What is muscle testing? Does it actually work? And acupuncture? Does it help solve the problems that are found by muscle testing? Here’s the science behind it all and my opinion after trying both.
My Background
I have had food sensitivities for years, and have had some confirmed through blood testing as well as elimination diet. It was only after my symptoms started getting worse again that I decided to try muscle testing and acupuncture.
When I tried the latest round of muscle testing, as well as gave acupuncture a go to help clear them up, it was while I was in the middle of an extensive elimination diet and had not yet figured out everything that was causing the problems.
Anything to speed up the process was appreciated, to where I didn’t have to wait 3 days to see if I had a reaction before introducing anything else. It would have taken months to figure out what I did with muscle testing in a few weeks.
So two things I will discuss in this article: muscle testing and acupuncture itself, with aiding in my digestion ability. This is similar to when I tried NAET (which you can read all about here!)
Muscle Testing
Muscle testing is an odd concept that I originally heard about when I saw a chiropractor many years ago. Essentially, you hold your arm out (or up if lying down), and in the other hand or touching your body somewhere is the food being tested.
If you are sensitive to that food product (say corn), your arm will be weak and the person doing the testing will be able to push the arm down with minimal pressure. If there’s not a sensitivity to this product, the arm won’t budge. This also works for nutrient deficiencies, which is how I originally had heard of it – my chiropractor was testing to see if I was low in any vitamins/minerals.
Some might be thinking, “this can’t actually work.” Studies have mixed reviews on whether the data is accurate or not. There was a pilot study (a small one to see if there might be any correlation) done in 1998 that had positive results for food sensitivities found with muscle testing to be proven with blood work. There are other studies that say it is unreliable and “no more useful than random guessing” for nutrient deficiency status. And if you want an overview and history of muscle testing, I like this Healthline article.
My Experience With Muscle Testing
Well for me, it works! To do the muscle testing, I brought in a ton of items. Some I knew I was sensitive to, like corn and quinoa. Those both failed.
Having a scientific background, I knew the power of thinking and how past opinions on food items could alter my results. So I tried to pack the items in containers similar to each other, and I had my eyes closed during the entire process, only opening them once all of the testing was done to see “good” and “bad” piles.
Eliminating the items that I reacted poorly to, I immediately saw a change in my stomach. I started feeling better.
This also helped me figure out what brands of specific items were okay for me too. I could test at home and have similar results with my gut – one brand of sugar (C&H) was fine, but trying the Trader Joe’s brand was a fail. And I think that might have had to do with corn cross contamination in the factories.
This alone helped me to avoid some of the food products that caused distress on my digestive tract. There is still one other aspect of these appointments to discuss – the actual needle poking that is acupuncture.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture was an odd concept to me, and it still sort of is to this day, although that just might be because I’m not a huge fan of needles. But I think overall it helped me.
During my appointments, we would always start with muscle testing, and while she was doing muscle testing, she would test my meridians with small vials to see if they were blocked. Meridians are part of the Chinese Medicine theories.
Some meridians include spleen, stomach, gallbladder, and liver. These do not relate entirely to those organs. Rather, they are lines that go through the body, connecting everything. If they are blocked, the Qi is not flowing correctly and the body is not in harmony.
My Experience
We would test these and determine if any were blocked. Because I had my gallbladder removed, that was one that was blocked. These blockages would be removed through acupuncture points. You can read more about meridians in this article, Defining Meridians.
She also tried to clear me of some of my food sensitivities through a similar process to NAET. Trying to remove all mental, emotional, and other blockages related to the food. I was nervous to try any foods after, having my stomach still extremely sensitive.
With all of this acupuncture and muscle testing, my stomach started feeling a lot better. If I had a really terrible week with stomach issues, sure enough, one of my meridians would come back as blocked during my next appointment.
Overall
Long term, the acupuncture had less of an effect on me than the food testing and just removing those foods. I also left the country, and chose to not find a new acupuncturist.
But I do still avoid some of the foods she helped diagnose were causing problems and my stomach does seem to be getting somewhat better.
I hope this has helped! If you want, you can read my entire food sensitivity journey here. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or if you’ve had muscle testing done.