Prevention of AIDS
The best and most definite way to prevent AIDS is to avoid exchanging bodily fluids with people who are HIV+. Exposure to these bodily fluids most commonly occurs through sexual activity, sharing needles, or receiving blood transfusions. However, just because an individual is exposed to a person with HIV does not necessarily mean that the individual will get the virus.
The various factors that influence whether exposure leads to infection and whether infection leads to disease remain unknown. However, as with many infectious conditions, a stronger immune system reduces the chances of getting the disease, or at least decreases the chances of complications from the infection. It therefore seems prudent to avoid the factors that inhibit immune response and to utilize those that augment it. The factors that inhibit immune response include an unhealthy lifestyle (i.e., smoking, poor diet, significant stress, sedentary habits) and the use of therapeutic and recreational drugs, while those that augment immune response tend to be a healthy lifestyle and utilizing natural therapeutics, including homoeopathic medicines.
While the precise mechanism of action that leads to AIDS is not known, a new and significant study suggests that homoeopathic medicines may have a dramatic effect on some people with HIV+. A study performed by a government research center in India with 129 asymptomatic HIV+ patients (120 male and 9 female) showed that during homoeopathic treatment over a period of 3 to 16 months, 11 patients changed from HIV+ to HIV-. No conventional drugs of any type were prescribed to these patients.
Some researchers conducted a study on the immunological status of 34 HIV+ patients. After six months of individualized homoeopathic treatment, 23 (67%) of the 34 subjects' immune profiles improved. Thirteen patients experienced a 0-10% increase in CD4 lymphocytes (a higher number of CD4 lymphocytes suggests a stronger immune response) and 10 patients experienced a greater than 10% increase. Because there is a tendency for people with HIV to have continually decreasing CD4 lymphocytes, this study suggests that homoeopathic medicines provided a benefit to the subjects.
A San Francisco Bay Area homoeopath, Lawrence Badgley, MD, reported on a six-month study of 36 patients with AIDS whom he treated with homoeopathic and other natural medicines. He observed a 13% increase in T4 helper cells and an average weight gain of two pounds, which is rarely experienced under conventional medical treatment.
By V.K. Pandey
