NUTRITION & AIDS

 
At an HIV/AIDS conference, a doctor described the miraculous recovery of one of his patients, who had come back from severe ‘wasting’ and TB and was healthy enough to begin fighting her HIV successfully. He talked about her medication schedule in detail, all without mentioning nutrition.
During the question-and-answer period that followed, one of the guests asked about this patient's nutrition support. Upon which this same doctor apologized for his oversight and repeated to the audience an expression he had been told by one of his patients:

"Taking medicine without eating properly is like washing your hands and drying them in the dirt."  

In the case of an HIV infected person, the body’s metabolic rate may speed up – in which case the person may use more calories to do the same work than is required by a healthy person.  Yet often HIV individuals find themselves eating less, which almost certainly mean that they are probably not getting adequate amounts of the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals needed to sustain life.
 
When it comes to nutrition, the body has been compared to a mechanism composed of millions of tiny engines.  For these engines to work properly, they require specific fuels.  If the type of fuel given is the wrong blend, the engine will not perform to its capacity.  If the fuel is of a poor grade, the engine may sputter, hesitate and lose power.  Whereas when the engine is given no fuel, it will simply stop.
 
The fuel needed to sustain life comes directly from the foods we eat.  These provide us with the basic ‘materials’ our bodies need to carry on their daily functions.  And although each one of us is unique and as such will have unique requirements, some general rules apply.  To survive we require air, water and green plants.  The latter are popularly divided into fruits, vegetables, beans and grains which provide us with vitamins, minerals, fiber, fats, proteins, carbohydrates and phytochemicals (such as beta carotene).  Whilst most of us are familiar with the benefits of the former ones, the role of phytochemicals is not so well understood.  Yet their nutrients are considered to hold great promise for improving our health.  For instance phytochemicals in soybean products are believed to inhibit the growth of the new blood vessels that cancer cells need to develop.   Others such as those contained in strawberries and tomatoes are believed to be a protective agent against prostate cancer.  Whereas green and yellow vegetables are believed to contain protective agents against bladder, breast, cervical, lung, mouth, throat, ovarian and stomach cancers. 
 
Vegetables contain a host of anti oxidants which can assist in fighting HIV. In addition, many studies have shown that children who eat nutritious meals do better in schools, have fewer behavioral problems and get sick less often than their peers. It is fact that a diet rich in fresh organic fruit and vegetables goes a long way towards improving and maintaining a healthy mind and body.
 
If such is the case you may ask why we hear so little about their wonderful benefits.  The answer is manyfold. Due to the human body’s natural resistance, poor diet takes a long time to manifest itself in physical illness.  Approaches that show great promise for boosting the immune system (and therefore assist HIV infected individuals) but have a very low probability of profit are often very poorly researched.  Most medical schools in the United States
do not teach nutrition, something which is clearly reflected in the Journal of the American Medical Association where new studies and trials are usually reported.
 

The following effects have been reported as a result of malnutrition in AIDS sufferers, in
Nutrition for Life Volume 2, Number 1, January 1997
(as produced and distributed by the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health,
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA):

In conclusion, many believe that malnutrition or wasting is a leading cause of death among AIDS sufferers and therefore proper nutrition is vital as part of a balanced  and rational approach to dealing with HIV-AIDS.

The unique video based Ecocircle® Training Programme offers individuals the invaluable opportunity to acquire the self-help skill of growing their own healthy organic fruit and vegetables in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner, thus alleviating the necessity to live in a state of need, hunger and nutritional deficiency.