A lot of patients infected with HIV, the virus causing AIDS, are trying alternative forms of treatment – apart from conventional methods - to help relieve symptoms including severe pain. But just how many people are turning to methods like herbs, massage, or acupuncture and, more importantly, do they work? According to two latest studies appearing in a recent edition of the journal Alternative Therapies, they do — to a certain extent, of course.
In one these studies of nearly one thousand HIV patients in Australia, the scientists not only wanted to find out how many people were using alternative therapies, but also why they were using them. "The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which people use alternative therapies" instead of or in combination with traditional ones - particularly antiretroviral treatments commonly used to stop the progress of the spread of the disease, a scientist Richard de Visser tells WebMD. De Visser is a doctoral candidate and project officer at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health, and Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne.
The investigators discovered subjects were using alternative treatments including nutritional supplements, diet modification, herbal medications, massage, and meditation and prayer. Acupuncture was not included in the research. De Visser claims that the two major findings were that more than half of all people examined– 56 per cent - use alternative therapies, and that these therapies are usually used along with antiretroviral medications. "It is therefore not astonishing that [HIV patients] had positive attitudes to both antiretroviral medicines and alternative therapies," de Visser states.
De Visser also claims that they discovered that most people do not make an either/or choice between alternative therapies and antiretroviral medications. Instead of that, they choose therapies that will give them the best possibility to minimize the side effects of both their disease and medicines, and improve their general well-being. "Taking a holistic approach and being actively involved in health care decision making seems to be essential for [these patients], and may be relevant for patients suffering from other chronic diseases," de Visser says.
At the Yale School of Nursing, the scientists studied eleven people infected with HIV to find out if acupuncture helped alleviate symptoms - such as pain - and as a consequence improve their quality of life. The specialist Margaret W. Beal, PhD, claims it did. Normally, acupuncture involves penetration of specific locations on the skin - called acupuncture points – by means of thin, sterilized needles.
Beal, an associate professor at the Yale School of Nursing, claims that due to the fact that the research was extremely small, people shouldn’t draw conclusions concerning the effectiveness of acupuncture to alleviate symptoms of HIV. "However, due to the fact that all of our patients in this research who had gastrointestinal symptoms experienced some relief, there is a good reason to suppose that there’s potential for acupuncture to be effective for patients with [gastrointestinal] problems either caused by HIV or their medications they take for HIV." Actually, Beal claims that Yale investigators have applied for a grant from the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to examine acupuncture relief of gastrointestinal symptoms in people with HIV.
Health care specialists overwhelmingly agree that patients should talk to their healthcare providers before turning to alternative therapies, claims Beal, whether it’s acupuncture, changes in diet, or herbs. "There are various reports of people trying things on their own. I can understand their desperation, however if they are not aware of the risks connected, they may just make thongs worse."
Take the herb St. John’s wort, a popular herb used for the treatment of mild-to-moderate depression. In the United States, herbs are categorized as food supplements and can be sold without any approval from the FDA. Last February, two separate studies published in the British medical journal The Lancet revealed that the herb interferes with HIV medications therapies. At the time, Georg Noll, MD, an author of one report, stated that many physicians and their patients are unaware that taking herbs bought at the corner drugstore may be hazardous, particularly due to the fact that they can interfere with other medicines. "I tell patients that they shouldn’t take any over-the-counter medications without consulting the treating physician," he told WebMD. Noll is a cardiologist at University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland.
As a consequence of The Lancet research, the FDA undertook some steps. It quickly issued an advisory letter to health care providers warning about the results of combining St. John’s wort with other drugs. In particular, that it can stunt HIV treatment and decrease the effectiveness of many medications or result in drug-resistant viruses. "People who suffer want relief," Noll says. "But instead, they may just make things worse if they don’t seek sound medical advice."
De Visser claims that the results of the Australian research and other studies discover that many people infected with HIV want to be, and are, very active in decision making about their health care. In Australia, he says, these patients have free access to various antiretroviral treatments, but they also have access to a wide range of alternative therapies. "Even though they need to meet the full cost of alternative therapies, it seems that many [of them] are convinced that the use of alternative therapies improves their quality of life."
