Probably the most exciting development to have evolved in recent years, is an electronic procedure for detecting all allergy conditions. It is of particular use in revealing masked allergies and is safe, fast, simple and efficient. It is called Vega Therapy and uses electronic equipment, manufactured by the VEGA Grieshaber Corporation, of West Germany.
In the early part of this century, Dr Hamish Boyd, of Glasgow, noted that if a substance was brought into series in an electrical circuit, to which the patient was connected, a change in skin impedance was produced. Boyd's discovery was the subject of a government inquiry, but nothing further came of it. Then, in the 1950s, a German doctor, Reinholdt Voll, developed Boyd's idea and, with the help of electronic equipment, evolved a useful, but highly complex, technique to diagnose disease. More recently, Dr Helmut Schimmel, also of West Germany, simplified Dr Voll's technique and improved the cumbersome equipment to that of a small portable, electronic unit, known as the VEGA TEST.
Dr Julian Kenyon, of Britain, has developed a highly efficient technique for diagnosing allergies, using the VEGA TEST equipment. He describes his technique as follows:
The observed fact of changes in skin impedance, provides a useful technique in the field of food and chemical sensitivity. Therefore, the technique can be used for allergy testing. In practice, a point is taken on the fingers or toes, (these are sites where major electrical exchanges happen, between the body and its environment, this being largely due to the geometry of fingers and toes, in that they are relatively pointed and, therefore, charge accumulation occurs at the tips of the digits). A relevant acupuncture point is chosen, although it doesn't appear important to choose any specific point. One by one, the suspected allergens are introduced into the circuit, and each time a new measurement is made. Any substance which causes a drop in measured resistance, is labelled as allergic, or more correctly, in the field of clinical ecology, as 'sensitive', as far as the patient is concerned.
In clinical practice, the techniques give the right answer nine times out of ten, which represents a better success rate, than the most successful method for diagnosis of food and chemical sensitivities, available so far, that of Cytotoxic testing. Immunological tests such as the RAST test, (IgE test) for diagnosis of food and chemical sensitivity; are notoriously inaccurate. Those doctors who adhere to these tests in a stubborn fashion, do not appear to be aware, that the results from such tests are often irrelevant, to the patient. The inaccuracy of skin testing, particularly for foods, has been amply demonstrated, by many studies carried out in America, as early as the 1950s.
The existence of electrical changes around biological structures,and their importance both in health and disease, is slowly becoming recognized, but in order for this important study to develop further, closer co-operation between physicists, electronic engineers and medical scientists will have to come about.
The important work done in this field is described by Dr Ion Dumitrescu, of Rumania, in his book, Electrographic Imaging in Medicine and Biology. To date, Dr Kenyon has trained several hundred doctors, in the United Kingdom, in the use of the VEGATEST for allergy diagnosis.. He has also lectured throughout Europe, America and Asia, to several thousand more doctors who are genuinely interested in helping patients overcome multiple allergy illness.
A great advantage of the VEGA TEST method is that it can detect any allergic substance, whether it be food, chemical, airborne, environmental or whatever. Not only that, but it can also measure the degree of sensitivity - something which no other allergy test can do.
Diagnosis is the key to allergy illness. Once the food/chemical substances have been detected, avoidance will usually enable the patient to recover quickly. It is absolutely impossible to comprehend, when you are staggering through life under the deadly weight of allergy illness, just how wonderful and alert it is possible to feel, within a few short days or weeks, of successful diagnosis and avoidance. Diagnosis is the key and, in Australia, for most people, it is a very elusive key indeed!
The good news for chemical allergy sufferers is that, once diagnosis is achieved, it is possible for clinical ecologists, such as Dr Kenyon, to switch off some allergies, by means of desensitizing drops or injections. However, this method is not very successful for treating food allergies. Avoidance is by far the best.
Some other practical food tests, which can be put to good use by suspected sufferers, are the pulse test, the kinesiology test and the urine test.
