compiled by Martin Flynn
CHILLI PEPPERS:THE
HOT TICKET
Specialist
doctors treating pain among HIV positive patients at London clinics
are now prescribing a cream containing small amounts of capsaicin, or chilli
peppers.
The move follows research which shows the capsaicin cream helps relieve pain
arising from nerve damage in the hands and feet, known as peripheral neuropathy.
Many who have taken antiretrovirals long-term (for five years or more) often
get acute pains in the hands and feet. Up to a third of HIV positive people
are thought to suffer from it and, worryingly, it’s thought to be irreversible
and to get progressively worse with age.
Symptoms vary from tingling ‘pins and needles’ to throbbing, stabbing
pains, which severely restrict the mobility of sufferers. Loss of fat and
padding in the soles of the feet, known as lipoatrophy, can also be treated
with chilli. In extreme cases, lipoatrophy can lead to almost no foot padding,
leaving sufferers feeling as if they’re walking on broken glass.
Why this is happening is open to debate, but the finger of blame increasingly
points to mitochondrial toxicity caused by long-term use of d4T and AZT, the
thymidine analogue HIV drugs.
A study presented at February’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic
Infections (CROI) in Denver found using a patch containing capsaicin can greatly
relieve pains in the feet.
In a study of over 300 HIV positive patients, the researchers, led by Dr David
Simpson, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, found pains were reduced
by as much as 30 per cent by the use of the capsaicin.
Users of the chilli pepper cream are warned they may get a reddening and burning
feeling after applying it, are told to avoid getting any cream in their eyes
and to be extra careful to wash their hands after use.
People living long-term with HIV have experimented with various other remedies
for peripheral neuropathy and lipoatrophy in the feet with some success. These
‘home’ remedies include using extra Vitamin B12 and concentrated
fish oil supplements as well as chiropody, acupuncture, moulded insoles inside
shoes and non-codeine based painkillers such as Dicoflex. News about capsaicin’s
benefits for pain relief comes just months after other studies highlighted
the anti-cancer properties of chilli peppers.
• www.retroconference.org/2006/Abstracts/26135.htm
• www.foot.com
WHY GAY MEN GET HIV
A
desire for love, trust and intimacy are some of the reasons identified by
a new study into the reasons why gay men may get HIV.
The INSIGHT study, presented at the Brighton BHIVA conference earlier this
year, found many gay men believed not using condoms meant they trusted their
casual partner, and this represented hope that this casual encounter would
lead to love.
However, the research suggested the greatest risk of infection comes not from
casual partners, but within relationships and from regular partners. Condoms
were seen as a barrier to intimacy and spontaneity and represented a lack
of intimacy within regular partnerships.
Some men failed to appreciate that their regular partner wasn’t monogamous
and others felt that because they weren’t promiscuous, didn’t
use drugs and weren’t part of the gay scene, they were removed from
HIV. Consequently, young and inexperienced men not on the gay scene weren’t
perceived as a potential risk. Well-groomed and seemingly healthy and fit
men were similarly falsely considered to be risk-free. Older men, the INSIGHT
researchers discovered, perceived HIV to be less of a threat, not only due
to an optimistic view of antiretrovirals, but because of an ambivalent attitude
towards ageing. HIV negative test results were often viewed as evidence of
immunity from HIV infection or proof that harm-reduction practices, such as
being active rather than passive, were working. Some men, however, wanted
to practise safe sex, but were prevented by their own low self-esteem and
depression. Approximately 2,000 gay men are diagnosed each year with HIV in
the UK, according to the Health Protection Agency.
