Doctors are warning about the rise in popularity of natural medicine techniques to treat allergies in children and adults in New Brunswick and elsewhere in the country.

They say allergy elimination, which claims to rid patients of anything from dairy intolerance to asthma to peanut allergies using acupressure, can be extremely dangerous.

"If we have a patient who has a life-threatening peanut allergy for example," said Dr. Gregory Rex, a pediatric allergy and clinical immunology specialist in Halifax. "And they're told that they're being cured by holding on to a vial and having someone press on their back, if these people were to actually eat peanuts afterwards being given that information that they're cured, it can be very serious. People can die from this."

"We're very worried about the negligence that seems to be practiced," said Rex.

Dr. Gregory Rex is a pediatric allergy and clinical immunology specialist working in Halifax.

Dr. Natacha Hebert, a pediatric generalist at Moncton's George Dumont hospital said it's worrisome to see patients opting for the technique.

"Real food allergies can't be cured," said Hebert. "That's clear."

But for Deanna Friars, owner of the Forever Healthy clinic in Riverview, there is nothing dangerous or negligent about the treatment she offers.

"If there's anaphylaxis or anything like that, we don't deal with kids with that," said Friars. "We wait until they're older and there's a process that we go by to build up the immune system first."

"We don't use the word cure," added Friars. "We go by symptoms and how the patient is feeling. We've had many allergies go."

All booked out

Radio-Canada's Karine Godin spoke to Deanna Friars, owner of Forever Healthy clinic in Riverview and Greg Rex, a pediatric allergy and clinical immunology specialist 7:26 Friars, one of four practitioners at the Riverview clinic, sees between 30 to 50 patients every day, ranging anywhere in age from five days old to 90 years old.

One of these patients is Shawn and Sonia Leger's son Jonathan, who suffers from an intolerance to dairy.

"We went without really any expectations," said Sonia Leger. '"We figured we had nothing to lose."

"After the third treatment we were able to give him milk, yogurt, cheese. He stopped reacting from that point on."

Friars said most of her referrals come from word of mouth, as she hasn't done any advertising. The Riverview clinic is one of four in the province, with others in Sussex, Fredericton and Miramichi.

"The reality is this sells very well," said Rex. "But keep in mind, this is not real. This is all hocus pocus. It's complete mumbo jumbo."

The allergy testing consists of having the client hold a vial containing the allergen, while the practitioner pushes down their other arm. A weakness in the arm indicates an allergy or intolerance, according to Deanna Friars.

"Kind of like a magic eight ball"

Patients first undergo what's called a biomeridian assessment, during which the body is tested against about 200 different allergens.

The patient holds a vial containing the substance in one hand, while holding the other arm at a 90 degree angle and having the practitioner push against it.

Friar explains that a weakness in the arm indicates an allergy or intolerance.

"We're going one by one to see if it throws your system off. Then we look at treatments to eliminate it," said Friars.

"It's kind of like a magic eight ball that's used to make up a lot of health data. The procedure itself has absolutely no evidence," said Rex.

According to Dr. Hebert, there are also concerns about these tests leading to overdiagnosis of allergies.