Autonomic Response Testing, or ART, is a testing protocol developed by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt. Doctors use ART testing to acquire biofeedback about a patient’s needs most pressing health needs. The screening measures disturbances in the autonomic nervous system, helping to identify the source of physical, mental, and emotional disorders. While painless and simple to perform, ART is capable of not only detecting complications within the body but also locating them.
Did you know…that Autonomic Response Testing is based on healing models that are more than 12,000 years old? Dr. Klinghardt’s ‘5 levels of healing’ were originally discovered in Sanskrit writings and then later adopted by Patañjali – the ‘father of yoga’ – just 2,000 years ago. Dr. Klinghardt developed ART based on Patañjali’s revised version of the 5 levels of healing, which include: |
Frequently Asked Questions
Am I a candidate for ART?
Nearly anyone can undergo autonomic response testing, whether healthy or not. Often, patients seek ART to find the cause of chronic physical symptoms like problems with digestion, chronic fatigue, allergies, or frequent headaches. But ART is also useful for detecting underlying conditions that may not be presenting obvious physical symptoms. Patients may be surprised to find that an autonomic disturbance has been responsible for years of irritability or anxiety – mental and emotional health issues that may not have otherwise been linked to a physical source.
What should I expect during an ART testing session?
Autonomic response testing uses changes in muscle tone as a biological marker. You will be asked to lie down while your muscle tone and strength are tested. Slowly, your doctor will place ‘stressors’ over your body, such as molds, parasites, metals, bacteria and toxins, and he will apply gentle pressure to the indicator muscle to test its strength. Substances that are not presenting an internal threat to the autonomic nervous system will have no effect on muscle tone. But those that are present within the body will cause the muscle to go weak when placed over the area of the body that contains the same substance.
How will my doctor use the results from my autonomic response test?
Once your doctor has narrowed down the primary stressor within your autonomic nervous system, a series of therapeutic tests will be administered. Your doctor will place the stressor over your body and administer various therapies to find one that neutralizes the stress response. Once the muscle tone becomes strong again with both the stressor and therapy present, your doctor can make a recommendation for treatment.
