AIDS by Ray Sahelian, M.D. AIDS vitamin - Alternative AIDS treatment - AIDS natural remedy - Herbs for AIDS

AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. AIDS was only identified 25 years ago. The virus now infects 40 million people around the world and has killed 25 million. Spread via blood, sexual contact and from mother to child during birth or breast-feeding, HIV has no cure and there is no good vaccine, although drug cocktails can help control it.
     More than a quarter of people infected with the AIDS virus are now dying of other causes. An analysis of 68,669 New York City residents infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, found that of those who died between 1999 and 2004, 26 percent died of something other than HIV. That is a 32 percent increase from 1999, when just under 20 percent of HIV patients died of other causes. Cocktails of drugs that suppress the virus have been credited with allowing HIV patients to lead near-normal lives, and once- or twice-a-day dosing now makes them more manageable. Nonetheless, AIDS remains incurable and is always fatal in places where the drugs are not available -- notably much of Africa.

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AIDS vitamin
There is no vitamin supplement that cures AIDS, however some vitamin supplements may be helpful for AIDS patients in terms of maintaining as good an immune system as possible and to support overall energy and vitality. It may be a good idea to try a multivitamin supplement.

A community randomized controlled clinical trial of mixed carotenoids and micronutrient supplementation of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006 Nov;60(11):1266-76. CTN 091/CRIT Cartenoids Study Group. The Community Research Initiative of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
This clinical trial aims to evaluate if natural mixed carotenoids supplementation can improve the health and survival of AIDS patients. Three hundred and thirty-one adults with advanced AIDS on conventional management were recruited during routine clinic visits. All participants, including 166 controls, received daily oral specially formulated multivitamins including vitamin A and trace elements; 165 treatment group participants received additional daily oral natural mixed carotenoids, equivalent to 120,000 IU (72 mg) of beta-carotene daily. CONCLUSIONS: Low serum carotene concentration is common in AIDS patients and predicts death. Supplementation with vitamins, micronutrients and natural mixed carotenoids may improve survival by correction of a micronutrient deficiency.

Herb for AIDS treatment
I am not aware of any herbs that have been tested for any good length of time in AIDS patients and have offered a cure or significant help. I would not be surprised that someday research may discover certain herbs that have significant clinical usefulness in AIDS treatment.

Herpes and AIDS virus
Treating genital herpes infections does not protect people from the AIDS virus.

AIDS pill for children
August 2007 - A three-in-one AIDS pill for children was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in a global U.S. AIDS relief program. The generic pill made by India's Cipla Ltd combines the generic anti-HIV drugs lamivudine, stavudine and nevirapine. This is the first AIDS pill for children and it is meant for children under age twelve.

AIDS Virus Hides in GI System

AIDS virus hides out inside people's intestines. The virus replicates in the lining of the gut and does much of its damage to the immune system there. This may be why the drug cocktails taken by HIV patients so often fail to work completely. After the AIDS virus infection massive destruction of immune cells occurs. Gut-associated lymphoid tissue accounts for 70 percent of the body's immune system. Restoring its function is crucial to ridding the body of the virus.

AIDS virus transmission by mother to infant
The AIDS virus can be passed from an infected mother to her baby if she pre-chews the child's food as sometimes occurs in developing countries.

AIDS Origin
The AIDS virus originated in wild apes in Cameroon and then spread in humans across Africa and eventually the world. Humans somehow caught the deadly human immunodeficiency virus from chimpanzees, perhaps by killing and eating them. Studies have traced HIV to a man who gave a blood sample in 1959 in Kinshasa, then called Leopoldville. Later analysis found the AIDS virus. In people, HIV leads to AIDS but chimps have a version called simian immune deficiency virus that causes them no harm. Humans are the only animals naturally susceptible to HIV.

AIDS deaths worldwide
in 2007, AIDS deaths totaled 2.1 million worldwide. HIV / AIDS infection rates are growing among intravenous drug users, prostitutes and gay men around the globe but they are often viewed as outcasts and refused treatment.

AIDS in American Women
As of 2004, 25 percent of new AIDS cases in the United States were in women -- and women of color, especially African American women, made up the majority of these new cases. In the early days of the AIDS pandemic, fewer women were infected with HIV. As of 2005, 46 percent of adults living with HIV / AIDS throughout the world were women. According to the World Health Organization's UNAIDS, the "vase majority" of women become infected through heterosexual intercourse. HIV infection is also different in women than in men - women become infected more easily and develop different types of complications, such as recurrent vaginal infections, Dr. Fauci explained. Women also tend to seek treatment at a later stage of infection and experience disease progression when they have lower levels of virus than their male counterparts. In addition, drug metabolism is different in women, which may affect how they respond to HIV antiretroviral drugs.

AIDS in China
A poverty-stricken area of China may have hundreds of thousands of villagers with HIV / AIDS. International groups estimated that a botched blood-selling scheme in the 1990s had infected a million villagers with HIV in the impoverished central province of Henan, where the municipality of Zhu Madian was worst hit. They were infected because of poverty and lack of proper transfusion procedures at that time.
 

AIDS in India

An HIV / AIDS epidemic may kill 11 million people in India over the next 20 years.

AIDS in Africa
Some 9 million children in Africa have lost a mother to AIDS, British charity Save the Children reported in March, 2006, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet their needs. The charity said in a report that a lack of testing facilities meant that many mothers, especially in the poorest countries, did not know their HIV status until they were ill and were unable to fight off even the simplest infections.

AIDS in Mozambique
Mozambique expects to provide free anti-retroviral AIDS drugs to some 50,000 people by the end of 2006, more than twice as many as now get the life-prolonging treatment. AIDS is a major development challenge for the country where a million and a half people have HIV or AIDS. Mozambique has been hailed by international lenders as a model reformer that has grown its economy at an average rate of 7 percent to 8 percent over the past decade.

AIDS in South Africa
South Africa is making progress against the world's worst AIDS epidemic, cutting the rate of new infections and extending drug delivery to those already sick. More than 5 million South Africans, or one in nine of the population, are estimated to be infected with HIV, giving it the highest caseload in the world.

AIDS Drugs

In May 2006, FDA announced the tentative approval of generic abacavir sulfate tablets manufactured by Aurobindo Pharma LTD. of Hyderabad, India. Abacavir sulfate tablets are the first generic version of the already approved Ziagen Tablets, an anti-HIV medication manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

AIDS questions

Q. Can the supplements AHCC or the herb mangosteen help with the AIDS virus?
   A. We have not seen any studies that support the use of these supplements for AIDS treatment.

Q. Is there a vitamin for AIDS cure?
   A. We are not aware of a vitamin that offer an AIDS cure or effective treatment.