Dec. 09, 2009 - Issue #738: Manraygun
Well, Well, Well
Nutrition
The other side of the battle Food and water as vital as medication in the fight against HIV
In the wake of World AIDS Day, and with the longest night of the year and
deep winter just ahead, I've had some dark thoughts about Africa, and our
inner cities, and the disease that has broken the hearts and bodies of
millions. But HIV discoverer and 2008 Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier has
recently made some startling comments that have fanned a flickering light of
hope.
To be clear, Montagnier didn't say we should stop working on finding
effective AIDS medications, nor did he say HIV plays no role. But in a
conversation with award-winning filmmaker Brent Leung, he did say it plays a
minor role when immune function is strong, and that we have erred enormously
in our focus on drugs while ignoring the futility of the battle in light of
widespread hunger and unsafe water supply in Africa.
Leung, interviewing Montagnier for his film House of Numbers, asked him if
treating oxidaative stress—free radical cell damage—could be a
key element of our fight against the African AIDS epidemic. Montagnier
answers with this: " ... we can be exposed to HIV many times without [being]
chronically infected—our immune system will get rid of the virus within
a few weeks, if you have a good immune system. And this is the problem also
of the African people: their nutrition is not very equilibrated, they are in
oxidative stress, even if they are not infected with HIV, so their immune
system doesn't work well."
Africans are in oxidative stress because they are severely malnourished, and
because they are exposed to countless infections, many of them courtesy of
unsafe drinking water supplies.
Leung then, apparently to confirm he has understood correctly, asks: "If you
have a good immune system, then your body can naturally get rid of HIV?"
Montagnier says, "Yes."
Leung goes on to ask whether we should then emphasize antioxidants and other
immune-boosting nutrients over antiretrovirals. Montagnier says, "We should
push for more, you know, a combination of measures: antioxidants, nutrition
advice ... fighting other infections, malaria, tuberculosis, parasitosis,
worms ... very simple measures which [are] not very expensive, but which
could do a lot ... but you know those kind[s] of measures are not very well
funded."
Leung, getting it, but seemingly wanting to confirm he hasn't misunderstood,
says: "There's no money in nutrition, right? There's no profit." Montagnier
confirms: "There's no profit, yes. Water is important. Water is key."
Then Leung asks yet again about the possibility of a strong immune system
dealing effectively with HIV: "If you take a poor African who's been infected
and you build up their immune system, is it possible for them to also
naturally get rid of it?" Montagnier, nodding, says, "I would think
so."
"That's an important point," Leung says. Montagnier clearly agrees: "It's
important knowledge which is completely neglected. People always think of
drugs and vaccine. So this is a message which may be different from what you
heard before ... yes, my message, it's different from what you heard from
[Anthony] Fauci."
That HIV is can be fended off by a robust immune response fits exactly with
what the science in other arenas is clear on: we are very much what we eat
and drink and the level of toxins we are exposed to, and we become ill when
the raw materials to fight that which threatens us are deficient. As much as
90 percent of the thymus gland, which is responsible for immune function, has
been demonstrated lost with severely inadequate nutrition. Starving people
suffer with all manner of AIDS-defining diseases whether HIV is present or
not.
The solutions to AIDS are both much simpler and much broader—and much
less profitable—than we've been led to believe. And though Montagnier
and two other scientists interviewed for Leung's film have, since its
release, said their words were quoted out of context, uncut footage now
released delivers the conversation intact; it's available online, for those
who want to see the context for themselves. V
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