A must read on alternative therapies

[Peter Staley]

One of our bloggers, Paul Dalton, just posted a must-read entry regarding alternative therapies (like herbal medicines, "immune-boosting" vitamins, etc.):

http://blogs.poz.com/paul/archives/2008/09/prove_it.html

[Miss Philicia]

As I'm reading Paul's post (who is kind of hunky btw) I'm virtually whisked back to my own life in the early 90's -- the mountains of blue green algae pills, the Nick Siano symposiums at Friends in Deed, smelly tumeric turning my piss odd colors, expensive imported pills from France made of some kind of shrub wood.  Endless jaunts to the sole pharmacy that carried these oddities on 2nd Ave. in the East Village.  Biweekly visits to a South African acupuncturist, who had an actual M.D. degree so he'd bill my medical insurance for it but with some other coding so I paid nothing (evidently he was so good he even appeared on CNN about the topic).

But then Paul writes:

What really improved my health however wasn’t herbs, wasn’t massage, wasn’t yoga, wasn’t prayer, wasn’t tweaking my chi- it was stavudine, lamivudine and indinavir- nasty, harsh and altogether life saving chemicals.

::nods head in agreement::

[Dachshund]

I remember each summer in 86 and 87 traveling to Boston to attend the Kushi Institute and immerse myself in macrobiotic cooking. I was convinced macrobiotics was the answer to da AIDS. Three grand a summer to learn how to cook dandelions and kombu to get my ying/yang back on track. In 88 I decided I liked cocaine better than a daikon radish tea.

[aztecan]

Oh boy, does this ring a lot of bells.

Spirulina powder, now marketed as bluegreen algae. I used to mix that powder with milk every morning, along with a banana and anything else I could think of to prevent it tasting like the bottom of a fish tank. It was gritty and nasty tasting, but that meant it worked, right?

Kombucha tea, made by immersing some organism into sugared tea, letting it digest the sugar and then drinking the aftermath. Didn't taste that bad, but not that great either.

Chinese herbs, usually prescribed by a friend who swore he could tell I needed them just by looking at me.

This same friend, who also had the AIDS, got me to try some experimental stuff some biologist he knew had come up with. We were supposed to put an eyedropper full into a glass of tepid water and drink it twice a day. To this day I don't know what the ingredients in this elixir were. For all I know the biologist was peeing in the bottles. It tasted rather like urine.

As our Alan is fond of saying, we would have probable drank Drano if someone said it would help.

As Paul wrote in his blog, it was the meds that worked for him. Me too!

They came along just in time for me. My friend, who convinced me to try all that weird stuff, passed away in 2000.

He was lousy when it came to adherence to a regimen.

Hey Doxie, I don't know about diakon tea, but I like dandelion greens. As for the cocaine, well, these days I'll just stick to coffee and green tea.

HUGS,

Mark

[Dachshund]

Hey Doxie, I don't know about diakon tea, but I like dandelion greens. As for the cocaine, well, these days I'll just stick to coffee and green tea.

I haven't done blow in years, but it sure took the edge off da AIDS in the early 90's. 

[Miss Philicia]

I think the worst thing that I remember is making tea from some crap called "bitter melon" -- it's was just dreadful.

And IIRC that blue green algae is a major fart producer.  I wish I had kept records of the massive amounts of money I spent on all of this crap.

[Dachshund]

I remember a friend of mine (dead) thought reiki would heal his aids.

[allopathicholistic]

I remember each summer in 86 and 87 traveling to Boston to attend the Kushi Institute and immerse myself in macrobiotic cooking. I was convinced macrobiotics was the answer to da AIDS. Three grand a summer to learn how to cook dandelions and kombu to get my ying/yang back on track. In 88 I decided I liked cocaine better than a daikon radish tea.

You could'a had a V8 (or an 8-ball)