Last Sunday was World HIV Day.The drum and the red carpet were rolled out for antiretroviral medicine and all that bring so little or no real cheer. No meaningful attention was given to CBD Oil, which is turning out to be the plant medicine of the century. Yet, about 70% of the population of the United States is now reported to be seeking cover under it for all kinds of health challenges, including even the side effect of antiretroviral drugs.
HIV disease is no longer as dreadful as it was about two decades ago but its wings are still flapping and growing. Next year, Nigeria will spend more money on free anti-retroviral drugs and add 50,000 more HIV-challenged persons to the free care HIV budget. If HIV is more dreaful than cancer today,many people would not be kissing as carelessly as they still do or landing in bed, unprotected. I doubt if my friends in our university days even remember today their bedroom slogans of the 1970s… “one before and after”, before jumping out of the bed. Thankfully, many people now know that HIV is more about weak immune system, that is the “arm force”of the body which cannot fight off external invasion. As a matter of fact, the HIV (Human Immuno Virus) is reported to enter into the immune cell, stops it from giving birth to immune cell offsprings but to HIV offspring. This is what is said to causes the viral load to grow and CD4 count (T- fighter cells) to decrease in population, thereby giving the virus the upper hand in the battle as it progresses to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
Orthodox medicine frightened every one to the bone marrows when it lunched what it called the HIV/AIDS disease, as a point of no return in health matters. It silenced many views which suggested that HIV was curable with the right kinds of foods and drinks. One of such views was held by Dr.F. Batmanghelidj. He believed there was no virus at work. He said what was mistaken for the HIV virus were particles from the genetic code inside the cell neuclus which broke down because of a dietary “sin”. According to him, the sin is that all essential amino acids and zinc are not present in the neuclus. There, zinc is like a clip on the clothes line which prevents the laundry from beingn blown away. Dr. Batmanghdlij suggested that, in the neuclus, the ” zinc finger” prevents fragmentation of nucleic materials which, in the blood, are mistaken for HIV virus. To prove his point, he cultivated HIV-infected tissues in test tubs and fed it with a solution deficient in essential amino acids and zinc. The “viral” load increased and the “CD4” count decreased. When he fed other “infected” tissues in other test tubs with complete amino acids and zinc, the “infected” tissues reversed to normal, the “viral” load crashed, and the CD4 count rose.
Today, there is a link between poverty and HIV prevalence. It is believed that poor people do not consume all essential amino acids and zinc in their diet and that they are grossly demineralised. That is why many alternative medicine HIV therapies include spirulina (for all amino acids, essential and non-essential).
Back to the HIV theory. We now know the SELENIUM food supplement stops the virus from growing in population, that is it makes the virus “infertile” and unable to give birth to new virus cells, while deft management and strengthening of the immune system can grow the immune population, increase CD4 count and energy, reduce or eliminate pain, inflammation, anxiety, opportunistic diseases such as diarrhoea and irritable bowl syndrome, cough, tuberculosis and all that.
Salute for HIV Tough nuts
Today, I wish to salute some of my acquaintances who converted their adversity to benefits by following simple rules of nutrition. One of them was infected by her husband. Her CD4 count was under 200 when we got talking. She went on to nursing school, took a degree and teaches nursing today. She thought life was all over when she received her diagnosis about 20 years ago. Another one is in the uniformed services. We re-united on whatsapp recently after losing contact for about 10 years during which he added a second degree to his first degree. I have lost contact with a woman who was 24 and at the Law School in Abuja when she called me. She must have been through with her doctorate in Law by now. She and her boyfriend had gone to collect their HIV test results which they read in his car. He was free, and she thought the coast was clear for their marriage. But the bug caught her. She cried and cried all the way home, and cried all the more when he left her in the cold. We used to speak on the phone for long hours without end. I gave her a shoulder to cry on, and I am glad I did.
There was a woman who kept it all away from the man who later married her. She always fell ill, and would not let him sit with her in the doctor’s clinic. One day, she left her hand bag behind at home. An intelligent young man who had worked with me, he checked the bag and Googled the names he saw on the packs of medicines. They were all HIV drugs. He was stunned, and rushed to his mother.. and the marriage was over. But he had a large heart. He was uninfected and requested for natural medicines to make him all the more impregnable. In addition, he offered to pay for the medications of his former wife as well. They gave me joy when I remember I kept them talking irrespective of the breach of trust and loss of faith.
I am as though on a police parade ground and looking at a long file of my policemen friends and saluting them. Who would know they are HIV-challenged the way they have kitted up themselves in their rough jobs. Even their commissioners do not know they have serious concerns under the uniforms. When cough tickles them, they know what to do…. knock it out with Fenugreek, Oregano Tincture, spray, soft gel or juice or Kyolic Aged Garlic from Wakunaga, Golden Seal Root or the likes of them. They know they must avoid soft drinks or sugared foods or snacks. For a cube of sugar paralyses immunity for about six hours and forms an enabling environment for the virus. They do not joke with Jobelyn and Coconut Oil. The military hospital at Ikoyi, Lagos, showed us about 15 years ago that Jobelyn increases CD4 count. A conference of world military hospitals at Bethesda was shown the encouraging results. In Tunis, an experiment confirmed the Lagos report. Coconut Oil stopped many intestinal challenges of HIV patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Astragalus helps them grow CD4 count, too. Ubiquinol increases the energy reserves. More of these helpful food supplements are discussed in HIV articles in this column posted on www.olufemikusa.com.
Today, I wish to suggest the inclusion of CBD Oil in HIV therapy.
CBD oiL
As we should now be aware, CBD Oil is MEDICAL CANNABIS OIL, or CANNABINOL.
CANNABINOL is one of the well-known components of the cannabis or hemp plant. Another well-known component is TETRAHYROCANNABINOL or THC, the chemical which knocks the brain upside down and damages the organs in people who smoke hemp or weed, also called Marijuana. For centuries, right-thinking people despised cannabis because of the THC psychotic effects. But since about 1971, the reasoning has become that the baby should not be thrown away with the bath water. So manufacturers began to clean THC off CANNABINOL to produce different brands of CBD Oil with varying degrees of THC remnants or brands completely free of THC.
CBD Oil grew in importance lately by leaps and bounds with the discovery that the body produces CANNABINOL, and that all systems of the body require CANNABINOL to function effectively and efficiently. This process is called the CANNABINOL SYSTEM. It is said to be the body’s MASTER SYSTEM. It harmonises a perfect blend in the relationship of all systems. So, where a system is underactive or under-functioning the researchers say the body does not have enough CANNABINOL to reset the body’s systems to normal. This is what gave rise to the use of medical CANNABINOL to supplement depleted stocks of ENDO-CANNABINOL, that is the CANNABINOL produced by the body.
CBD oil and HIV
Antiretroviral Therapy ( ART) has not become the golden key to health that it was intended to be for persons living with the disease. Compared with healthy individuals, they have a higher rate of non-infectous chronic diseases, high levels of inflammation, which fuels HIV persistence even during ART. HIV diagnosis brings fear, anxiety, agitation, stress, inflammation and, in some cases, depression.
ART may prolong life. But it also comes with heart, kidney and liver problems, some, if not most of them, non-communicable. A study was funded by the National Institute of Health and National Institute on Drugs Abuse, both in the United States, to investigate the effects of cannabis therapy in HIV infections. The findings were published in AIDS RESEACH AND HUMAN RETROVIRUSES. The findings were that THC had positive effect on the infected intestine of monkeys infected with the SIV version of HIV. The monkeys received THC for 17 months. When they were checked by researchers from Louisiana State University Health Science Centre, it was found that THC produced “a generalised decrease in viral load and tissue inflammation and increased production of disease-fighting CD4 and CD8 central memory T.cells in GALT”. The researchers said that the positive “effects of cannabis are a result of interaction between CANNABINOL and receptors located on many cells, including macrophages, a tissue cell of the immune system and CD4 cells called CANNABINOL receptor1″.
In 2012, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, says www.hivplusmag.com, published RESEACH findings of how CANNABINOL prevented HIV from invading and infecting normal cells. The Temple University School of Medicine has not been left behind. Its researchers investigated the ability of Cannabinol to prevent neurocognitive disorders. The website reported the researchers as saying that CANNABINOL bind to CD2 receptors in macrophages. CD1 is the binding site for THC which produces euphoric effect in HIV-challenged persons who often experience neuro-cognitive disorders, it is said, even under protective immune responses.
In hivatis.org, we learn: ” HIV treatment is accompanied by unfavourable effects to patients as antiretroviral drugs are associated with nausea, depression, anxiety, skin tingling, muscle pains, insomnia, loss of appetite. All these symptoms can be managed by regular consumption of CBD. For so many years, HIV has been related to excessive weight loss. Boosting a patients appetite to combat muscle break down as well as weight loss is a massive victory for a single supplement.
” Research shows that patients who combine CBD and the antiretroviral drugs actually see an improvement in their CD4 T-cell count.”
Suggesting that CBD Oil has been proven to subdue liver fibrosis, the website adds:
“From fatigue and anxiety to insomnia, lack of concentration, skin infection, chronic pain, consuming CBD supplements and the use of CBD oils makes HIV more manageable and suppresses symptoms.
“The most significant effect of HIV is the awakening and breaking down of the immune system. Prescribed drugs are essential to aid in the healing process, but a supporting system is required to manage both the side effects of these medications and secondary infections. Consumption of CBD supplements works as that support system to help the drugs work. The patient can relax and get improved appetite, which is a requirement in the recovery process”.
Again, we learn the following from www.sciencedirect.com
” In a double blind study that was conducted in 2017, researches focussed on the effects of dronabinol and cannabis. The study found that both dronabinol and cannabis increased the intake of calories compared to placebo depending on the administered dose. This effect was characterised by improved eating occasion.
” Despite the major benefits of antiretroviral therapy on survival during HIV infection, there is an increasing need to manage symptoms and side effects during long-term therapy. Cannabis has been reported anecdotally as being beneficial for a number of common symptoms and complications in HIV affections, for example, poor appetite and neuropathy pain
“HIV positive individuals were recruited into an enormous cross-sectional questionnaire study. Up to one third (27 percent), 143/523 reported using cannabis for treating symptoms. Patients reported improved appetite (95 percent), anxiety (93 percent), muscle pain (94 percent), nausea (93 percent), nerve pain (90 percent), paresthesia (85 percent), depression (86 percent). Symptoms control using cannabis is widespread in HIV out- patients. A large number of patients reported that cannabis improved symptoms control”.
Conclusion
Antiretroviral drugs, the helmsmen in the hospital management of HIV, work like antibiotics. Skipping them may throw up symptoms resurgence. Not skipping them may bring drug resistance. In either case, the symptoms may worsen, and the quality of health substandard although life is extended.
CBD Ooil has been shown to help quell many health “fire” outbreaks. It will become the “new” level medicine in HIV therapy, as it also will be in other health challenges. This is because it fuels the master system of the body, the ENDOCANNABINOL system, which is like the “central government” in a federating nation of systems which include the nervous system, circulatory system, reproduction system, immune system etc. Of course, it will be necessary to support these systems with foods and herbal tonics specific to their individual nature, detoxify them regularly, and protect them with appropriate antioxidants against all kinds of stressors.