cover image You Dont Have to Dieaids Myth

You Dont Have to Dieaids Myth

Leon Chaitow. Future Medicine Publishing, $14.95 (319pp) ISBN 978-0-9636334-4-6

This book begins with two messages for the reader. The first: the idea that ``HIV = AIDS = Death has been so widely disseminated that to challenge it seems heretical. We will doubtless be accused of heresy.'' The second: ``Because the methods described in this book are by definition alternative methods, many of them have not been investigated.'' This book is no lifesaver, but it does provide an interesting alternative to the conventional beliefs about HIV and AIDS. In part one, the authors suggest that the traditional view of the HIV/AIDS connection is incorrect. To support their hypothesis, they cite some four thousand cases of AIDS worldwide in which there is no trace of HIV, and the many Americans who are HIV-positive yet remain asymptomatic; the authors maintain that we must look beyond the HIV virus to solve AIDS. The second section of the book is devoted to alternative treatments. Among the recommendations are a macrobiotic diet for anyone HIV-positive or ill with an AIDS-like condition, and nutritional supports, hypothermia treatments, oxygen therapy and herbal medicines. There is no question that nutrition is an important factor in the maintenance of a healthy immune system, but the administration of oxygen (orally or rectally) as a way to empower the immune system is still in doubt. (As is the efficacy of several of the other recommended alternative treatments here.) The final third of the book offers anecdotal histories of long-term survivors as proof to those skeptical of alternative remedies. But not even such accounts can erase the mixed message most readers will receive from this book. (Nov.)