STEP PERSPECTIVE, Volume 8, No. 2 - Summer/1996; A Publication of the Seattle Treatment Exchange Project e-mail: step@eskimo.com
Lark Lands, Ph.D.

Commandment #1:

Manage your disease. Do the work.

Subtitle: Avoid the Humpty Dumpty Syndrome. We can't keep waiting for people to fall apart so that we can try to patch them back together. There are two parts to this commandment.

1. You don't wait to start managing this disease. Begin now.

2. You'd better understand what it really means to manage a disease. It's hard work but it's worth it.

Commandment #2:

Eat what's good for you.

If you don't have the nutrients, you can't build the T cells or any other immune cells. For that matter, you can't build any cell in the body without these building blocks. You've got to put good levels of protein, good levels of unrefined complex carbohydrates, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and moderate amounts of only the good kinds of fats in your body every day, and you have to wash all that down with lots of good healthful liquids. That's the way you give your body the building blocks it needs to keep up the immense battle against HIV. And always make sure the food you eat and the water you drink is safe!

Commandment #3:

Do everything necessary to help your body digest food and use it properly.

Even if you're eating the right things, it won't do you any good if you don't have good digestion and the ability to use the nutrients. Many people need to improve how their bodies handle food by supplementing with hydrochloric acid, pancreatic enzymes, vegetable enzymes, acidophilus, biotin, L-carnitine, and L-glutamine.

Commandment #4:

Supplement your good diet with the nutrients that will help you have slower disease progression and a lot fewer symptoms along the way, including optimal levels of antioxidants.

Remember: John James, the highly respected editor of AIDS Treatment News, reviewing one of the important nutrient studies, summarized his review by saying that research has shown that supplying the right level of nutrients in the body may be associated with greater reduced progression of HIV disease and better improvements in long-term survival than any anti-HIV drug tested to date. And, in addition, nutrients can reduce or eliminate or contribute to eliminating many symptoms such as fatigue, skin problems, neuropathy, digestive problems, memory or other mental problems, wasting, and others. See the Core List of Nutrients.

Commandment #5:

Protect the body in every way possible from the damage that infections cause and give the body what it needs to repair itself when the damage occurs.

First, use the best available treatments; then supply the particular nutrients that the body can use to repair itself. In particular, repair the intestines with zinc, beta-carotene, vitamin B 6, vitamin E, Bioflavonoids, vitamin C, and, especially, L-glutamine. If necessary use doses of up to 30-40 grams of L-glutamine per day until repair is effected, followed by lower doses for maintenance. You can't absorb nutrients or drugs if you don't keep your intestines healthy.

Commandment #6:

Do prophylaxis, where appropriate, and add to your pharmaceutical prophylactic regiment the nutrients and natural therapeutics that help to protect you from infections, and that help you to fight them when you get them.

Important nutrients for protection from infections: L-glutamine (intestinal, lung, and cervicovaginal infections), acidophilus ( Candida overgrowth and other intestinal infection), garlic and oregano extract (Candida overgrowth), folic acid (anal or cervical cancer), and a good level of nutrients in general. Remember: Your body's response to any infectious agent or abnormal cell is absolutely dependent on the nutrients needed for competent immune response. Thomas McKeown, M.D. says "deficiency of almost any of the essential nutrients may have marked effect on the manner in which the host responds to an infectious agent. The same infection may be mild or even unapparent in a well-nourished host, but virulent and sometimes fatal in one that is malnourished" (The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage or Nemesis. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton U. Press. 1979:60).

Commandment #7:

Take the best available antivirals in the best possible combinations and, while you do it, protect your body from their side effects.

We finally have antiviral approaches that are worth doing -- combination antiviral therapy with the best available antivirals (currently; double nukes with proteases) -- and the viral load test to help determine when they're needed. The more you can use antivirals to suppress the viral load and let the body regain its immune function, the better off you are and the longer you'll be able to fight off infections. You must have good nutritional status for the body to use drugs effectively. Also, some nutrients may help protect you from the side effects of certain drugs. For AZT: multiple vitamin B E, magnesium, zinc. For bone-marrow suppressive drugs, in general: recombinant human growth hormone, anabolic steroids.

Commandment #8:

Handle the hormone problems of this disease.

Maintaining testosterone and using, where appropriate, anabolic steroids and recombinant human growth hormone can help prevent the loss of the lean tissue in the body which is what keeps you alive, while helping you look better, function better, and feel better.

Commandment #9:

Exercise.

Just do it. You need to build up the muscle with progressive resistance exercise like weight training. That's what gives you a body with plenty of the lean tissue that you need for survival.

Commandment #10:

Program the mind toward healing.

The power of the mind to boost the body toward healing is amazing. And the power of hope is one of the best tools you can have for long-term survival. Bob Publicover, incredibly long-term (two decades and counting) survivor: "Never give up, never give up, never give up."

Lark Lands, M.S. Ph.D. is a health educator, consultant, and the author of Positively Well: Living with HIV as a Chronic, Manageable, Survivable Disease.*

*This fact sheet is a philosophical overview of the type of approach to living with HIV that is described in depth in Dr. Land's book: Positively Well: Living with HIV as a Chronic, Manageable, Survivable Disease: A Practical Guide to Nutrition, Drugs and Therapeutic Agents, Energy Therapies, Psychoimmunity, and Hope! (Expected publication date is late summer 1996. To order, please call 800-542-8102, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST)

These articles were provided by the Seattle Treatment Education Project - Copyright (c) 1997 - Seattle Treatment Education Project. Noncommercial reproduction encouraged. Distributed by AEGIS - http://www.aegis.com
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Copyright © 1996 - Seattle Treatment Education Project (STEP) - All rights reserved. Noncommercial reproduction is encouraged. STEP is published four times a year by the Seattle Treatment Education Project, 127 Broadway East, 3rd Floor, Seattle, WA 98102.    Email: step100@aol.com  STEP web page