Nutrition Response Testing™ is a safe, non-invasive way to listen to what your body is telling us — and then give it exactly the support it needs to heal naturally. Here’s a look under the hood, including where this remarkable method came from and why it works.
Where it came from
Muscle response testing was first developed in the 1960s and has since been used by a wide range of health professionals. Nutrition Response Testing™ itself was developed by Freddie Ulan, D.C., N.D., C.C.N., and Lester Bryman, D.C., building on decades of clinical results helping people restore their health naturally — without drugs or surgery.
It brings together the best of several fields: the acupuncture and meridian system of Oriental medicine, the applied and clinical kinesiology pioneered by Drs. George Goodheart and Alan Beardall, and refinements from noted researchers Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt and Dr. Yoshiaki Omura. The result is a dependable way to read your body’s current health status and address the underlying causes of a problem — not just quiet the symptoms.
One important note: Nutrition Response Testing™ is not a medical diagnostic procedure. It’s a method of analysis — an extra “window” that helps Dr. Pearce see which organs, glands, or functions have become stressed or imbalanced, often before symptoms fully appear.
Your body’s control system: the ANS
Your brain is wired to every organ, gland, and tissue through the autonomic nervous system (ANS) — think of it as the automatic nervous system, because it runs the show without any conscious effort from you. It quietly manages digestion, hormones, circulation, blood pressure, waste removal, and your body’s own healing and repair.
The ANS has two settings: the sympathetic (“go” pedal) and the parasympathetic (“whoa” pedal). In a healthy, balanced body these work in harmony. When there’s an imbalance, blockage, or interference, that’s when symptoms show up — allergies, acid reflux, headaches, chronic pain, and the like. Think of those symptoms as the body’s “check-engine lights.”
The “energy steal” — why muscle testing reveals so much
Here’s the simple idea behind the test. Every organ shares nerve pathways with the patch of skin over or near it. When we apply light pressure to a specific reflex point, it sends a small signal to the ANS along those shared pathways.
Picture running a vacuum cleaner at night — the lights dim, because the house only has so much power to go around and the vacuum “steals” some. Your body works the same way. If an organ is already stressed and we add a small demand near it, the body can’t instantly make more energy — it shifts, or “steals,” energy from elsewhere. The easiest place to detect that shift is in a muscle.
The Lock vs. the Fade
That’s exactly what the test measures. You’ll rest comfortably (lying, sitting, or standing) while Dr. Pearce lightly presses on your extended arm and, at the same time, contacts a reflex point tied to a specific organ or gland.
- A “lock” — the muscle stays strong — means that organ is doing well.
- A “fade” — the muscle briefly weakens and can’t hold — signals stress or imbalance in that area.
It’s not a test of strength; it’s a test of how your body responds. And it’s sensitive enough to flag stress that standard tests may miss — which is why it pairs so well with your health history and any other appropriate testing.
From findings to a plan
Once we’ve identified the priority area of stress, we support it with whole-food supplements, herbs, and targeted diet and lifestyle changes designed just for you. Pinpointing the true priority means fewer supplements, a lower pill count, and what we call whole-body healing — real relief, not just partial or temporary results.
Painless, powerful, and personalized — that’s Nutrition Response Testing, and that’s health care the way nature intended.
Ready to find your root cause? Contact us to schedule.