach meridian can also affect brain function. Manic disorders, depressive disorders, and schizophrenia are among the manifestations of this blockage. When the liver is the target organ or the Liver meridian is blocked, emotional imbalances, anger, mood swings, and depression are among the outcomes

As for how the allergies or sensitivities develop in the first place, Dr. Nambudripad cites heredity, toxins, weakened immunity, emotional stress, overexposure to a substance, and radiation. Anything that causes energy blockages in the body, which throws off the body’s electromagnetic field, can cause an allergy to develop, she says. Toxins of any kind, from the neurotoxin mercury to the by-products of bacterial infection, disturb energy flow, as do synthetic food additives and artificial sweeteners.

Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs): Common Allergy Producing Culprits

The electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of televisions, computers, and other electrical devices in the house are common culprits in the development of allergies, according to Dr. Nambudripad. The practice of feeding infants and children in front of the television so they will keep quiet and cooperate can be a recipe for allergies. The television’s EMF extends at least 20 feet, she notes, and throws off the child’s own energy field. You could say that it “short-circuits the energy patterns,” she says. And it does so while the child is eating, which is akin to doing NAET in reverse, programming the child to be allergic to that food.

NAET removes the energy blockages underlying allergies, which returns the individual’s own energy field to its normal state.

This article is excerpted with permission from the book:

The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder (new revised edition)
by Stephanie Marohn.

This excerpt was reprinted with permission of the publisher, Hampton Roads Publishing. ©2003, 2011 by Stephanie Marohn. www.redwheelweiser.com

Click here for more info and/or to order this book on Amazon.

About the Author

Stephanie Marohn is a medical journalist and non-fiction writer and the author of the Healthy Mind series for Hampton Roads. She runs an animal sanctuary in Sonoma County, CA.  Visit her website at www.stephaniemarohn.com (Photo: Dorothy Walters)

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