We present the second of two parts on
AIDS, its medical implications and relevant
issues. (For part 1, see July 13 issue.) This
article was written specially for the Tribune
by Ellen Lipsius, a registered physiotherapist,
acupuncturist and nutritionist who runs the
Lipsius Clinic in Toronto; and Derek Mackie,
a Toronto-based journalist who has written
extensively for the newspaper. We welcome
comments.

The effect of AIDS is widely known. It
impairs the immune system so the body
can’t fight diseases like cancer and pneu-
monia which — usually over a 22-month
period — result in death. So far, more than
800 of the 1,761 Canadians identified with
AIDS have died.

The first cases of AIDS surfaced in early
1981 in Los Angeles, New York and San
Francisco. All victims were gay men. Need-
less to say, physicians were puzzled, largely
because never before had there been an epi-
demic of immune deficiency in the history
of medicine.

As the death toll mounted, research into
AIDS got underway. By 1984, Dr. Robert
Gallo, a researcher at the National Cancer
Institute in Maryland, claimed that the
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
was AIDS’ one and only cause. Gallo
asserts that HIV came from African green
monkeys.. He says people can only contact
AIDS when HIV is spread from person to
person through the exchange of bodily
fluids. This view has since become accepted
as gospel by most of the medical profession
and public.

* However, there are growing numbers of
scientists questioning the HIV theory.
Indeed, the University of California’s Dr.
Peter Duesberg says HIV can be found in
people who don’t contract AIDS. Some
people have tested positive for HIV, but in
subsequent tests show no signs of the virus.
Moreover, Duesberg says HIV may become
activated: only after prior infection causes
immune suppression. “AIDS virus (HIV) is
not sufficient to cause AIDS and there is no
evidence, besides its presence in a latent
form, that it is necessary for AIDS,” he
wrote last year in Cancer Research, a U.S.
medical journal.

Others concur with Duesberg. In fact,
scientists have come up. with a number of
plausible alternative theories to the HIV
treatise. They include: AIDS is a chemical
and biological warfare experiment run
amok; AIDS is the product of widespread
dioxin poisoning in the atmosphere; AIDS
is caused by two insect-borne viruses,
maguari and dengue; and AIDS is the Afri-
can swine fever virus injected in the human
chain.

All of these theories have merits. But the
theory which makes the most sense, and
takes into consideration all these alternative
theories, is called the “multi-factoral the-
ory.”

It argues that the body’s immune system
is weakened and overloaded not by one
single agent, but by a multitude of co-
factors. These factors include antibiotics,
drugs, alcohol, stress, occupational hazards,
environmental damage and poor diet.

One proponent of this theory is Dr.
Joseph Sonnabend, a New York clinician
and co-founder of the American Founda-
tion for AIDS Research who has treated

people with AIDS since the plague arose. |
' illustrate this theory is by looking at why

Sonnabend rejects the HIV theory and

argues that AIDS is not the result of one |
: gays have been subjected to recent infec-

virus, but a combination of repeated
illnesses and co-factors that impair immuni-

ties. Sonnabend says to analyze AIDS: .

“You must look at the total environment of
a person. If you take the view that it’s a
germ, you don’t have to look at social con-
ditions. To make people. well, it’s not
enough to set up clinics, but you must eradi-
cate poverty, hunger and ghettos.”
Sonnabend is not alone in emphasizing
the social, economic, nutritional and envir-
onmental impacts being forced on the body
and their connection to AIDS. As Dr.
Arthur J. Amman of the University of Cali-
fornia Medical School has commented:

6 Pacific Tribune, July 20, 1988

A Haitian victim of AIDS ... “malnutrition, lack of proper sewage, poverty and
unemployment all help to weaken the immune system.”

“There is no historical precedent for believ-
ing that a single infectious agent is capable
of abolishing a normal immune system.”
If Sonnabend is right, the idea of AIDS
being infectious and passed from one per-
son to another is simply wrong. One way to

gay men are so susceptible to AIDS. Many

tions, like venereal disease, along with doses
of antibiotics and vaccinations. In addition,
the isolation of gays from mainstream
society takes a psychological toll. Many
gays have histories of drug and alcohol
abuse, often because of homophobia.
Combined with the North American diet,

which is high in cholesterol, fats and preser- -

vatives, their immune systems are often
weaker than others.

This argument is bolstered when explain-
ing why people in the Third World are
prone to AIDS. Malnutrition, lack of
proper sewage, poverty and unemployment

all help to weaken the immune system. The
Third World is also used by corporations as
a dumping ground for toxic chemicals and
U.S. germ warfare (i.e. Cuba).

It should be noted, though, that AIDS
has made greater inroads into the hetero-
sexual community than people realize. In
fact, AIDS is the leading cause of death
among women between the ages of 25 and
35 in New York city. This is important,
because while gays have been attacked for
spreading AIDS, unhealthy heterosexuals
are just as vulnerable to the condition. As
Dr. Raymond K. Brown, a former cancer
researcher who treats AIDS patients, said at
a New York symposium on AIDS in 1986:
“A singular emphasis on the virus itself had
obscured the fact that AIDS occurs only in
already immunosuppressed individuals ...
Healthy people do not get AIDS.”

One reason most of the medical com-
munity believes HIV is the cause of AIDS is
because much money can be made from this ;

theory. For instance, Dr. Robert Gallo and
French researchers now share the patent for
HIV virus antibody tests that will earn them
$5-million (U.S.) annually in royalties in the
United States alone. Meanwhile, 2,0
organizations and companies — 30 ©
which are based in Canada — are busily
developing and marketing AIDS drugs and
accessories rooted in the HIV theory.

One estimate suggests that the worl
market for AIDS drugs and testing kits
total $3-billion (U.S.) by the mid-1990s.
This sum is woefully low considering the
money one British pharmaceutical giant 18
earning from the HIV theory. Wellcome
PLC holds a monopoly on the production
of AZT, the first anti-viral drug used 08
AIDS patients. AZT is highly toxic, damag-
ing healthy cells and bone marrow. ell-
come earned $250 million (U.S.) in 1987 08
the drug, projected to rise to $3 billion
(U.S.) in two years’ time. AZT costs @
patient $1,000 for a monthly supply. Yet It
does not cure, prevent or slow down AIDS.

So profitable is the HIV theory that
many experts are growing alarmed. Spur?
by stories of hospital staff who handle
AIDS patients seeing their gloves increas¢
in price from $30 a case to $80, the United
States Food and Drug Administration
sponsored a health-fraud conference 1
Kansas City, Mo. in March. Many partici

pants angrily condemned the host of manu

facturers inventing products that claim t0
boost the immune system. ;

What people really want to know 38
whether AIDS can be cured right now. Evi-
dence says the answer Is yes.

Indeed, if you reject the HIV theory and
accept the premise that AIDS isa result of @
number of co-factors weakening people's
immune systems, you would probably also
want to question much of modern medi-
cine. This is because modern medicine
claims that illnesses, like AIDS, are caused
by single viruses as the necessary condition.
And that, in the final analysis, cures lie i
drugs which kill said viruses. But as we have
already pointed out, drugs have not stopped
AIDS nor cancers nor other diseases.

It is logical to examine some alternative ©

medical models which embrace the social,
environmental and nutritional impacts 0?
the immune system. One model now being
studied closely is holistic medicine.

_ In 1984, the Boston University School of
Medicine (BU) began a study in conjunc
tion with the Kushi Foundation, a Boston-
based centre for holistic medicine, which

put 24 AIDS victims on a macrobiotic diet.

The pillars of this diet are whole grains,
vegetables and beans — albeit not exclu-
sively. The university did blood tests on the
subjects to measure their immune responses.

All those who adhered strictly to the diet _

have seen their immunities enhanced. In
June of 1987, Dr. Elinor Levy, a BU micro-
biologist, told the Third International Con-
ference on AIDS that four of the men were
alive more than three years after diagnosis,
two of them more than five years. Levy has
said: ‘It seems likely that macrobiotics can
prolong survival for AIDS patients.”

Dr. Martha Cottrell, a New York-based
physician, was more enthused with thes¢
results, saying: “For the first time we have 4
sign that the decline in the immune function
-of the body can be stopped, and perhaps
even reversed.”

Similar studies with the macrobiotic
diet — and with the same positive results

— have been carried out with 30 AIDS”

patients at Montreal’s.St. Mary’s Hospital.
Other such holistic medical means are being
employed with similar success. Acupunc-
ture used in clinical practice has been found
an effective way of repairing the immune
system to combat AIDS.

These approaches challenge the orthod-
oxy of the medical establishment and what
we have been told about health care. Yet aS
AIDS runs rampant, it is essential people
begin asking questions and demanding
answers before it is too late. For as the
World Health Organization said in 1985:
“AIDS is the worst public health epidemic
ever and the world’s top health priority.”

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