AIDS

A New Frontier In Research

By TRIPUTIC

HEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS

"Aloe is to an AIDS patient such as insulin is to a diabetic."

Terry Pulse, M.D.

INTRODUCTION

Our present emerging state of holistic health consciousness is due, in part, to people who are willing to look beyond traditional thinking in health care. 

An open mind among health professionals is only one stage in the holistic health movement. The education of the patient is also paramount in the new health-consciousness. This is the day of individuals being responsible for themselves and their health expression. 

Information is the key to knowledge. Only you can determine; Is Aloe vera (and its properties) mythical, magical, or medicinal?

AIDS - A NEW FRONTIER IN RESEARCH

Since 1987, it has apparently been relatively common knowledge among AIDS victims in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that Aloe juice or a drug (POLYSACCHARIDE or ACEMANNAN), derived from it, will provide relief from the symptoms of the disease and will keep those who have the virus but who do not have any of the symptoms of AIDS from developing the disease.

Even though the evidence available is preliminary, we feel that because the work was done at the Dallas-Fort Worth Medical Center, Grand Prairie, Texas, and because of the status of the physicians involved, the work is important. We believe we would be remiss in not reporting the results achieved thus far.

It is very important to understand that this research does not show that Aloe vera is a cure for AIDS, but it does indicate that in all cases examined, excellent results were achieved, and that in a majority of test cases, Aloe vera stopped the progress of the disease. In other words, Aloe is not a cure for AIDS, but is a highly effective treatment. This premise was first put forward in an article titled "Aloe Drug May Mimic AZT Without Toxicity" in Medical World News, December, 1987. The article reported on the research work of Dr. H. Reginald McDaniel. According to Dr· McDaniel, "A substance in the Aloe plant (acemannan) shows preliminary signs of boosting AIDS patients' immune systems and blocking the human immune-deficiency virus' spread, without toxic Side effects."

The results of Dr. McDaniel's pilot study showed that the symptoms of sixteen AIDS patients were significantly reduced when given 1,000 mg. a day of the drug for three months. After three months, six patients with advanced cases of AIDS showed a 20% improvement in symptoms, while less seriously ill patients improved by an average of 71%. Dr. McDaniel has also reported his research findings at the combined meeting of the A1Tierican Society of Clinical Pathologists and College of American Pathologists He says, 

"Fever and symptoms of night sweats, diarrhea, and opportunistic infections were either eliminated or significantly improved all patients, with corresponding drops in HIV antibody positive cell cultures and HIV core antigen levels." 

Red cell mass increased in all but one patient and twelve initially leukopenic patients had a slight rise in white count after treatment.

No toxic effects have been noted in a total of twenty-nine patients who have now received the experimental drug. There is also evidence that good quality Aloe vera Juice can relieve the symptoms of AIDS. This is not surprising, since the drug (POLYSACCHARIDE or ACEMANNAN) is produced by the plant and would be present in the juice.

An article by Irwin frank in the July 12, 1988 edition of The Dallas Times Herald, quotes Dr. Terry Pulse as saying that twenty ounces of Aloe vera juice, with the drug stabilized in the Aloe, was administered orally to sixty-nine AIDS patients. (Apparently, the doctor means stabilized Aloe vera juice.)

According to the article, Pulse says the patients treated with the drug were classified as those who would "never improve or get better," but following treatment, were able to "return to normal work." The article quotes Dr. pulse as saying that these patients, "...go back to their standard energy level, their symptoms disappear almost completely - and that's in 81 % of the patients that I put on this drug." He adds that those patients with the AIDS virus who showed no symptoms of the disease remained free of symptoms while taking the drug, which is derived from the Aloe vera plant.

"The sooner you can get patients on this drug, the better off they are," says Pulse. He said his patients take twenty ounces of the liquid a day "and I keep them on it indefinitely. I've had some of them on it for over two years."

"We have had deaths," he says, "but in those patients (who died), most can be attributed to having gone and gotten chemotherapy for skin cancers or whatever, or have taken other drugs in combination that knocked out the immune system, such as AZT."

When asked what his study and treatment meant as far as an AIDS treatment or cure is concerned, Pulse replied, "It means that until there is a magic bullet, this is a stopgap measure, and it buys them (the AIDS patients) time at a fraction of the cost" of AZT. 

After reading this article, we obtained copies of the actual research data published by Dr. Pulse, together with his colleagues, H. R. McDaniel and T. Peg Watson, all of the Dallas-Fort Worth Medical Center. This information was evaluated to eliminate the confusing aspects concerning exactly what was used in the study, whether the product was Aloe vera juice or the drug, or both, and in what percentages. 

From this data and further investigation, it appears that Aloe vera juice in its natural state is just as effective as a treatment for AIDS as the freeze-dried drug derived from it. It is obvious that any AIDS patient who believes that Aloe vera might help his condition should be very careful to buy only real, 100% Aloe Vera Juice which, as we have noted repeatedly elsewhere, neither looks nor tastes like water. Real Aloe, we repeat, has a rather tart taste.