The Day a Misheard Word Almost Sent a Patient into Anaphylaxis
Dr. John Erickson, DC | Laser & Chiropractic Center of the Rockies | Loveland, CO
She wasn’t holding bee venom. She wasn’t near a bee. There wasn’t a bee within miles of my office. But her throat was tightening, her face was flushing, her hands were dripping wet, and she felt like she was going down the reaction path.
What she was holding was a small vial representing B-complex vitamins. She had heard me say “B’s” and her nervous system heard “bees.”
Her Body Reacted to a Word
This patient had a history of severe anaphylactic reactions to bee stings – the kind that end with an EpiPen and an ER visit. We had been doing NAET treatments together, working through the Basic 17 foundational items – as is the protocol – before we ever addressed bee venom, even indirectly.
After six visits, she reported something remarkable: she had been stung several times and hadn’t required emergency care. Whereas a bee sting would land her in the ER, this time she had been able to manage it at home. The reaction had softened significantly.
She moved out of the area. After several months she scheduled more visits, wanting to complete the protocol. When she came back, I began retesting our previous work. During the retest I mentioned that we’d check her on “B’s” (B-complex). She heard “bees.” Within two minutes, her body was mounting what appeared to be a full anaphylactic response – triggered entirely by what she believed was in her hand.
The moment I removed the vial and clarified the misunderstanding, the response resolved. We retested “B’s” with no reaction whatsoever.
The skeptic who tried it anyway and stopped dreading dust – is in case 011.
If a Thought Can Trigger an Anaphylactic Response, What Does That Tell Us?
Conventional allergy medicine explains allergies in biochemical terms: an allergen enters the body, the immune system misidentifies it as a threat, and you get a reaction. That model is accurate as far as it goes. Antihistamines and epinephrine work because they interrupt that chemical chain.
But that model doesn’t explain what happened in my office that afternoon. No allergen entered her body. Her immune system reacted to a neurological signal – a belief, a word she misheard.
This is not a fringe observation. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has confirmed that neurons and immune cells share the same tissue spaces and are in constant, bidirectional communication – neuropeptides and neurotransmitters from nerves directly regulate immune cell function, and immune signals in turn activate neuronal responses.[1] The nervous system and the immune system are not operating in separate lanes. They never were.
The Stress Connection Most Allergy Patients Never Hear About
There is a related mechanism that conventional allergy care rarely discusses. Peer-reviewed research in the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology has documented that chronic psychological stress shifts the body’s immune balance toward the Th2 profile – the immune state associated with allergic disease.[2] In susceptible individuals, that shift may favor the appearance of allergy and actively complicate its management once it exists.
A 2018 study in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology took this further, showing that psychological stress can undo immune tolerance – specifically by reducing the regulatory cells that keep allergic responses in check.[3] In plain terms: stress can reverse progress. The immune learning that immunotherapy or avoidance protocols work to build can be unwound by the nervous system’s stress response.
That is not a small finding. It means the nervous system isn’t just a bystander in allergic disease. It is an active participant.
The Nervous System as the Root of the Reaction
NAET – Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques – works from this premise. Developed by Dr. Devi Nambudripad, a physician and acupuncturist, NAET uses principles from acupressure and applied kinesiology to identify and address the neurological signals associated with allergic responses.
Research in Current Pharmaceutical Design has stated it directly: all divisions of the nervous system – sympathetic, parasympathetic, and sensory – act to regulate immune cell function. Dysregulation of these bidirectional neuroimmune signaling systems may contribute to the origin and progression of immune disorders including atopic disease.[4]
NAET does not mask the histamine response after it starts. It addresses why the body is sending the signal in the first place – and works to change the underlying association the nervous system has made between a substance and perceived danger.
For a case where the medication itself was the source of the reaction – case 008
Three Questions Worth Asking Yourself
If you have been managing allergies for years – seasonal, food, environmental – here are three honest questions:
1. Are you done with treatment, or are you managing? Antihistamines interrupt the reaction. They do not address why it is happening.
2. Have your symptoms improved over time, or stayed the same – or gotten worse? For many people, allergy burden increases over years of conventional management.
3. Has anyone ever asked why your body is reacting to this particular thing – not just how to stop it?
If those questions sit uncomfortably, pay attention to that.
The Signal Can Be Changed
My patient with the B-vitamin misunderstanding is not a curiosity. She is an example of something I have seen across 27 years of clinical practice: the body’s allergy response is learned, it is encoded, and it can be addressed at the source.
If a word can trigger anaphylaxis, can a color trigger an energy response? Case 016 answers that.
You don’t have to keep managing a reaction that may be driven by a neurological signal – not a chemical – that has never been properly examined.
If you want to understand what is actually driving your allergies, that conversation starts with asking better questions. That is what we do here.
— Dr. John Erickson, DC | Laser & Chiropractic Center of the Rockies | Loveland, CO
To learn more about NAET at Laser & Chiropractic Center of the Rockies, visit laserchirorockies.com or call 970-412-3212.
Individual results vary. Patient stories are de-identified and shared with permission. These accounts represent reported patient experiences and are not a guarantee of outcome. NAET is a complementary wellness approach and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition.
[1] Veiga-Fernandes H, Artis D. “Neuro-immune crosstalk and allergic inflammation.” J Clin Invest. 2019;129(4):1475-1482. PMC: PMC6436850. DOI: 10.1172/JCI124609
[2] Montoro J, et al. “Stress and allergy.” J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2009;19 Suppl 1:40-47. PMID: 19476053.
[3] Kawano T, et al. “Increased susceptibility to allergic asthma with the impairment of respiratory tolerance caused by psychological stress.” Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 2018;177(1):1-15. PMID: 29874662. DOI: 10.1159/000488289
[4] Forsythe P. “The nervous system as a critical regulator of immune responses underlying allergy.” Curr Pharm Des. 2012;18(16). PMID: 22390692. DOI: 10.2174/138161212800165951