RESUMEN
Humans have evolved complex immune systems to protect against infection by pathogens. However, pathogens possess a remarkable genetic versatility that allows them to gain new vigour and so escape such population immunity. Conflicting pathogen-host objectives, therefore, lead to the evolutionary equivalent of an "arms race". Typically, in this struggle, pathogens attempt to deplete their host of specific nutrients that are essential for immune system function. After infection, the resulting deficiency of nutrient(s) may cause many of the disease symptoms and sequela. In malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, for example, depletes its host of Vitamin A, possibly resulting in blindness in some cases. However, 200,000 International Units of Vitamin A, given to children every three months can reduce significantly their susceptibility to malaria. This would seem to be a minimum child dosage for the treatment of the disease. In contrast, the Coxsackie B virus causes a selenium deficiency that may result in myocardial infarction or Keshan disease. However, table salt fortified with 15ppm anhydrous sodium selenite can cause dramatic drops in the incidence of Keshan disease, while selenium supplementation also reduces re-infarction rates. HIV-1 depletes its host of four nutrients: selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan, resulting in symptoms known as AIDS. Open and closed clinical trials in South Africa, Zambia and Uganda, involving daily adult doses of 600mcg l-selenomethione, and some 500mg l-glutamine, hydroxytryptophan and N-acetyl cysteine, however, have shown that such supplementation can reverse the symptoms of AIDS and prevent HIV-1 infected patients declining into this disease. It is obvious, therefore, that supplementation of diet with specific nutrients can reduce infection by particular pathogens. In addition, if infection still occurs, their use as a treatment may prevent many of the symptoms and sequela commonly associated with diseases such as malaria, myocardial infarction and AIDS.
Asunto(s)
Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/prevención & control , Interacciones Huésped-Patógeno/fisiología , Malaria/prevención & control , Infarto del Miocardio/prevención & control , Animales , Niño , Infecciones por Coxsackievirus , Enterovirus Humano B , Humanos , Modelos Biológicos , Infarto del Miocardio/virología , Plasmodium falciparum/crecimiento & desarrollo , Plasmodium falciparum/fisiologíaRESUMEN
Twenty-five years of experience with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have established that it is relatively difficult to transmit. The chance of medical personnel acquiring this virus by needlestick injury is only 0.3%. Similarly, the odds of an HIV-positive male infecting a female partner during one unprotected sexual encounter is 9 in 10,000. Furthermore, the per-act risk of infection from penal-anal intercourse with an HIV-positive male partner is established at 82 in 10,000. Since those who are not infected by such exposures do not develop antibodies against HIV, there must be an earlier line of defense. The global diffusion pattern of HIV/AIDS is strongly suggestive of a protective role for the trace element selenium. It is hypothesized here that the body's antioxidant defense system, especially the selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase, acts as an initial defense against viral infection, preceding the formation of antibodies. For this reason, HIV is having its greatest difficulty in infecting those with diets elevated in amino acids and the trace element selenium which, when eaten together, stimulate the body's production of glutathione peroxidase.
Asunto(s)
Antioxidantes/metabolismo , Infecciones por VIH/metabolismo , Infecciones por VIH/prevención & control , Animales , Condones , Femenino , Glutatión Peroxidasa/metabolismo , Homosexualidad , Humanos , Masculino , Ratones , Modelos Teóricos , Factores de Riesgo , Selenio/farmacología , Conducta Sexual , Parejas Sexuales , Oligoelementos/metabolismoRESUMEN
HIV-1 encodes for one of the human glutathione peroxidases. As a consequence, as it is replicated, its genetic needs cause it to deprive HIV-1 seropositive individuals not only of glutathione peroxidase, but also of the four basic components of this selenoenzyme, namely selenium, cysteine, glutamine, and tryptophan. Eventually this depletion process causes severe deficiencies of all these substances. These, in turn, are responsible for the major symptoms of AIDS which include immune system collapse, greater susceptibility to cancer and myocardial infarction, muscle wasting, depression, diarrhea, psychosis and dementia. As the immune system fails, associated pathogenic cofactors become responsible for a variety of their own unique symptoms. Any treatment for HIV/AIDS must, therefore, include normalization of body levels of glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, selenium, cysteine, glutamine, and tryptophan. Although various clinical trials have improved the health of AIDS patients by correcting one or more of these nutritional deficiencies, they have not, until the present, been addressed together. Physicians involved in a selenium and amino-acid field trial in Botswana, however, are reporting that this nutritional protocol reverses AIDS in 99% of patients receiving it, usually within three weeks.
Asunto(s)
Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/etiología , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/metabolismo , Infecciones por VIH/metabolismo , VIH-1 , Trastornos Nutricionales/etiología , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/sangre , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/dietoterapia , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/enzimología , Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida/prevención & control , Cisteína/sangre , Cisteína/deficiencia , Glutamina/sangre , Glutamina/deficiencia , Glutatión/sangre , Glutatión/deficiencia , Glutatión Peroxidasa/sangre , Glutatión Peroxidasa/deficiencia , Infecciones por VIH/sangre , Infecciones por VIH/dietoterapia , Seropositividad para VIH , Humanos , Trastornos Nutricionales/sangre , Trastornos Nutricionales/dietoterapia , Trastornos Nutricionales/metabolismo , Selenio/sangre , Selenio/deficiencia , Triptófano/sangre , Triptófano/deficienciaRESUMEN
Parkinson's disease, encephalitis lethargica, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients all display two distinct types of symptoms. Some of these are due directly to a deficiency of dopamine and are quickly reduced by laevodihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). The second set, however, are the result of neurological damage caused by metabolites of dopamine, which include dopachrome and other chrome indoles that are both hallucinogenic and neurotoxic. If this hypothesis is correct, three corollaries follow. Patients of all four disorders should display excessive oxidative stress, natural methyl acceptors should delay development and elevated antioxidant supplementation, given with L-DOPA, ought to prolong the "honeymoon" period in which the benefits of the drug out weigh its subsequent disadvantages. A literature review suggests that all three corollaries are probably correct.
Asunto(s)
Esclerosis Amiotrófica Lateral/tratamiento farmacológico , Antioxidantes/uso terapéutico , Levodopa/efectos adversos , Levodopa/uso terapéutico , Esclerosis Múltiple/tratamiento farmacológico , Enfermedad de Parkinson/tratamiento farmacológico , Complejo Vitamínico B/uso terapéutico , Antiparkinsonianos/efectos adversos , Antiparkinsonianos/uso terapéutico , Dopaminérgicos/efectos adversos , Dopaminérgicos/uso terapéutico , Discinesia Inducida por Medicamentos/etiología , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/inducido químicamente , Alucinaciones/inducido químicamente , Humanos , Estrés Oxidativo/efectos de los fármacos , Enfermedad de Parkinson Posencefalítica/tratamiento farmacológico , Psicosis Inducidas por Sustancias/etiología , Trastornos del Inicio y del Mantenimiento del Sueño/inducido químicamenteRESUMEN
Cancer might be expected to be more common amongst schizophrenics than the general population. They frequently live in selenium deficient regions, have seriously compromised antioxidant defense systems and chain-smoke. The available literature on the cancer-schizoprenia relationship in patients from England, Wales, Ireland, Denmark, USA and Japan, however, strongly suggests that the reverse is true. One of the authors (Hoffer) has treated 4000 schizophrenics since 1952. Only four of these patients has developed cancer. Since low cancer incidence has been recorded amongst patients treated by both conventional physicians using pharmaceuticals and by orthomolecular doctors who emphasize vitamins and minerals, it follows that this depressed cancer incidence must be related to the biochemistry of the disorder itself. Taken as a whole, therefore, the evidence seems to suggest that schizophrenics, their siblings and parents are less susceptible to cancer than the general population. These relationships seem compatible with one or more genetic risk factors for schizophrenia that offer(s) a selective advantage against cancer. There is experimental evidence that appears to support this possibility. Matrix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has received a US patent covering the composition of IntraDose Injectable Gel. This gel contains cisplatin and epinephrine (adrenaline) and is designed to be injected directly into tumour masses. Cisplatin is a very powerful oxidant which will almost certainly rapidly convert the adrenaline to adrenochrome. While the manufacturers of IntraDose consider cisplatin to be the active cytotoxic agent in IntraDose, it seems more likely that adrenochrome and its derivatives may, in fact, be more effective. IntraDose gel has undergone or is undergoing a series of Phase III open-label clinical studies, being injected into patients' tumours that have been identified as the most troublesome by their physicians. The results have been impressive for breast cancer, malignant melanoma, esophageal cancer and cancer of the head, neck and liver. The evidence suggests that there are balanced morphisms in schizophrenia that result in above normal exposure to catecholamine derivatives. Since such catecholamines are both hallucinogenic and anticarcinogenic abnormally high exposure to them simultaneously increases susceptibility to schizophrenia and reduces the probability of developing cancer. These observations have significant implications for the treatment of both illnesses.