Subject: EPD treatments - need info

From: Rick Torres <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Jan 1995 02:18:36 GMT

I'm looking for more information about a treatment regime called
Enzyme Potentiated Desensitization.  My wife has the opportunity to
receive these injections for her environmental sensitivities, brought
on by toxic exposure to fumes from a fire.  She also has battled with
food allergies, candidiasis and a lowered immune system, and the 
homeopathic doctor thought she'd be a good candidate for the 
treatments.  She'll get an injection under the skin of the forearm,
and that will last her two months.  After another two months, she'll
receive another injection.  By this time, she should be experiencing
substantial relief from her symptoms, and can be subjected to allergic
substances without getting a reaction.  After 4 to 6 injections, the
frequency of injections decreases to once every 3 to 4 months, or 
longer.  

We received a booklet describing the program, but we're
particularly interested in hearing about the experiences and 
opinions of others.

Our booklet contains this description:

	Enzyme Potentiated Desensititization (EPD) is a technique
of immunotherapy using small doses of allergens to desensitize
patients to their allergies.  The doses used are the same or 
smaller than those employed in diagnostic skin prick testing.
The enzyme, beta glucuronidase, is used to increase and alter the
effect of the antigen extracts....Beta glucuronidase is an enzyme
present in all parts of the human body.  For EPD, the dose of enzyme
used is within the range present in the tissues of the human body.
No part of EPD is derived from humans, thus there is no risk of
hepatitis or HIV infrection....
    EPD contains a wide variety of inhalants, foods and chemicals.
The allergen mix is capable of dealing with most common food and
inhalant allergies...Each dose of EPD stimulates the immune system
to produce a new family of "T-suppressor" cells.  After 3 to 4 weeks,
when they area all mature, these cells will travel around the body
actively switching off or destroying certain mis-coded T-Helper cells--
those cells which cause (by various methods) other body cells to
produce histamine.  Histamine is major culprit causing allergic or
adverse response to various allergens or other agents.  EPD is a totally
natural method of restoring the self-regulation of the immune system...

Sounds convincing, and, by now, we're ready to try almost anything!

We would be very interested in any information you may have on EPD.

Thanks!

Rick Torres      [email-masked]