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What Really Causes AIDS (Paperback)
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What Really Causes AIDS (Paperback)
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List price R545
Loot Price R504
Discovery Miles 5 040
You Save R41 (8%)
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WHAT REALLY CAUSES AIDS:
AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The AIDS pandemic is likely to become the
greatest catastrophe in human history. Unless a safe, effective
vaccine is quickly developed, or the preventive strategies outlined
in this book are widely applied, by 2015 one sixth of the world's
population will be infected by HIV-1 and some 250 million people
will have died from AIDS. Its associated losses by then will be
more than those of the Black Death and World War II combined, the
equivalent of eight World War Is.1 This pandemic is only one of
several ongoing catastrophes involving viruses that encode the
selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase.2 Indeed, the world is
experiencing simultaneous pandemics caused by Hepatitis B and C
viruses, Coxsackie B virus and HIV-1 and HIV-2. As these viruses
replicate, because their genetic codes include a gene that is
virtually identical to that of the human enzyme glutathione
peroxidase, they rob their hosts of selenium. Paradoxically,
however, they diffuse most easily in populations that are very
selenium deficient,3 possibly because their members have depressed
immune systems. It is no coincidence that such viruses are causing
havoc at the beginning of the 21st century. The last 50 years have
seen enormous expansions in the use of fossil fuels and
deforestation by fire. The resulting pollutants have greatly
increased the acidity of global precipitation, reducing selenium's
ability to enter the food chain. This situation is being made worse
by the widespread use of commercial fertilizers since their
sulphates, nitrogen, and phosphorus all depress the uptake of
selenium by crops. Deficiencies in this essential trace element are
being felt most acutely inareas, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where
soil selenium levels are naturally very low. Acid rain is making a
bad situation worse, so increasing vulnerability to those viruses
that encode glutathione peroxidase. Many populations are also being
exposed to a thinning ozone layer, heavy metals such as mercury and
cadmium, pesticides, and drug, tobacco, and alcohol abuse, all of
which depress the human immune system, increasing vulnerability to
viruses, including HIV-1 and HIV-2. In July 2000, physicians and
scientists from around the world met in Durban, South Africa for
the XIII International AIDS Conference. In a declaration, named
after the city, 5,018 of them proclaimed that "HIV is the sole
cause of AIDS."4 There are, however, at least seven anomalies that
strongly suggest that this conventional wisdom is incorrect and
that belief in it is blocking progress in the development of new
treatments for AIDS and of novel ways of preventing its spread. To
illustrate, despite widespread unprotected promiscuous sexual
activity in Senegal, HIV- 1 is diffusing very slowly, if at all,
amongst the Senegalese.5 It is very apparent that in Africa,
differences in soil selenium levels are greatly influencing who
becomes infected with HIV-1 and who does not. Indeed, the recently
published Selenium World Atlas used the incidence of HIV-1 as a
surrogate measure of soil selenium levels because actual levels
are, as yet, poorly established in sub-Saharan Africa. A similar
relationship has been documented in the United States6 where there
has been an inverse relationship, especially in the Black
population, between mortality from AIDS and local soil selenium
levels. It is well established that individuals whoare HIV-positive
gradually become more and more selenium deficient.7 This decline,
which is known to undermine immune functions, is not unique to
HIV-infection but is seen in almost all infectious pathogens.8
However, under normal circumstances, where death does not occur,
selenium levels rebound soon after recovery. HIV-1, however, can
effectively elude the defense mechanisms of the immune system, and
can continue to replicate indefinitely, endlessly depressing serum
selenium. As a result, the immune system is compromised, allowing
infection by other pathogens that continue to deplete the host of
selenium, allowing HIV-1 to replicate more easily, further
undermining immunity. Therefore, this relationship between selenium
and the immune system is one of positive feedback, in which a
decline in either of these two variables causes further depression
in the other. Termed the "selenium- CD4 T cell tailspin" by the
author,9 it is the reason that serum selenium levels are a better
predictor of AIDS mortality than CD4 T cell counts. Like other
positive feedback systems, such as avalanches and forest fires, it
is extremely difficult to control and gains momentum as it
progresses. HIV-1, however, encodes the entire selenoenzyme,
glutathione peroxidase. As it replicates, therefore, it depletes
its host not only of selenium but also of the other three
components of this enzyme: namely, cysteine, glutamine, and
tryptophan.10 AIDS, therefore, is a nutritional deficiency illness
caused by a virus. Its victims suffer from extreme deficiencies of
all four of these nutrients which are responsible for such symptoms
as depressed CD4T lymphocyte count, vulnerability to cancers
(including Kaposi'ssarcoma), depression, psoriasis, diarrhea,
muscle wasting, and dementia. Associated infections cause their own
unique symptoms and increased risk of death. HIV-1 alone,
therefore, does not cause AIDS. It involves a multiplicity of
co-factors, specifically anything that either depletes serum
selenium levels or depresses the immune system enough to permit
viral replication. Manipulating the "selenium-CD4T cell tailspin"
by adding this trace element to fertilizers and food stuffs opens
new avenues for both prevention and treatment. This strategy has
been shown to work on other viruses that encode glutathione
peroxidase, such as Hepatitis B and C and the Coxsackievirus. The
logical treatment of AIDS patients involves supplementation with
selenium, cysteine, glutamine, and tryptophan, at least to levels
at which deficiency symptoms associated with a lack of
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