A New Approach To Mountain Cedar Allergy

Winter in San Antonio and the rest of the South Texas area brings the dreaded mountain cedar allergy season. Mountain cedar allergy, or "cedar fever" as it is sometimes known, is a hard thing to live with in South Texas given the area's high density of the trees and the breezy conditions common to the winter months that helps stir the pollen into the air.

Due to the incredibly high pollen counts (which may continue for several days to weeks) that can occur with mountain cedar, it is by far one of the worst pollens for allergy sufferers. Mountain cedar pollen counts can occasionally reach such a high level that the pollen is actually considered an air pollutant, with the air actually appearing somewhat hazy?).

The pollen typically overpowers the symptom-control of just about every common allergy treatment known to medicine. Even prescription medications and inhalers may not be a match for the clouds of pollen.

Fortunately, there is a new approach to this problem. Energy medicine techniques, based on the thousand-year-old healing traditions of acupuncture (althought the new methods do not require needles and are totally painless), are now available that can effectively "desensitize" allergy sufferers to many allergens, including mountain cedar pollen. These strange-looking methods take effect quickly - within 24 hours and can eliminate mountain cedar allergies for the remaining months of the cedar fever season, and often for future seasons for years to come.

Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technnique, or NAET for short, is the most well-known and widely-practiced of these methods, and is named after Dr. Devi Nambudripad, an acupuncturist and chiropractor. Devi Nambudripad. This technique was discovered accidentally by Dr. Nambudripad when she learned how to eliminate her own allergies. Reportedly, Dr. Nambudripad suffered from allergies to a large number of foods and was on a very restricted diet. One evening she was fixing dinner for her husband and was cutting up carrots (which she was allergic to). Apparently, just getting a little bit of carrot juice on her skin was enough to trigger an allergy attack. Dr. Nambudripad immediately stopped what she was doing and decided to perform an acupuncture treatment on herself and lie down to rest. She actually fell asleep with the acupuncture needles still in place, and when she awoke, she noticed that she was feeling much better. She noticed that in her haste she had failed to wash off all of the carrot juice from her hands and there were still bits of carrot on her skin, but she was no longer reacting to it. On a hunch, she tried eating a small amount of carrot and to her excitement, she did not have any adverse reaction to it. From there, the technique was developed and is now used for desensitizing all kinds of allergens - including inhaled pollens such as the case with mountain cedar allergy.

Since the original development of NAET, several other techniques have been developed. The one I use in my office is called ASERT (Allergy and Sensitivity Elimination and Reprogramming Technique). While not identical to NAET, the principles are similar. Instead of acupuncture needles, ASERT uses "cold" laser to stimulate acupuncture points, and the procedure is completely painless and well-tolerated even by very young children.

Both NAET and ASERT defy a believable description, but they are remarkably fast acting, taking effect in 24 hours or less, and the desensitization effect lasts for several months to several years in the majority of cases. A session to desensitize a single allergen like mountain cedar can usually be accomplished in a single 30 minute office visit. Following the desensitization procedure, sinus congestion, watering eyes, and other allergy symptoms start to subside within a matter of hours.) ease off quickly and the need for antihistamines, decongestants, and other medications is typically eliminated.

So, if cedar fever has you in it's grasp, or if you suffer from any other allergies, there's good news - you don't have to suffer anymore!