Alan Barnwell English 1102 2/5/14

God vs. Man: Natural cure or man-made prescription for HIV In todays society we the public in the U.S. are largely advised to take prescription medicines to cure our sicknesses. I would say that the lesser half of our population know more than three different types of plants or herbs that can be consumed to help with minor pains, stomach aches or even a head ache. The one disease that everybody seems to be afraid of is Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Most people feel that it is a basically a living death sentence if you to contract this disease. What would you do if you found out that you were carrying this virus? Who would it affect if you were to contract this disease? After some thought about this virus, HIV crucially effects the person infected with the disease including anyone that they are around. This means doctors, family, children, ultimately just any person that they come in contact with. What if I told you that there was a cure through a natural process but your doctor told you that there was only a mixture of pills to help you live with the virus comfortably. Who would you listen to? Would you consider learning more about the natural option? I have a family member who has passed away due to this virus, HIV. He was a heroin addict and was sharing needles out in the city of Gainesville, Florida where he encountered the HIV virus. I went to see him a few times when he was in the hospital and

the effects of this virus are something of the likes I would not wish on anyone. The virus had made his testacies swell to the size of oranges, and also made him very skinny, almost as if he were just bone wrapped in skin. When I first found out he had HIV I didnt know what it was so I decided to further research the disease. According to Wikipedia, HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It affects your immune system to the point where it allows cancers, and other sicknesses to thrive inside your body. HIV attacks your immune system cells known as T-helper cells. These thelper cells kill cells that have been infected by germs, which in return have an effect on your B-cells that make antibodies. Once the number of T-cells drop to a certain amount your HIV is considered to be AIDs and at this point it becomes deadly. The research on HIV is extensive to say the least. Many scientist have searched for cures in modern day medicine by combining mixtures of different pills. Most doctors prescribe ART.

(Aids.gov) ART is a mixture of the expensive antiretroviral pills, one being AZT, the first HIV

drug approved for treatment. Now there are thirty different kinds of pills to be administered for the treatment of HIV. The selection of pills depends on the user, how many pills they want to take, and their CD4 count. Along with your daily cocktail you will need a healthy lifestyle to keep the virus under control and remain healthy. With rest, a regular schedule workout, and a balanced diet doctors say you can live next to a normal life. Although you will still be carrying the virus and some of its side effects, according to the doctors, ART is the best solution. In recent reports there has been a baby of 9 months who has been said to have been cured of HIV (Wilson 1). Doctors started treatment on this baby only hours after being born into this world. Dr. Persuad reported that the baby (at 9 months) was pronounced HIV negative. (Wilson 1) Still to this day the child receives a three-drug cocktail of anti-Aids treatments even though the child is still HIV negative. The child is 3 years old today. Another great example of this is Magic Johnson. He lives ART to the T and has been living 20 years since his diagnosis. He takes the same cocktail that is given to any Joe Blow that contracts HIV. This goes go to show that what doctors prescribe can relatively help you live out a regular life if followed precisely. Magic has said from his own mouth though he feels great he still lives with HIV and it has not slowed him down. Magic has also had children who are all HIV negative and his wife has been proven to be HIV negative. I personally am kind of skeptical about that report but at the same time realize that it is a miracle that his family has not received HIV through him. Just recently there was another treatment found that the government doesnt really want the public to know about, and that is a natural cure. The reason our government is

against this natural is cure comes down to one thing and that is money. When you look at the numbers there are two separate plans of HIV treatment. Plan A, and Plan B. Plan A is to add two years of life , and Plan B is to add 1 year to your life. The cost of Plan A is 41,667 per new case, and 7,400 for plan b annually for each new case (cdc). According to Webster Kehr, the cost annually for a natural more effective treatment is only 720 dollars a year. The cost of the treatments could be more or less expensive depending on your decision of which natural way you choose t go. In the end the treatments will be very well worth it considering you would be stomping the virus out your body in a capacity that doctor prescribed drugs could not. When it comes to money the government will do everything in the power to continue to make it and HIV treatment is one of the ways. The natural cure that I would use is found in black seed extract. The actual plant is called Nigella Sativa. There was a case study published in African Journal of Traditional, Complimentary, and Alternative Medicine, where a patient with HIV went under treatment with the black seed extract and exhibited a complete recovery (Sayer). According to the article Follow up tests revealed that even after 24 months without herbal therapy the patient's HIV tests remained normal, without any indication of infection or associated immune suppression.(Sayer. There was no detectable HIV virus and antibodies against HIV in the patients blood. The experiment was done over several weeks and tested 2 years after treatment stopped. The patient was simply given a dose of the black seed extract every day for 8 weeks. As the patient continued on this treatment all the symptoms of HIV gradually disappeared. (Sayer) Nigella Sativa also possess the ability to cure other illnesses. Thymoquinone, found in the seed oil extract of N. sativa, has been shown to have anti-neoplastic

(preventing growth of malignant cells) effects in rats and mice and in cultured human cells from several types of cancer, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (which is the most common types pancreatic cancer). It has protective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, and promotes apoptosis (cell death) of the cancer cells (wiki).The actual plant is native to south and southwest Asia. It was and still used as and seasoning for food to this day. Crazy right? In conclusion there are many different options to go about handling an HIV diagnosis but its all on the carrier to decide how they would want to go about handling their own case. If you type in HIV cures on google over 3 million results pop up. There are a lot of ways that you can go about living with HIV. Choosing from the doctors way or choosing to use natural treatment for it. From my research I believe that the natural route is better only because of my personal belief that God has a natural cure for everything in his garden( meaning from the earth that grows naturally).

Work Cited Aids.gov. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services., HIV/AIDS Basics 7 Aug 2009. Web. 25 Mar 2014.

CDC. HIV Cost Effectiveness Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 Apr. 2013 Web. 15 Apr. 2014
Wikimedia. Web. 25 Mar 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV Sayer, Ji. "Black Seed Extract 'Cures' HIV Patient Naturally." Journal Published In Green Med Info Education Equals Empowerment. N.p., 13 Dec 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. GreenMedInfo. Greenmedinfo.com Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 22 march 2014. Web. 25 Mar 2014. Black seed Extract Wilson, Jacque. "Second baby possibly 'cured' of HIV." CNN CNN. 6 march 2014: 1. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.