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Autism

New Study Explores NAET as Possible Treatment for Autism

23 of 30 children treated with an allergy-elimination technique improved.

NAET is short for "Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique." It represents a CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) medical approach for treating allergies and sensitivities to foods, nutrients and other environmental factors. NAET draws from many natural healing modalities, including acupressure, kinesiology, chiropractic and nutrition. Proponents of NAET believe it works by "reprogramming" a person's negative response to allergens/sensitivities—basically like hitting the immune system's "reset button."

NAET was created in 1983 by Devi S. Nambudripad, MD, PhD, DC, LAc. Since then, countless thousands of patients say they have have been helped through NAET. Including me.

I first encountered NAET when my severe hay fever symptoms were eliminated by a 20-minute NAET treatment—and they never recurred! This is what spurred my interest in exploring NAET.

The application of NAET isn't limited to helping improve allergies and sensitivities, because many other conditions are caused or complicated by immune system overreactivity. The list includes CFS, fibromyalgia, migraines, arthritis, asthma, hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and—as we concluded from a new study[1] our foundation funded—autism.

We decided to undertake the study after we saw a young, nonverbal, autistic girl exhibit noticeable improvement after an NAET treatment. Looking into this further, I found that many autism cases reported improvements from undergoing NAET. Our foundation (the "Jacob and Laurie Teitelbaum Family Foundation") approached Dr. Devi and her team of researchers at the NAET Research Foundation (NARF) in Buena Park, California. We hypothesized that food and nutrient sensitivities were major contributors to the development and symptoms of autism—and we tested that hypothesis in a study of 60 autistic children (aged 2.5-10 years). The study and our resulting findings were recently published in Integrative Medicine—A Clinician's Journal (IMCJ).

The 60 children were randomized to either receive NAET treatments for one year (26 boys and 4 girls) with 50 key allergens targeted, or to be part of the untreated control group (25 boys and 5 girls). Improvements were clearly evident in those who received NAET. Twenty-three of the 30 children in the NAET group were able to return to regular school classes with their healthy, non-autistic peers—as opposed to none of the 30 untreated children in the control group. The children receiving NAET also demonstrated both statistically and clinically highly significant improvements in all 4 autism-related outcome measures:

  • 68.4% decrease in mean total score in the Autism Research Institute's Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC)—a set of four tests designed to help evaluate the extent of a child's autism.
  • 64-82% range of decreases in the four ATEC subtests.
  • 47.4% average increase in the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)—another tool for assessing autism severity.
  • 85% decrease in the total Allergy Symptom Rating Scale (ASRS)—a tool for evaluating allergies.

The research team concluded that the study demonstrated that NAET was an effective, safe and simple treatment for children with allergy-related autism.

Reference

[1] "Improving Communication Skills in Children With Allergy-Related Autism Using Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques: A Pilot Study." Jacob Teitelbaum, MD; Devi S. Nambudripad, MD, PhD, DC, LAc; Yvonne Tyson, MD; Ming Chen, MD; Robert Prince, MD; Mala M. Moosad, RN, LAc, PhD; Laurie Teitelbaum, MS (reprinted with permission)

Disclaimer: Please be aware that medicine is complex and without actually being your attending physician we cannot give medical advice. Any information given is to be used as a teaching tool for you and your physician to work with therefore we cannot take any legal responsibility for it's use. Please check with your personal physician before applying any recommendations.

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