Posted on 01/22/2007 6:48:24 PM PST by Pharmboy
Selenium supplements can slow the rise in virus levels in HIV-positive patients, which allows the number of beneficial CD4 immune cell to increase, according to results of a clinical trial supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Low blood levels of selenium have been linked to high HIV virulence and more opportunistic infections, Dr. Barry E. Hurwitz and associates at the University of Miami in Florida report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In lab experiments, the element suppresses HIV-1 replication.
Even when antiretroviral therapy (ART) is widely available, failure to keep the virus suppressed "is relatively common, due to the complexity and toxicity of the drugs," Hurwitz told Reuters Health. "Something like selenium is stable in the blood stream and may prevent 'viral escape'."
In their study, Hurwitz's team randomly assigned some 260 HIV-infected adults with no other major diagnosis to take 200-milligram capsules of inactive yeast (placebo) daily or 200-milligram capsules of high-selenium yeast. The researchers used selenium-enriched yeast (Selenomax, Nutrition 21 Inc.) because it contains high concentrations of organic, bioavailable forms of selenium.
After 9 months, viral load had increased by 10,000 to 20,000 copies/milliliter in the placebo group. Viral load was unchanged in the group on selenium supplementation, Hurwitz said, and CD4 cell counts increased.
The researchers identified 50 "selenium responders," whose blood levels of selenium rose significantly more than the average.
These responders tended to have greater adherence as determined by computerized electronic medication-monitoring caps compared with nonresponders, although some subjects with excellent compliance failed to absorb selenium.
Considering just the 50 selenium responders, their viral load actually decreased on average by 10,000 copies/milliliters, Hurwitz noted. Levels among nonresponders did not differ significantly from those in the plain yeast group.
The investigators conclude that selenium supplementation may represent "a simple, inexpensive, and safe adjunct therapy" to antiretroviral medications for HIV.
Hurwitz added that some stores sell the selenium-enriched yeast, with a 2-month supply costing about $15. However, consumers must be careful, he added, because many forms of selenium that are sold are not absorbed into the blood stream.
He also remarked on the potential impact that selenium supplementation could have in parts of world where soil is deficient in selenium, and people generally can't get enough from their food. "Selenium supplements could have very rapid and beneficial effects on HIV-infected individuals in those circumstances," he said.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, January 22, 2007.
I hear that abstaining from anal sex reduces your chances of getting HIV by about 10,000,000.
I wonder which is easier?
Ordinary minerals and vitamins doing the job that Big Pharma can't do.
Selenium?
The point is that selenium may have benefits for non-HIV individuals...this may be a pretty important finding.
Garlic is high in selenium. Perhaps if people ate more garlic, they'd be less likely to engage in behaviors that cause the transmission of HIV.
Well, actually, HIV/AIDS has been one of Big Pharma's BIGGEST successes. They have turned this into a chronic disease rather than one that kills in 6 months.
. Since HIV is “the sole cause of AIDS”, it must be abundant
in AIDS patients based on “exactly the same criteria as for
other viral diseases.”
But, only antibodies against HIV are found in most
patients (1–7)**. Therefore, “HIV infection is identified in
blood by detecting antibodies, gene sequences, or viral
isolation.” But, HIV can only be “isolated” from rare, latently
infected lymphocytes that have been cultured for
weeks in vitro – away from the antibodies of the human
host (8). Thus HIV behaves like a latent passenger virus.
2. Since HIV is “the sole cause of AIDS”, there is no AIDS in
HIV-free people.
But, the AIDS literature has described at least 4621 HIVfree
AIDS cases according to one survey – irrespective of,
or in agreement with allowances made by the CDC for
HIV-free AIDS cases (55).
3. The retrovirus HIV causes immunodeficiency by killing
T-cells (1–3).
But, retroviruses do not kill cells because they depend on
viable cells for the replication of their RNA from viral
DNA integrated into cellular DNA (4, 25). Thus, T-cells
infected in vitro thrive, and those patented to mass-produce
HIV for the detection of HIV antibodies and diag nosis
of AIDS are immortal (9–15)!
4. Following “exactly the same criteria as for other viral diseases”,
HIV causes AIDS by killing more T-cells than the body
can replace. Thus T-cells or “CD4 lymphocytes . . . become
depleted in people with AIDS”.
But, even in patients dying from AIDS less than 1 in 500
of the T-cells “that become depleted” are ever infected by
HIV (16–20, 54). This rate of infection is the hallmark of
a latent passenger virus (21).
5. With an RNA of 9 kilobases, just like polio virus, HIV
should be able to cause one specific disease, or no disease if
it is a passenger (22).
But, HIV is said to be “the sole cause of AIDS”, or of 26
different immunodeficiency and non-immunodeficiency
diseases, all of which also occur without HIV (table 2).
Thus there is not one HIV-specific disease, which is the
definition of a passenger virus!
6. All viruses are most pathogenic prior to anti-viral immunity.
Therefore, preemptive immunization with Jennerian vaccines is
used to protect against all viral diseases since 1798.
But, AIDS is observed – by definition – only after anti-
HIV immunity is established, a positive HIV/AIDS test
(23). Thus HIV cannot cause AIDS by “the same criteria”
as conventional viruses.
7. HIV needs “5–10 years” from establishing antiviral immunity
to cause AIDS.
But, HIV replicates in 1 day, generating over 100 new HIVs
per cell (24, 25). Accordingly, HIV is immunogenic, i.e. biochemically
most active, within weeks after infection (26, 27).
Thus, based on conventional criteria “for other viral disea ses”,
HIV should also cause AIDS within weeks – if it could.
8. “Most people with HIV infection show signs of AIDS within
5–10 years” – the justification for prophylaxis of AIDS with
the DNA chain terminator AZT (§ 4).
But, of “34×3 million . . . with HIV worldwide” only 1×4%
[= 471,457 (obtained by substracting the WHO’s cumulative
total of 1999 from that of 2000)] developed AIDS in 2000,
and similarly low percentages prevailed in all previous years
(28). Likewise, in 1985, only 1×2% of the 1 million US citizens
with HIV developed AIDS (29, 30). Since an annual incidence
of 1×2–1×4% of all 26 AIDS defining diseases combined is no
more than the normal mortality in the US and Europe (life ex pectancy
of 75 years), HIV must be a passenger virus.
9. A vaccine against HIV should (“is hoped” to) prevent
AIDS – the reason why AIDS researchers try to develop an
AIDS vaccine since 1984 (31).
But, despite enormous efforts there is no such vaccine to
this day (31). Moreover, since AIDS occurs by definition
only in the presence of natural antibodies against HIV
(§ 3), and since natural antibodies are so effective that no
HIV is detectable in AIDS patients (see No. 1), even the
hopes for a vaccine are irrational.
10. HIV, like other viruses, survives by transmission from host
to host, which is said to be mediated “through sexual contact”.
But, only 1 in 1000 unprotected sexual contacts transmits
HIV (32–34), and only 1 of 275 US citizens is HIV-infected
(29, 30), (figure 1b). Therefore, an average un-infected
US citizen needs 275,000 random “sexual contacts” to get
infected and spread HIV – an unlikely basis for an epidemic!
(Table 4. Cond.)
J. Biosci. | Vol. 28 | No. 4 | June 2003
The chemical bases of the various AIDS epidemics
391
Table 4.
No. Prediction Fact
11. “AIDS spreads by infection” of HIV. But, contrary to the spread of AIDS, there is no “spread”
of HIV in the US. In the US HIV infections have remained
constant at 1 million from 1985 (29) until now (30), (see
also The Durban Declaration and figure 1b). By contrast,
AIDS has increased from 1981 until 1992 and has declined
ever since (figure 1a).
12. Many of the 3 million people who annually receive blood transfusions
in the US for life-threatening diseases (51), should have
developed AIDS from HIV-infected blood donors prior to the
elimination of HIV from the blood supply in 1985.
But there was no increase in AIDS-defining diseases in
HIV-positive transfusion recipients in the AIDS era (52),
and no AIDS-defining Kaposi’s sarcoma has ever been
observed in millions of transfusion recipients (53).
13. Doctors are at high risk to contract AIDS from patients, HIV
researchers from virus preparations, wives of HIV-positive
hemophiliacs from husbands, and prostitutes from clients –
particularly since there is no HIV vaccine.
But, in the peer-reviewed literature there is not one doctor or
nurse who has ever contracted AIDS (not just HIV) from the
over 816,000 AIDS patients recorded in the US in 22 years
(30). Not one of over ten thousand HIV researchers has contracted
AIDS. Wives of hemophiliacs do not get AIDS (35).
And there is no AIDS-epidemic in prostitutes (36–38). Thus
AIDS is not contagious (39, 40).
14. Viral AIDS – like all viral/microbial epidemics in the past
(41–43) – should spread randomly in a population.
But, in the US and Europe AIDS is restricted since 1981
to two main risk groups, intravenous drug users and male
homosexual drug users (§ 1 and 4).
15. A viral AIDS epidemic should form a classical, bell-shaped
chronological curve (41–43), rising exponentially via virus
spread and declining exponentially via natural immunity,
within months (see figure 3a).
But, AIDS has been increasing slowly since 1981 for 12
years and is now declining since 1993 (figure 1a), just like
a lifestyle epidemic, as for example lung cancer from
smoking (figure 3b).
16. AIDS should be a pediatric epidemic now, because HIV is
transmitted “from mother to infant” at rates of 25–50% (44–
49), and because “34×3 million people worldwide” were already
infected in 2000. To reduce the high maternal transmission
rate HIV-antibody-positive pregnant mothers are
treated with AZT for up to 6 months prior to birth (§ 4).
But, less than 1% of AIDS in the US and Europe is pediatric
(30, 50). Thus HIV must be a passenger virus in newborns.
17. “HIV recognizes no social, political or geographic borders”
– just like all other viruses.
But, the presumably HIV-caused AIDS epidemics of
Africa and of the US and Europe differ both clinically and
epidemiologically (§ 1, table 2). The US/European epidemic
is highly nonrandom, 80% male and restricted to
abnormal risk groups, whereas the African epidemic is
random.
Watch for selenium to become "prescription only" or "unsafe for use".
Because of the research I was doing, I absorbed quite a lot of selenium into my system when in my early 20s (my socks used to smell awful, by the way). I sometimes wonder what effect it has had on me since. I have had good health over many years since then, which MDs ascribe to good genes, but still I wonder.....
Total nonsense. HIV positive means you have antibodies against a "prior" harmless passenger retrovirus infection which has long since passed. Viral load is a canard invented by the CDC. It is absolutely meaningless.
You conspiracy guys are too much...sheesh.
Yup...you must be correct. The pharma industry, the CDC, the NIH all have made no progress against this disease. It's all a vast healthcare conspiracy.
Glad you cleared that up...actually, that link has a lot of interesting historical info. Thanks...
Not much of a success.
They have succeeded in convincing this insanely promiscuous group that they can now go out and engage in their deadly behavior at record levels.
And the virulence of the HIV is not in check. They can still infect (and do.)
So we've got even more folks with this "chronic disease."
You are speaking of social issues. I spoke of therapeutic success based on pharmaceutical research. They are very different things.
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