Re: coconut oil, selenium, etc

Relax, take a deep breath...swollen lymph nodes are a sign that your body is doing what it should... trapping viruses, etc...and you are right to be afraid of drugs. And you know what? Medical tests are WRONG all the time. I second the info you've been given thus far and I've found some more info on coconut oil, selenium & other supplements.
The fact that you're sleepy all the time makes me wonder about your diet...do you eat a lot of carbs/starches/sugar? Moving to a diet free of processed foods/junk/sugar will certainly help...
Do pay attention to Zoebess' info on cleansing :)HIV/Aids is not something I know a lot about but here's some info I've come across, I hope that you find something helpful here...

haven't had time to peruse this site but it looks as though you will find a wealth of information here, and I noticed that they have message boards as well:


http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/


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this is an older article but I'll bet that there's truth in it, still:


http://www.duesberg.com/media/nhtests.html


NEW DOUBTS OVER AIDS INFECTION AS HIV TEST DECLARED INVALID
By Neville Hodgkinson
The Sunday Times (London) 1 Aug. 1993

THE "AIDS test" is scientifically invalid and incapable of determining whether people are really infected with HIV, according to a new report by a team of Australian scientists who have conducted the first extensive review of research surrounding the test.

Doctors should think again about its use, say the authors. "A positive HIV status has such profound implications that nobody should be required to bear this burden without solid guarantees of the verity of the test and its interpretation," they conclude.

The findings, likely to cause intense debate in the medical fraternity and anguish for many HIV-positive people, are contained in an article published by the respected Science journal, BioTechnology.

Many people who appear to be infected with HIV, say the researchers, can be suffering from other conditions such as malaria or malnutrition that produce a positive result in the test. Even flu jabs can produce the same effect. As a result, predictions by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that millions are set to die because of being HIV-positive may be wildly inaccurate.

The paper also lends powerful support to the theory, held by growing numbers of scientists, that HIV is not the true cause of AIDS. One of its authors, Eleni Eleopulous, a biophysicist at the Royal Perth Hospital, said this weekend: "There is no proof that people labelled as 'HIV-positive' are infected with such a retrovirus. We should really question the role of 'HIV' in the causation of AIDS."

Overall, the findings "mean the tests have not been scientifically evaluated", she said.

The authors say that neither of the two main HIV tests used have been adequately checked for accuracy. These tests rely on detecting antibodies to HIV in blood samples. But people whose immune systems have been activated by several other conditions, including tuberculosis and multiple sclerosis, can trigger the same reaction, giving a false-positive result.

Promiscuous homosexual men, illicit drug users, multiple blood transfusion recipients such as haemophiliacs and people subject to multiple infections become increasingly liable to give a positive result the longer their immune system is weakened, regardless of HIV.

To have confidence in antibody tests, they must first be validated by having their results checked against a "gold standard" that is, isolation of the virus itself. However, this has never been done with the AIDS test. The report adds that a procedure used to confirm the validity of diagnostic tests by looking for a virus's genetic material has also been shown to produce false results and cannot be considered as synonymous with isolating the virus.

The AIDS tests look for the detection of a protein called p24, generally considered the equivalent of isolating the virus. However, it has been detected in one out of 150 healthy individuals, 13% of people suffering from warts a condition that signals a weakened immune system and 41% of patients with multiple sclerosis, another immune system disorder.

Heavy exposure to sperm can also set up an antibody reaction, especially when entering the body through anal intercourse. It is another probable source of false-positives.

The WHO, which is seeking an extra pounds 2billion a year for its AIDS prevention programme, estimates that about 14m people have been infected with HIV worldwide. It claims the total will reach 30-40m by the year 2,000, and that most will eventually contract AIDS.

Developing countries are said to face the biggest threat, with Africa alone already having an estimated 8m HIV-infected people. However, according to the BioTechnology report, these are the countries where the tests may be at their most unreliable because of widespread ill-health caused by other diseases. Severe malnutrition and multiple infections are especially likely to produce a misleading result in the test. Claims that current AIDS tests are virtually 100% accurate are based on studies of healthy subjects.

Eleopulous said that the paper, which underwent detailed scrutiny by other experts, concentrates on the shortcomings of one of two main categories of "AIDS test" known as "western blot", generally considered the more definitive of the two.

However, she said doubts were even stronger over the validity of the other test, called Elisa. This is usually administered first but is widely acknowledged to carry a high risk of false-positives.

Screening with Elisa in Russia in 1991 produced 30,000 positive tests, of which only 66 were confirmed using western blot. In the United States, a study among military applicants produced 6,000 individuals with an initially positive but subsequently negative Elisa test.

Dr Philip Mortimer, of the virus reference division at Britain's Public Health Laboratory Service, accepted last week that some fair points about the weakness of the western blot had been made, but he rejected claims that Elisa was even worse. He maintained that the situation described in the article was not typical of this country, where there is less reliance on western blot.

An initial positive test would be followed by a combination of different Elisa tests, although sometimes including western blot, and a test of a follow-up specimen, said Mortimer. "Only if the positive reactions on both specimens are confirmed, usually in a reference laboratory, is a positive report issued."

He believed there was no evidence that people had been falsely told in Britain that they were HIV-positive.

The findings have been welcomed by Professor Peter Duesberg, a top American virologist who maintains that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. He said the evidence helped to explain how "a false correlation" had been found between "HIV" antibodies and AIDS.

"The whole virus hypothesis of AIDS is based on this correlation," he said. "Its proponents have nothing else: no mechanism whereby HIV could do the damage attributed to it, no animal tests, no cure, no vaccine, no virus activity.

"They have nothing conventional in terms of virus-disease argument, except this correlation with antibodies. If this study is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, it means that even that is now falling apart."

The findings have already led to a call by the New York Native, an influential gay newspaper, for legal action against the American government by relatives of people who have killed themselves, or suffered toxic effects from taking the anti-viral drug AZT, as a result of positive HIV tests.

Charles Ortleb, the editor, said: "If the test doesn't work, and if people really don't know that they are infected, the whole thing needs to be rethought ... This should be given high priority by the research establishment. We think that as a practical matter, no one should trust this test." *

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http://cmsadmin.mercola.com/2000/oct/22/full_spectrum_light.htm


SELENIUM

Supplemented selenium at 50 to 250 micrograms (millionths of a gram) daily protects the skin against damage from excess sun exposure. (Intakes above 250 mcg, which could be toxic, should be used only for short periods under the guidance of a knowledgeable practitioner.) Two grams a day of vitamin C together with 1,000 IU of vitamin E also protects against sunburn.

Hardly anyone will experience skin damage from our suggested 20 to 30 minutes' daily sun exposure. But the selenium supplement is worth taking, on its other merits, which are extremely important.

(a) A massive scientific/medical literature supports selenium's efficacy against cancer and cardiovascular disease. A map of the United States showing areas of low soil selenium almost perfectly matches maps showing the areas of highest incidence of both cancer and CVD. The same is true in New Zealand and Australia. Crib death (SIDS) is also more common in areas of low soil selenium -- such as America's Pacific Northwest and parts of New Zealand -- and so its risk could be lowered by selenium supplements.

(b) More than 10 papers published in the past two years relate declining selenium levels to the progression of HIV ("human immunodeficiency virus") disease. An article in Journal of AIDS September 30, 1997, found that patients deficient in Se are almost 20 times more likely to die of causes related to HIV, than people with enough Se.

Recent research has discovered that selenium at 200-250 mcg a day can likely prevent mutation of latent, dormant retroviruses, including HIV, into virulent forms . This should lower and very likely eliminate risk of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) among HIV-positive persons. Intramuscular injections of vitamin B12, supplements of vitamin E complex and N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) also strengthen this AIDS defense.

NAC seems to help replenish stores of reduced glutathione, lower inflammatory oxidative stress reactions, and help protect against mitochondrial DNA damage, in turn decreasing replication of the virus. Glutathione is humans' chief internally generated antioxidant. The DNA in the mitochondria, the "power houses" of all our cells, has been described as 2,000 times more susceptible to oxidative damage than nuclear DNA. Adequate NAC serves further to facilitate detoxification in persons who have poor phase II glucuronidation.

Will Taylor, PhD, proposed a mechanism. He is at the Computational Center for Molecular Structure and Design, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Georgia. Dr. Taylor sequenced the genetics of innocent, harmless retroviruses that normally lie dormant and cause no symptoms -- such as herpesvirus Simplex A, Coxsackievirus and HIV.

(The usually benign character of HIV has been massively documented by Peter Duesberg, PhD, a leading retrovirologist at University of California/Berkeley. To label HIV "the AIDS virus" or say that it "[always] causes AIDS" is wrong. Half of American AIDS patients are HIV-negative; and of the about 21 million HIV-positive people worldwide, probably 90 percent are healthy. )

Dr. Taylor concluded that Coxsackievirus, HIV and certain other retroviruses are coded for the production of a selenoprotein; and he predicted that the selenoproteins produced by those viruses act as brakes on the viruses' reproduction. In effect, with enough Se present, the HIV retrovirus makes its own "birth-control pill." And so selenium has suddenly become very popular in HIV-virus clubs.

When there isn't enough Se -- the low level may not reflect inadequate dietary Se intake, Dr. Taylor said -- the virus goes wild. Supplemented selenium, even if the HIV can't be eradicated, can effectively put it to sleep, preventing its conversion into AIDS.

And coconut oil, like mother's milk, is rich in lauric acid, which the body converts to the antiviral fatty acid monolaurin. Dr. Robert Atkins writes, "This may help in disarming a number of infectious viruses, including those that cause measles, herpes, Cytomegalovirus, vesicular stomatitis, and possibly AIDS." Dr. Atkins' endorsement, however, doesn't extend to coconut milk, which contains too much sugar.

(Excessive Sugar is now recognized as the number one risk factor for heart attacks in women, #2 for men; excessive animal fat is #2 for women and #1 for men.)

Coconuts Saved an AIDS Sufferer's Life

From Mark Konlee in his newsletter Positive Health News: Chris, an AIDS sufferer, found his viral load had reached almost 700,000. He went for a relaxing vacation, packing all the drugs he was using and headed for an Indian village in Surinam; there he dined on fresh coconut meat every day. Within two days his peripheral neuropathy was gone, and within two weeks he was "running through the jungle."

Back home, continuing to consume at least half of a coconut per day, his lab tests showed the viral load had dropped to just over 300,000. Within another month the viral load had dropped to non-detectable. "My doctor is completely baffled," said Chris. PPNF members may not be so puzzled. They read about the amazing health benefits of coconut, especially its antiviral characteristics, in Dr. Mary Enig's article in vol 20 #1 of PPNF Health Journal, two years ago." From Health Vectors, PPNF Health Journal 1997;21;2:6-7.

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