Allergies effect nearly 20% of Americans whose bodies respond abnormally to usually harmless substances in the environment. With such a wide range of allergic reactions it’s impossible for medicine to treat all of the symptoms leaving many searching for effective treatments. Here are the most dubious scam treatments you should avoid like the plague..
| Ozone Therapy |
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Ozone Therapy in treating allergy is a new addition to complementary medical treatment. At a seminar (11), it was advocated by proponents of this therapy that the allergic patient’s blood be exposed to ozone gas and then re-injected or ozone is directly insufflated rectally or vaginally.
Why it’s retarded: Sticking this ozone where the sun don’t shine could have serious adverse results, as ozone is a very well documented trigger for allergy and asthma. |
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| Lighting up your nostrils |
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The Medinose Plus Nasal Allergy Treatment promises it’s a band new way to treat allergic rhinitis, animal allergy, hay fever and dust mite allergy using phototherapy. This device targets your sensitive nasal passages, desensitizing them, to help defend you from the allergic reaction. The specific bandwidth of visible red light utilized in the Medinose Plus inhibits the release of histamine, slowing down or even eliminating the allergic reaction and the inflammation of your nasal passages.
Why it’s retarded: If sticking Christmas lights in your nose cured allergies my little brother would be allergy free during the holidays. |
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| Autogenous Urine Therapy |
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Claims of therapeutic properties of human urine go back to ancient times. In the early 1930s several medical publications claimed that a specific substance, called "proteose," is present during allergic disease. Injections of extracts of this substance were recommended for treatment of allergy, and there were reports of successes in many other diseases.
Why it’s retarded: If you have to be convinced that drinking your own urine is not good for you there is no hope for you and you should be killed immediately and removed from the genepool. |
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| The Neti Pot |
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Insert the device into your nostril and rinse away, switch nostrils then repeat. The Netipot treats sinus problems, colds, allergies, and post-nasal drip and to counteract the effect of environmental pollution. Then follow up with practicing yoga and other meditative disciplines use the nasal wash to ensure free air flow through both nostrils.
Why it’s retarded: Sticking a gravy ladle in your nose is normally reserved for drunken teenagers. The worst part is this useless allergy device is marketed by a cult (The Himalayan Institute) trying to get you to join them. |
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| Speleotherapy |
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Underground climatotherapy is an alternative treatment for asthma used in Eastern Europe. It involves spending 2-3 hours a day underground in subterranean caves or salt mines over a 2-3 month period.
Why it’s retarded: If caves are so healthy why do miners have one of the shortest life expectancies of any job in the world. Nothing clears up the lungs like a musty cave full of stale air chalk full of stale gases and particulant matter.
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| Ionization Filters |
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Ionizing machines emit negative electric charges into the air, and this supposedly causes airborne allergens to cluster and fall to the ground. These machines have been claimed to help hayfever and asthma sufferers by decreasing the allergen load on the nasal mucosa and lungs.
Why it’s retarded: Cheapy sub HEPA filters can only remove a very small amount of particles onto its thin-narrow collector plate attracting particles from a distance of approximately 1/8 of an inch away! If the collector plate is dirty, the plate is not able to keep collecting particles onto it and stops working. Air cleaners emit large amounts of ozone, a lung irritant that can trigger asthma attacks In fact, if you look in the instruction manual, you’ll see that it warns users to make sure that the room is unoccupied before "sanitizing" with ozone. The manual also suggests airing out the room before going back into it. |
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| NAET |
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NAET was proposed in 1983 by American chiropractor Devi Nampudripad, hence Nampudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET). The premise is that allergy contrary to our current understanding, is due to some form of internal energy blockage triggered by abnormal energy fields in the brain and Nampudripad proposed that after 20 or so treatments she can reprogram the brain and body energy flow and eradicate all allergies and many other diseases affecting mankind.
Why it’s retarded: NAET has to be the most unsubstantiated allergy treatment proposed to date. It consists of combination of discredited methods of diagnosing and treating allergy such as kinesiology, Vega testing and acupuncture. However the whole issue of energy flow and electrical fields in the body being the cause of allergies has not ever been proven. |
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| Homeopathic Cures |
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Homeopathy was devised by Hahnemann in the last century and is based on the so-called law of similars – "like cures like". Homeopaths believe that any substance that produces symptoms similar to the symptoms under treatment would actually cure that same disease if taken in minute doses. Treatments are usually individualized for the specific patient and not the disease.
Why it’s retarded: Only crazy people make up their own religions, force him to pick one or the other or convert to Jewish Muslim. |
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| Chiropractic Care |
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A craniosacral therapy session involves the therapist placing their hands on the patient, which they state allows them to tune into what they call the craniosacral system. By gently working with the spine, the skull and its cranial sutures, diaphragms, and fascia, the restrictions of nerve passages are said to be eased, the movement of CSF through the spinal cord can be optimized, and misaligned bones are said to be restored to their proper position.
Why it’s retarded: A back rub will not cure your allergies to dust mites no matter how soothing it may be. Going to a chiropractor for allergy relief is like taking your car to a flower shop and hoping for a miracle. If you’re gonna blow cash on a rubdown you should at least get a happy ending. |
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| Anti-Allergen Bedding |
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In 1982 the last good Lucas film was made and depressed about his failing marriage he committed suicide. Like the fake McCartney a double was selected to carry on the franchise. Sadly the imposter Lucas isn’t really all that creative and comes up with some really stupid stuff.
Why it’s retarded: Studies show that the covers have little effect, at least by themselves, on a person’s symptoms, apparently because there are so many other sources of dust.
Tougher anti-allergy strategies – such as stripping out carpeting, removing most of the furniture in a bedroom and doing rigorous regular cleaning – can be impractical.
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Here are some allergy tests you might want to avoid also.
Carbon neutral pledge:
I have a neti pot, and it works. It was prescribed to me by my doctor as a potential alternative to surgery. Three years later I am surgery free and (almost) allergy free, but 99% better than before. To call this legitimate natural treatment retarded is, well, retarded… suggest the author try this product out before making such ridiculous claims
Yeah the neti pot thing, even though it has new age yoga roots, actually works quite well. Doctors (real ones) recommend them all the time in both neti pot form and other more modern forms. And there are actual studies to back them up. Go do a search on “nasal irrigation”.
Yeah, I agree with the above two…the NetiPot works. I got one because I have sinus issues and it was recommended to me by my doctor and it works.
The NETI pot works. Salt water is proven to discourage bacterial growth. And the process does flush out mucous and make dried out sinuses feel better. I had more success with the Neti pot than I did with expensive allergy drugs.
Putting a great item on a list like this makes me wonder about the credibility of the rest of the list.
The author should do more studies before he degrades practices that have been working for 5000 years.Example:neti potuse..Hymalayan Institute is not a cult,homeopathy is a true science that works precisely,when prescribed by the right homeopath;.
The Institute is a cult, and you are clearly blinded by your nostril draining brain control neti pot. As fast as you can cover your head in tinfoil to prevent the neti pot rays from controlling your mind.
I have been using natural remedies for allergies and have found a product from China that works unbelievably on my allergies. No side effects and very fast relief. I have also used homeopathic remedies for a number of conditions as have my family members. All with great success. Don’t knock things until you have tried them.
How chiropractic can help allergy symptoms is this: For one, it has an effect on the autonomic nervous system that can promote dilation of the bronchi and thus relieve spasm as in some asthma cases….in addition it helps promote sinus drainage and movement of lymph….Does it cure allergies? Nope!, Can it help symptoms? Yep! I have been using chiropractic on my patients for over 30 years…..By the way, it doesn’t work on everyone but it helps most people temporarily.
What a great site, found you after seeing red-light treatment advertised on TV.
To your commentators
No, chiropractic can’t help allergy unless you can show peer reviewed trials – blinded
No, neither does homeopathy, same goes, it’s a great scam to sell you distilled water at 50c/drop. I am more than happy to that for you and even charge you more – which has been shown to increase its affectedness.
Thanks salerio – it’s sort of sad to see people fall for this stuff and then get so passionate about defending it. I guess when you climb up the crazy tree it’s a long scary way down to reality so you keep climbing higher up grasping branches for life.
The neti pot probably does work but it’s NOT needed. My grandmother has disolved salt in hot water and then put a little in your hand and snort it up your nose. Do it on both sides and voila! It works just as well as a neti pot and is free…no cult-support required.
Whoa, before you get your panties in a wad and accuse people of climbing up the crazy tree, I’d suggest, you know, actually checking your sources. For instance, on the Neti pot: http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-edge-newspaper-2009/jan-30a.html. While you don’t need an actual Neti pot (using a bulb syringe is just as effective) to do it, it’s still a valid tool for nasal irrigation, which is recommended by countless ENTs and allergists. You know, those who have those pesky things called degrees and actual knowledge.
Also, one of your anti-allergen bedding studies was conducted on subjects who had ASTHMA, not allergies. It’s too bad you just decided to rely on a layman’s medical news website (who got their news from MSNBC, of all places) instead of reading, oh, you know, the actual studies, one of which says the following: “Possibly, the base-line level of Der p1 and Der f1 was too low, and consequently, the reduction in allergen exposure could only be moderate. Other studies have demonstrated much larger reductions in the concentration of Der p1.” Actually, if you read the whole discussion, you’ll see that the study leaves open the possibility that anti-allergy bedding may work in conjunction with other measures: “Our results do not preclude possible effectiveness of environmental control measures in general. Our objective was to establish the specific and isolated effect of covers for mattresses, duvets, and pillows in patients with allergic rhinitis who are allergic to house-dust-mite allergen.”
What’s really sad is to see how you are just as passionate about defending your own mistakes as the poor chumps who fall for every quackery scam out there (homeopathy being my pick in this case). I sure hope that people with allergies aren’t paying too much attention to your list, because two out of your ten entries are flat out wrong. Congratulations on your prepubescent Wikipedia research skills….
THE NETI POT WORKS.
I am a GP based in Melbourne, Australia and I recommend the neti pot to my patients all the time as I use it for my sinuses as well. My colleagues also recommend them too. I am unsure about the effectiveness of the other treatments on this site however the neti pot is medically proven.
You show two studies that indicate that allergy bedding doesn’t help and ignore the studies that show it does?