by Martin Flynn
PN HEALTHYLIVINGNEWS
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF GAINING WEIGHT
While
half of all Britons are now seriously overweight, the reverse is
true for many people
living with HIV. From the early days of the epidemic, serious weight loss
was one of the most recognisable features of HIV. In East Africa, HIV infection
was often called ‘Slim’ for good reason.
This persistent and stigmatising weight loss is extremely difficult to deal
with and one of the
worst side effects of HIV and HIV medication.
Many of us have seen our legs go stick-like, and no matter how much we force
ourselves to eat and exercise, it seems impossible to reverse.
A regular aerobic and weight resistance programme does help in conjunction
with extra food. But using steroids and human growth hormone have side effects
outweighing the benefits of weight gain; while medications like Imodium simply
slow down the gut rather than solve the problem.Research shows moving away
from the thymidine analogue group of HIV drugs (AZT and D4T) can slow weight
loss, but damage to the intestines coupled with an inability to absorb nutrients
and mitochondrial toxicity means regaining body mass is a slow and uphill
task.
Nutritionists advise people with HIV to eat regular smaller meals throughout
the day and to try and bulk up with complex carbohydrates, like brown rice,
pasta and oats, to slow the devastating effects of persistent diarrhoea.
Avoiding too much dairy and fatty foods and alcohol, has also been shown to
slow the gut. But few HIV clinics give much attention to holistic healing,
relying instead on tablets to slow diarrhoea or surgical implants to mask
weight loss. A recent study from the University of Valladolid, in Spain, found
that using the build-up drinks Ensure and Advera, both made by Abbott Laboratories,
led to both weight regain and CD4 rises in 74 people with HIV. But the drinks
are often based on fatty fish oils which can be difficult to take without
nausea.
So, eat early, eat often seems to be the motto for HIV positive people. We
are in the enviable position of being able to eat twice as much as the rest
of the population and still not put on any weight.
TWO NEW VIRUSES JUMP FROM APES TO HUMANS
Scientists
from Johns Hopkins University in the US have found that two more
‘HIV-like’ viruses have jumped species from primates to humans
in central Africa.
Hunters of bushmeat, in this case of monkeys and chimpanzees, caught the retroviruses
now dubbed HLTV-3 and HLTV-4. Researchers say it is not unusual for retroviruses
to cross species and evidence has accumulated over the last 20 years that
HIV itself crossed species from apes in Africa to humans and then mutated
into a deadly killer disease.
Dr Nathan Wolfe told the US National Academy of Sciences: “The emergence
of HIV from primate origins has cost millions of lives. The discoveries of
HTLV-3 and HTLV-4 show that, far from rare events, retroviruses are actively
crossing into human populations.” Retroviruses, which do not have their
own DNA and use the host immune cell DNA to replicate, pose the biggest threat
known to human health.
Their ability to make billions of new viral particles each day, and to mutate
into forms which both the immune system and conventional treatments cannot
fight, ensures their survival.Johns Hopkins scientists made the startling
discovery after testing the blood of more than 900 people in Cameroon who
reported exposure to blood and body fluids of non-human primates, mainly through
hunting and butchering of bushmeat. At this stage it is unknown whether the
two newly
discovered viruses are harmful to humans or can be transferred from person
to person.
AN ASPIRIN A DAY...
Advice to those at risk of potential heart disease or strokes
and to those over 50 to take an aspirin each day is now being extended to
people living long-term with HIV.
According to the British Medical Journal, as a general rule daily aspirin
is given to people who have a three per cent or more risk of a heart attack,
but now that advice is being extended to everyone over 50. It now seems likely
that the advice will be extended to people living long-term with HIV who are
already at higher risk of coronary heart disease, accentuated by high blood
fat levels as a consequence of anti-retroviral therapies. Natural blood anti-clotting
agents include garlic, onion and even red wine.
Researchers from St. Francis College, New York, have found that cranberry
juice may help combat viruses that cause gut disorders. Scientists found that
adding cranberry juice to intestinal viruses blocked their ability to infect
cells. These viruses are responsible for thousands of deaths every year, mainly
among infants in developing countries. The theory is that the juice may destroy
or modify receptor sites on the host cells to which the viruses bind, or that
they damage the protein docking mechanism of the virus itself.
Dr Stephen Lipson said the key may be the chemical components of the juice,
called flavenoids and tannins, both of which have been shown to have an
anti-bacterial effect.
