Re: Must see Documentary!

Hi Animated Star!
Hope you're doing well!
I didn't watch the video, but skipped through it quickly to see if I could recognize anyone or anything. I believe the lady on the right in the early shot is Tine van der Maas, also caught a shot of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. This is pretty clearly a South African production promoting Manto + Tine's diet/supplement approach to AIDS.

Unfortunately, it's not a cure. In fact, their number-one poster-child for its efficacy (she declared herself scientific proof that it in fact worked) died of AIDS while she was on the protocol and was actively promoting it:

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?subjecti...
(her name's Nozipho Bhengu; I wouldn't be surprised if she was one of the women on the video).

Manto's a controversial figure. South African AIDS activists (who are some pretty tough cookies! That is not a fun place to be an AIDS activist!) hate her! She's also an easy target (theft conviction, alcoholism, ridiculous statements up the wazoo). It's undeniable that bad nutrition and vitamin deficiencies can make a bad situation worse as far as HIV goes. The nutrition advocates get into trouble (BIG trouble) when they start claiming that good nutrition or nutritional supplements are cures. They get into bigger trouble when they convince people to forego traditional therapies in favor of nutritional supplements, and then people start to die. It's actually a bit offensive to those of us who watched so many die back in the 1980s to suggest that they got AIDS simply because they weren't eating right, taking their vitamins, or exercising enough. I mean, I've known plenty of jocks and even bodybuilder types who've died from this thing (you know, the kinds of guys who don't put anything into their mouth until they've weighed or measured it, who take 12 nutritional supplements a day, and can give you their entire macronutrient breakdown for the month).

A lot of South Africans have followed Manto's advice, and their record pretty much speaks for itself.

The last 4 ingredients appear to be manufactured by the same company; i believe they are all multi-vitamins, and some have what I would call "added bonuses!" like colostrum (not from humans, I would hope!)

I don't know if you can get ProNutro in the US - it's very popular in South Africa, it has some devotees elsewhere, but I don't think it's really "special". It's certainly healthy (at least until you throw in all the milk and sugar!) as far as nutrient breakdowns go, but it seems a bit overprocessed. It's sort of like a hot-cereal (strangely enough, eaten cold!) equivalent of Total. Unless you loved the flavor, were very picky when it came to other breakfast flavors, and were willing to pay extra for importation and other costs, I don't see why you'd want to eat that instead of some other hot cereal.

Never heard of Curall, can't really find much on it.

The things that I HAVE heard about are the olive oil, lemons, garlic, and ginger.
So, what evidence is there to support their use?

Well, the best thing I can say for them is that they're cheap! This is at least the case in the US (one criticism of Manto's diet in South Africa is proper nutrition IS important, and so people with very little money to spare should be trying to get the most nutritional value for their money rather than buying relatively expensive items that have not been shown to have a benefit). They're also unlikely to be harmful in moderate quantities.

garlic:
in this study of complementary therapies, garlic was not associated with improved outcomes:
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102281060.html

In more than one study (in developing countries), garlic HAS been shown to be helpful in alleviating severe diarrhea (e.g.
http://www.pulsus.com/cahr2006/abs/231.htm)

It's known to have some harmful drug interactions, but that's not something you need to worry about.
Garlic has some health benefits, but they don't appear to be related to curing HIV (for example, it can lower serum cholesterol levels to some degree, although the most significant effects were found in the crappiest trials), it has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties in the test tube, but these often (in fact, usually!) don't translate into a treatment that works for humans.
decent article about garlic:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/131/3/1109S


I could go on about the others, but I don't have time right now (let me know if you want me to).
I wouldn't discourage you from trying this if it appeals to you, because it doesn't sound dangerous. I would talk to some South Africans first though - they'll know plenty of people who've tried this. From what I've heard from my friends in South Africa, the results are far from impressive. If you are going to try it, I don't think there's anything special about the vitamins they're selling (as opposed to other manufacturers' brands) or about the cereal (as opposed to other healthy, multi-grain cereals). I wouldn't waste the money importing the products, but that's the sort of thing that's really your call.

With all nutritional supplements, there's always the possibility that one or more of them "helps" (from what's known about various nutritional supplements, I could think of a whole bunch of ways that this would be theoretically possible; I could also think of ways that they could be harmful, though) - but it seems unlikely that there's a supplement that will act as a cure. More likely that there may be some benefit, perhaps it slows progression slightly, or improves symptoms, but people on every supplement and diet out there have died.

Here's a decent, not overly technical overview of HIV and nutrition.

http://www.sfaf.org/beta/2006_win/nutrition.html

I'd still suggest that you check out that forum on HIV and nutrition I posted last time - a lot of pozitoids with lots of years taking supplements should be happy to share their experiences with you.
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