Karin,
I don't know if you were at the ASOPA festival where an Oriental woman talked about the use of Applied Kinesiology to test substances to see how they are affecting us.
I didn't personally see that presentation, but I heard about it and as I understand there were some in the audience who received it well and those who did now. It's definitely into the alternative field of health.
For those who do not know, Applied Kinesology uses muscle resistance testing to determine the affects of various substances on our bodies or to test the function of systems and organs in the body. About 16 years ago when I first encountered this, I was very skeptical, but experience since then has taught me otherwise.
When you consider that everthing in the physical universe is basically energy, and energies can affect each other, then Applied Kineseology starts to make sense.
Frankly, as one who has had bad experiences with doctors, I must admit a prejudice against the reigning medical tradition. Of course, they have their place, but I believe they are all too willing to cut and drug and never look for the basic source of a problem.
When my son had allergy problems as a child, the pediatrician was more than happy to continue to prescribe more and more medications. He was looking thinner and more pale by the day and could barely eat without stomach spasms because of all the medications. I was angry about this.
I finally decided to do some research on my own and was shocked to find simple things the doctor had never told me...like no feather pillows and no dairy products! I was angry that she'd never done the least bit of eduction on me and I never went back to her and refused to pay my last bill.
Back into the alternative arena:
I recently had something called a Meridian Health Analysis, which is very comprehensive and totally painless and gets into energetic diagnostic methods, which is where I'd say Applied Kinesology lies also. I was shocked to find out that having my tonsils out at 12 was affecting my lymphatics and that having a rubella vaccine at 28 was affecting my thyroid. I also learned that I had problems with allergies, which didn't surprise me. I also learned that things we don't currently have but have had in the past can still be stored in our bodies as an energy pattern that can affect our body's energy. And, lastly I learned that where we have scars can also disrupt the normal energy flow in the body.
There are times when I go through a minor period of rejection of these concepts because they are so far outside what us Westerners have been taught. And, then I remind myself that every practitioner that has ever tested me has always come up with the same problem allergens on me, even when I had no idea what was being tested.
Unfortunately, the Meridian Health Analysis is not available around every corner. I've also seen it call Meridian Stress Assessment. Here's some places you can read about it, though I think the description of what it tests is rather limited. For example, my test included all kinds of things including food additives, anesthesia, environment chemicals, hormones (yes, you can be allergic to your own hormones) and much more.
http://www.phr.net/meridian.html
http://www.funimky.com/bio_feed_back.htm
I was fortunate to find an alternative physician that offered this rather than a chiropractor. I have nothing against chiropractors, I just preferred the greater range of services the physician was able to offer.
As you say, when our bodies start to manifest such symptoms as yours, it's an indication that the toxic overload has become more than can be effectively handled. Anything that cleanses the body can potentially be helpful...exercise to the point of sweating, drinking tons of water, going vegetarian (no grains), doing a full or modified juicing program, colonics, etc.
A disclaimer here: I'm not diagnosing or prescribing, but simply speaking from my own experience. I also am not recommending the avoidance of traditional medicine if that helps you and it's what you want to do.
One final note on this post. I am a kindly person and generally very open to the expression of divergent opinions and varying opinions are not discouraged. However, I must mention that if you plan to write a scathing debunk of what I have just posted, that you could be treading on very emotionally sensitive territory. I have 25 years of study and research in this field due to my son's and my own problems that no traditional doctor could diagnose. But there's also been lots of years of frustration because this is information that isn't necessarily easy to find.