NYKat's nutrition/vitamins/ health guide. SERIOUS!

[NewYorkKat]

let me share what I do. it helped lower my VL from 14.500 to 1700. and no meds.

1. drink plenty of water with lemon. water from Brita works best with freshly squeezed lemon. it quenches your thirst and is refreshing especially in the summer time! Also drink with your meals! Water is much better for than soda!
2. I take Ester, selenium, green tea, b-12, protegra (antioxidant), host defense (mushroom extract) pick that up at your local health food store!, multivitamin.
3. Invite REDS, a powder supplement that I put into a blender with blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries, with whey protein and water, flax seed oil and liquid b complex.
4. avoid raw foods like sushi!
5. Wash your hands after every meal, went coming in from the outside, and before bed.
6.drink Metamucil twice a day! fiber helps!
7. eat yogurt! Take care of your gut! Remember 70% of your immune system is in your gut!
8. get plenty of rest. relax, chill out, watch TV, read a book. seriously, poz people need to slow down. it helps your immune system.
9. treat yourself to a massage especially a foot rub! it helps!
10. hit the gym. cardio and yoga also help. Birk-am yoga will sweat you like a pig and rid the body of toxins!
11. learn to check your blood pressure and cholesterol with home kits! I have them and they help! keep track of your health with them!
12. avoid party drugs and alcohol! they ruin your body and you don;t need that!
13. brush your teeth and floss! I do this after every meal, before bed, and when I feel my mouth yucky especially after a long conversation instead of chewing mints! Also use mouthwash!
14. get a manicure and pedicure. you carry a lot so nasty germs under your finger nails!
15. learn to laugh!

if there is anything else i will post!

Love ya!
NYKAT

[camille07]

Hey I agree with most of your post and would like to add some things.  Last year when I first got tested my numbers were cd4 460 / cd4% 29 with a vl of 2,000.  Over the course of the year the vL stayed the same but my cd4 was getting lower and lower.  I was on a regime of vitamins and herbs including the host defense.
Ester C
selenium w/ vitamin E
B-complex
coQ 10
acidophilus
astragulas

I made a change back in December and added this to my diet:
L- Glutamine       500mg
NAC                  1200mg
Alpha Lipoic Acid 300 mg

My numbers changed 3 months later to a cd4 520/ cd4% 45 with a vl of 700.

And pets are really helpful.  I have a great dane (couch potato) who really relieves so much stress.  I have 2 cats in the mix who my dog thinks are her pets.

Be well,

Cammie

[egello]

sorry, tried all that, doesn't work

[sweetasmeli]

NYKAT
Although I applaud many of the things you are doing (and I do some of them too) I think perhaps I should caution you against saying

it helped lower my VL from 14.500 to 1700. and no meds.

I only say this as, unless you were involved in a specific scientific study to measure the benefits of all the things you are doing, there is no way of actually knowing that what you are doing is the reason behind your drop in viral load.

I think it's cool that you're doing all you're doing and its also cool that you're not on meds and are doing so well  - like I said, I do a lot of simliar stuff too and am also not on meds - just be careful about putting things out there as 'evidence' that they are behind your change in numbers because it can be a whole range of things that can affect how our numbers bounce around or stay constant.

Hope you don't mind me saying. And keep on keeping on!

Melia

[Matty the Damned]

I have to agree with Miss Melia, Kat. There is no scientific evidence to prove that any of the things that you're doing will have any direct effect on viral load. It's important that HIV positive people understand that so far the only thing which has been demonstrated to suppress VL is Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy.

Nevertheless a healthy diet and a commonsense approach to living will certainly make living with HIV much more bearable.

Also,

eat yogurt! Take care of your gut! Remember 70% of your immune system is in your gut!

I'm not sure that 70% of the "immune system" is found in the gut. Perhaps providing some hard evidence before using numbers such as that would be wiser.

MtD

[egello]

aids dissidents like David Rasnick, Gary Null, they actually work for or get tons of money from vitamin companies that are trying to market their products to insecure sick people like us.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/opinion/04moore.html?ex=1182312000&en=7564b2979c59da65&ei=5070

[HIV? poz about being neg]

I apploud NYKat on sharing her information for those of us who are not on meds yet It really can't hurt to try other peoples idea's as long as we continue to see are Dr's regularly and be monitored.
Thanks NYKat.

[Matty the Damned]

I apploud NYKat on sharing her information for those of us who are not on meds yet It really can't hurt to try other peoples idea's as long as we continue to see are Dr's regularly and be monitored.
Thanks NYKat.

Neg,

Neither myself nor Miss Melia disagree with Kat when she talks about the need for good nutrition, exercise and other aspects of healthy living as being an essential part of dealing with HIV infection. In fact we both made a point of emphasising those parts of her original post.

Our concern is the suggestion that by doing those things she talks about she (and by implication others) has seen a reduction in her viral load. There absolutely no scientifically valid evidence to support such a claim and we need to be careful that people don't think that's the case.

Only HAART has been demonstrated to reduce HIV viral load with any therapeutic benefit.

MtD

[sweetasmeli]

I apploud NYKat on sharing her information for those of us who are not on meds yet It really can't hurt to try other peoples idea's as long as we continue to see are Dr's regularly and be monitored.
Thanks NYKat.

Neg,

Neither myself nor Miss Melia disagree with Kat when she talks about the need for good nutrition, exercise and other aspects of healthy living as being an essential part of dealing with HIV infection. In fact we both made a point of emphasising those parts of her original post.

Our concern is the suggestion that by doing those things she talks about she (and by implication others) has seen a reduction in her viral load. There absolutely no scientifically valid evidence to support such a claim and we need to be careful that people don't think that's the case.

Only HAART has been demonstrated to reduce HIV viral load with any therapeutic benefit.

MtD

Exactly. By all means, continue to do whatever you think will help your immune system do battle with the virus. However, be aware that we have to be very careful what information we are putting out here on the forums as 'opinion' and what we are putting out here as 'evidence' and 'fact'.

With respect
Melia

[J.R.E.]

eat yogurt! Take care of your gut! Remember 70% of your immune system is in your gut!

I'm not sure that 70% of the "immune system" is found in the gut. Perhaps providing some hard evidence before using numbers such as that would be wiser.

MtD

Actually, I believe that to be true. I have read it before, at several different sites.   Here's one place :



http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060630230514data_trunc_sys.shtml


Perhaps those more knowledgeable will comment...

Ray

[Matty the Damned]

Actually, I believe that to be true. I have read it before, at several different sites.   Here's one place :

Perhaps those more knowledgeable will comment...

Ray

Well Ray, what you believe is always welcome in these situations and I'm grateful for your contribution. When one can't find the relevant wikipedia reference, scienceagogo is a worthy substitute.

MtD

[J.R.E.]

Well Ray, what you believe is always welcome in these situations and I'm grateful for your contribution. When one can't find the relevant wikipedia reference, scienceagogo is a worthy substitute.

MtD

That article was from the Journal of Virology.



Would this be better 2nd paragraph down :

http://www.physorg.com/news73573729.html

[J.R.E.]

Or perhaps :


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=58160

[J.R.E.]

And in another related article from this site's news section :

http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/1667_10967.shtml

[J.R.E.]

And from the Danactive Site :

"Furthermore, around 70% of our immune system is located in our intestine, which contains 100,000 billion bacteria. All these components present locally are in close relation to the rest of the organism and play an active part in health.
About 70% of your body's immune system is found in the digestive tract. The digestive tract's immune system is often referred to as GALT (Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue) and works to protect the body from invasion. The GALT is made up of several types of lymphoid tissue that produce and store immune cells that carry out attacks and defend against harmful bacteria.

[Matty the Damned]

As usual Ray, your prissy point is made. Naturally you missed what we were really trying to do here, but just so long as you managed to score some cheap points, that's what really counts.

MtD

[J.R.E.]

As usual Ray, your prissy point is made.
MtD

And whats the point that I apparently missed Matty ?

[J.R.E.]

Naturally you missed what we were really trying to do here, but just so long as you managed to score some cheap points, that's what really counts.

MtD

Whats the point I missed?

[J.R.E.]

And by the way, I don't play games. I am not here to "score points"

[milker]

Ray, arguing with Matty is like farting against the wind

Milker.

[sweetasmeli]

Before it gets completely lost, my point (as was Matty’s) was to make NYKat aware of the dangers of posting opinion as opposed to scientific fact and evidence, especially when it comes to the ups and downs of viral loads.

To steal a recent quote from Living With:

Science is not a poll or questionnaire. Science is rigorous testing and trial.

Both me and Matty agree with NYKat’s views on healthy eating and living – as we both said – but the point we were both making was for her not to present the 15 points she listed as the reasons behind her change in viral load, without the scientific evidence to support that.

Come on boys! Hangbags down please...
Miss Melia

[Matty the Damned]

Ray,

I shouldn't have called your comments prissy. I apologise.

MtD

[NewYorkKat]

hey guys

I am so sorry about the posting. Yes I understand about HAART. Yes it is true but sometimes sharing info doesn't hurt. who knows what will happen on my next blood test. maybe (I hope not!) my vl goes up and my t cell goes down.

I was told that this happens everyday of our lives. Up and down and down and up.

I only go according to what I see here like the selenium in take and berrys

[sweetasmeli]

Hi NYKat
Don't be sorry for your post. Like I already said it's cool the stuff you're doing and undoubtedly to some degree it will be helping your immune system in it's daily battles. And correct, sharing info doesn't hurt, especially stuff like this. As long as we remember to present it as anecdotal evidence as opposed to evidence based on scientific studies, accordingly.

Keep up the healthy lifestyle. I'm not far behind you...on the bus, lol!

Melia  

[HIV? poz about being neg]

Wow OK..... NYKat we all need to share our methods whether they are scientific or not whatever.. Blah blah with all the waste of money people keep telling us these supplements are, we work for our money end of story. No one may have scientifically proven that supplements are doing us any good but me myself and whom ever else believes we are doing good with our methods should share them. Opinions are important that's how scientist come up with there idea's, and there pills. Until your methods fail you keep them going, keep sharing we all need to be our own scientists sometimes.
Opinions may become facts.
I go over the list of people's opinions on diffrent supplements look what there saying about Green tea, selenium and several other they are claiming have scientific evidence. All of us need to share our methods. This whole beet juice thing and all its important. Once again thank you NYKat and everyone else who shares there methods.
It helps me and my own methods.

[rick21007]

Good of you, NYKat for sharing what is working for you.  I do pretty close to the same in terms of vitamins and selenium and I work out regularly.  I find I eat a lot of raw fruit and vegetables and I am a carnivore (red meat )  I have both hiv (diagnosed the day before you were) and chronic hep B.  I count myself very fortunate not to have had a sick day since before Christmas.  But for most of the year before that I was sick with OI's and severe acute hep.  I started the selenium and vitamins and joined a gym in January.  Not on meds (yet) either.  Last numbers CD4 460 %39 and VL 22,000 which was a drop from 86,000 just before I started the regimen.  Due to have new labs done next week so will see where I am.  True what we do proves nothing--there are unknown variables to consider like one's own geneticly determined ability to deal with the virus(es).  But sounds like whatever is working for us hate to tinker with it too much.   Stress is my biggest battle right now, and has been, but I have a different future planned and it's just a matter of holding on until it falls into place.

regards, Rick

[Merlin]

Hey Rick, how's the results been? Hopefully, it's much better.

Stay well and be at Peace.

Blessd Be!

Michael