Tapping: The Reset Button

Recently I ran into one of my former patients in a grocery store parking lot. When she asked me what I was doing these days, I told her that I'd incorporated BodyTalk into my practice. After a short description of BodyTalk, in which I mentioned that the Cortices technique in BodyTalk might help her son's asthma, she remarked with amazement that she recalled tapping on her own head as a child to stop her wheezing.
You might have noticed that some of the newer treatment modalities involve tapping: there's EFT, which works on emotions, there's NAET, best known for allergy elimination, and BodyTalk. Aside from the tapping, all three modalities seem very different.
Why do they all use tapping? Well, for starters, tapping has been around in indigenous cultures for centuries. Tapping wakes up the body and the brain and helps bring about healing.
Think about your spine. Inside your spine—and surrounding your brain--is cerebrospinal fluid which, according to osteopaths and craniosacral therapists, moves in its own rhythm. In NAET and BodyTalk, we are gently interrupting this rhythm to change our relationship with a substance or to call the brain's attention to something. The interruption of this rhythm is communicated to the brain and other places in the body via the cerebrospinal fluid and spinal nerves, which travel up and down the interior of the spine and emerge out of each vertebra.
We've all had a similar experience when we've contracted a case of the hiccups, which miraculously disappears when someone comes up behind us and startles us...and the hiccups miraculously disappear. We've just been reset, and our diaphragm no longer spasms with each inhalation.
It's like having a conversation with a friend, and just as you're in the middle of relating how your boss gave you so much work to do, someone runs up and interrupts you very loudly by shouting something in your face. Your mind goes blank. You can't remember what you were saying.
The same thing happens with tapping. As you tap on your head (or as your practitioner taps on you), causing a gentle interruption of the natural rhythm of the cerebrospinal fluid, your brain is surprised enough to be able to change its relationship with that substance, as in NAET. Or as in BodyTalk, your brain notices a lack of communication between your lungs and your spleen that has been causing coughing and phlegm for the past two weeks, and re-establishes the connection.

The Allergic Continuum

When most people think of allergies, they think of the classic definition, the hypersensitivity reaction. This type of allergy is the kind that shows up in a blood or scratch test at your local MD allergist's office. The blood test or scratch test reveals the presence of IgE, and in some cases, IgG in the body, and determines, in hard scientific fact, that you do indeed have an allergy.
However, this is a very narrow definition of allergies. In fact, hypersensitivity reactions of this sort are only one of five types, the rest referring to autoimmune disorders. Furthermore, the classic and narrow definition of allergies as hypersensitivity reactions don't always answer our questions as to why things make us sick. I'm sure you know people who have had reactions that look like “allergies,” and yet when they go to the allergist and get tested, the results are negative. Or the results are very specific and don't account for all their symptoms. For example, the test may show an allergy to milk and cats, but nothing else. Yet when they eat nightshade vegetables they get bloated and have indigestion. According to the test they are not allergic to potatoes, peppers, or tomatoes.
What's going on here?
The hypersensitivity definition of allergies, as I said before, is a very narrow definition of an allergy. There is a continuum of allergies. On the “weak” end, we have sensitivities: things we are sensitive to, that cause symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, indigestion, gas, body aches, and diarrhea. Since this is not a hypersensitivity reaction, there are no antibodies to the substance, although inflammation, heat, or other symptoms may occur. In the middle of the spectrum are intolerances, things we naturally avoid because they make us feel uncomfortable enough that we have identified them as an inhospitable guest in our system. Intolerances include things that make us sick: seafood that causes vomiting; grass that causes itching; milk that causes painful bloating and constipation. On the “severe” end of the spectrum we find allergies in the classic definition: things to which our body has produced antibodies after our first exposure, and which produce in us moderately serious reactions (swelling, hives, itching, etc). And at the end of the “severe” end is anaphylaxis. Exposure to these items, which our body has identified as severely dangerous, can produce life-threatening reactions or death. These are your peanut, milk, egg, and wheat anaphylaxes.
Just because your MD doctor has tested you by scratch or blood test and has found that you have a specific number of “allergies,” don't assume that's the end of the story. Pay attention to how you feel—after a big meal, after eating sweets, after consuming alcoholic beverages, after exposure to chemicals. Notice when you feel a certain way after being exposed to something...and notice when these reactions happen REPEATEDLY. Does that morning smoothie leave you feeling exhausted and lightheaded? Do you get really bloated after that afternoon Diet Coke...and then absolutely have to have another one? Do your eyes tear incessantly after taking the Tylenol you popped in order to take care of that headache you got after cleaning your bathtub with Comet? Being in tune with your body and what it can—and can't—handle can help keep you in control of your own life.

Allergies Defined

What are allergies, and how do we get them? Why do some people have them, and others don't?

The technical definition of an allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction, which is exactly what it sounds like. At the time of our first exposure to something that our body identifies as harmful to us, an immune cell called a T(H)2 Lymphocyte interacts with another kind of lymphocyte called a B Cell to produce IgE, which is a type of antibody. The antibody binds to a receptor site. This sets the scene for the subsequent exposure. At our next exposure to the allergen, when the antibody is present at the receptor site, histamines are released, causing the classic allergic reaction: inflammation (swelling) and heat (usually in the form of redness, rash, itching, or warmth in the affected area). This reaction happens because we have become hypersensitive to the allergen.

What about people who have allergies at a very young age? Some people are born with allergies, having inheritied them from their parents. Children of allergy sufferers are often allergy sufferers themselves. Other children seem to "grow out" of their allergies at around 8 or 9 years of age. Actually, hormones mask the symptoms of allergies. These same individuals will probably see a resurgence of their allergies in their 50s or 60s as their hormones wane.

We can also aquire allergies. Allergies are aquired through several mechanisms. When our immune system is compromised--by disease, by stress, by a combination of factors--our body may mistakenly identify a harmless item as harmful. This is why mothers (having undergone a change in their immune system so their body won't reject the fetus, and the subsequent stress of childbirth) often report a newfound inability to digest gluten, the protein in wheat, or dairy products. Similarly, a man who lost his job, got divorced, and endured the tragic loss of his father to a car accident, might suddenly become chemically sensitive. An exposure to toxic chemicals during childhood--carpet cleaning agents, or immunizations, for example--can spawn further allergies to other substances, such as foods or environmental factors.

These are just a few examples of how people become sensitive, intolerant, or allergic. The immune system is a complex and multidimensional aspect of our body, and we are just starting to understand the intricacies of how it works.

So why do some people have allergies and others don't? Some people have great genes. Others have two parents with lots of allergies from whom they inherited their own sensitivities. Some people have little stress in their lives, or have adapted to stress in a positive way. We are all different and unique, which is why, although there are common allergies, anyone can be allergic to anything. It's all about polarity. Either we have a positive relationship with something or a negative one. The most important aspect of ourselves is our own awareness of our limitations and our adaptability.