Excerpted from Ancient Herbs, Modern Medicine
by  Henry Han, O.M.D., Glenn E. Miller, M.D., and Nancy Deville

It was the life most of us only glimpse in gossip magazines. The charismatic producer with dark movie-star good looks and magnetic smile, under contract with a major studio, living in a beautiful home in the Hollywood hills with Tinseltown sprawling at his feet. In 1986, thirty-three-year old Brandon Elliot had it all. He had a glamorous social life. He had maintained the physical edge he had cultivated in college as a competitive swimmer. An accomplished equestrian, he owned and trained thoroughbred horses. Competing in horse shows was a focal point in his life.

Then he was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus—known simply by its acronym, HIV—that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. A virus is a minute parasitic organism that is incapable of growth and reproduction apart from living cells. In simplified terms, HIV is referred to as a retrovirus because it invades a type of cells called T-Cells, which are part of the immune system that combat infections. Once inside the T-cell, the HIV virus infiltrates the cell’s ribronucleic acid (RNA) which controls protein production in these and all living cells. The HIV virus is able to convert the RNA into its own DNA—an acid that carries genetic information. This ability to switch from RNA to DNA accounts for HIV’s moniker “retrovirus.” In addition, the HIV virus replicates within the cell. As more T cells are invaded and more HIV virus is replicated, T cell count falls. The immune system is weakened and eventually destroyed.

Stephen Hosea, M.D. is in private practice, specializing in infectious diseases and is associate director of the internal medicine training program at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. Dr. Hosea said, “I like to think of the helper cells like the conductor of the orchestra. The conductor tells the other cells that are in the orchestra what to do resulting in a symphonic immune system. When the conductors aren’t there, it’s just noise and none of the other cells know what to do. They can’t work together to create an effective front to fight off infections.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a system of categorizing the progression of HIV to AIDS: 1) Primary infection. Symptoms of the primary infection start approximately two to four weeks after exposure. The illness is acute and lasts for about one to three weeks. There may be signs of an acute nonspecific viral infection with fever, malaise, rash, joint pain, rash, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes and headache. 2) Chronic phase. Patients convert to HIV positive, which is marked by the absence of the signs and symptoms just described. For the majority of individuals this chronic phase can last anywhere from seven to ten years. There are always exceptions—people who convert from the primary infection to the chronic phase in six months to full blown AIDS. Typically the chronic phase lasts for years while the virus causes the destruction of more and more T cells and replicates more HIV. This results in a progressive loss of immune function. 3) Full blown AIDS phase. When a syndrome of opportunistic infections occur—such as thrush (a fungal infection of the mouth or vagina), herpes simplex (a viral infection of the mouth, genitals and anus), or Kaposi’s sarcoma (a skin malignancy)—a person is considered to have AIDS.

When Brandon was diagnosed with the HIV virus, he assumed he would be just another statistic in an epidemic of inexplicable, acute suffering and swift death that was sweeping the globe. His physician wanted to put him on AZT, which had just come out. AZT belongs to a class of drugs called HIV protease inhibitors that are designed to lower the amount of HIV in the body—referred to as the viral load—thus increasing the number of functional disease fighting T cells. Brandon flatly refused. Instead of going on AZT, Brandon took steps to clean up his lifestyle, eliminating caffeine, alcohol, processed foods, recreational drugs and other toxins. He ate only organic foods, avoided stress and got more rest.

Eight years later, in 1994, at forty-one years of age Brandon was at the height of his career. He was nominated for producer of the year by the Producer’s Guild. A Hallmark television movie he had produced that year received five Emmy nominations and won three. Despite being HIV positive, Brandon’s future seemed paved with gold. Physically he had never felt stronger. He was running, lifting weights and swimming. He was feeling somewhat impervious to the HIV virus. But the turning point would come suddenly and without warning. “I had intentionally lost ten pounds of fat. I was what they call ‘ripped,’” he said. “One day at the gym, I looked at myself and thought, you know, I really do look incredible. In fact I was in such great shape that I thought I’d start training for a triathlon. The very next day I collapsed and couldn’t get out of bed. I knew my T-cells were dropping, but I never thought that in twenty-four hours the virus would take over my whole being.”

In an industry where heterosexual marriage is an essential component to image, and where movie stars and studio executives enter into marriages as arrangements to create an acceptable persona, being gay was one strike, being gay with HIV was anathema. The next four months Brandon worked at home and laid low in an attempt to hide his illness from his associates at the studio. When a new studio head was hired, Brandon was called in for a face to face meeting that he could not avoid. By then he was deathly pale and had begun to lose muscle mass. “I borrowed some makeup from my mother and tried to make myself look healthier,” Brandon said. “She drove me there and waited while I went in for the meeting. I thought I did okay and that I had gotten away with it. But after that, everyone knew.”

Brandon managed to hang on until his contract ran out at the end of the year. But he could not continue the pretense any longer. His hair had begun to thin. The gum tissue supporting the bone around his molars had receded, exposing the roots. He had eight molars pulled. He had lost all control over his life. “The ill effects of the virus kept gathering like moss on a stone,” Brandon said. “Once I was headed downhill this illness kept getting bigger and bigger and faster and faster until it rolled over me.” He knew that when the disease went into full swing nothing could stop it. Instead of renegotiating his studio contract, Brandon did his best to put on a brave front explaining that he had been there long enough and that it was time to move on.

Brandon’s immune system had begun to fail. He remained in a self-imposed solitary confinement in his Hollywood hills home for several months. His horses languished in their stalls. He had no energy to devote to his dogs. In the spring, his attorney helped him move to Santa Barbara, a resort town one hundred and fifty miles north of Los Angeles. Brandon settled into a cottage where his horses were corralled right off his bedroom, his dogs were at his side and he had a view of the ocean. His focus shifted to finding good homes for his animals while he steeled himself for imminent death. But he was terrified.

One month after moving to Santa Barbara, Brandon awoke with an intense headache. Slick with perspiration, his heart racing wildly, he crawled on his hands and knees out to his car. With his head lobbed to one side against the window, he drove himself to the nearest hospital emergency room where he was diagnosed with meningitis and admitted to the hospital. Dr. Hosea, Brandon’s attending physician, started him on anti viral medications and explained that after they cleared up the infection, he wanted to start him on the cocktail—the colloquial term for a combination of three or more HIV drugs that work in concert to lower a patient’s viral load with the least amount of toxicity.

According to Dr. Hosea, the newer drugs were much less toxic than AZT alone and the cocktail had proven to be more effective in prolonging life while preserving the best quality of life. “The virus replicates so quickly that it can become resistant to a single drug. It is more difficult for the virus to become resistant to three drugs.” The object of the cocktail was to slow down the replication of HIV so that the T cells, which are constantly replicating, could build back up, which correspondingly builds up the immune system. There is much evidence to support the use of HIV drugs. “I have seen a fair number of patients who had close to zero T cells, who now have normal numbers of T cells because the drugs have successfully suppressed the virus,” Dr. Hosea said.

Brandon did not go on the cocktail at that time, but went home from the hospital to recover from meningitis. He returned two weeks later, this time by ambulance, struggling to breathe and running a temperature of 105. He had developed pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, one of the dreaded diseases of HIV. Brandon was given an antiinflammatory drug to treat the inflammatory complications of pneumonia, and prednisone to bring his fever down. Prednisone is a synthetic steroid similar to cortisone that is used as an antiallergic, immunosuppressive, and anticancer drug and as an anti-inflammatory agent.

The prednisone brought Brandon’s fever down, but not without severe side effects. “My tongue split open from a reaction to the prednisone. So that I could eat, I had to use this glue stuff [which was denture paste laced with cortisone] that I’d squirt on the split on my tongue that would keep it sealed for an hour so I could get food down.” He soon found that he could not discontinue the use of prednisone without suffering from severe muscle ache, chills and fever. “There were times when I had to be held down, I was convulsing so violently. It was like having exorcism.” But nothing else could be done to keep his fever below 105 and he was forced to keep taking prednisone.

Dr. Hosea is a spiritually minded, empathic man who is committed to helping the terminally ill and dying. Brandon’s confidence in Dr. Hosea combined with a feeling of having nothing left to lose gave him the incentive to agree to go on a cocktail of Crixovan, AZT and 3 TC. It was November of 1996; Brandon was forty three.

Eight months into his treatment on the cocktail, Brandon had a realization that was to be a turning point. “When you’re so traumatized your mind shuts down. You’re just not aware of anything. One day, I was having a moment of clarity and looked at myself. There was no doubt that the virus had affected me, but the drugs had completely destroyed any health or vitality I had left. The insides of my cheeks were ripped open as if someone took razor blades to the flesh. I had a quarter sized hole in the back of my throat. My jaw was swollen on one side to the size of a half a baseball. I had gone from a having a muscular body to cellulite. My waist had gone from a thirty one to thirty-eight inches, so I looked pregnant. My eyes were sunken and swollen. My hair was falling out in clumps. My skin was itchy and scaly. If I scratched, the bumps would bleed and spread, like leprosy. ”

The youthful, athletic and dynamic film producer Brandon had once been was a dim memory, replaced with a depressed, ravaged man who had barely the energy to navigate the triangle from his bed, the bathroom and the living room. It was true that his T cell count was improving and that the drugs were saving his life. But it was not enough. “I started contemplating suicide,” Brandon said. “I just didn’t have the energy or the gusto anymore to live.”

A combined treatment plan of Western drugs and Chinese herbs

While Dr. Hosea has seen firsthand the benefits of HIV drugs, he is realistic. “One of the problems with the AIDS drugs, is that they get approved soon after they show any efficacy, before we understand the toxicities associated with them.” One of the fundamental problems with many Western drugs are the side effects. Although Western pharmaceuticals developed from herbology, as Western medicine became more focused on technology it became less concerned with side effects. Since World War II, more drugs have been made by chemical synthesis—they are chemical imitations of plant medicines. These isolated, pure and extremely concentrated ingredients are highly effective, but also come with side effects. In spite of efforts by researchers to combat them, side effects can often be an intractable problem. Medication errors and serious side effects accounts for some 7,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

Western pharmacology has constantly searched for an isolated pure substance with the highest degree of potency that will not cause side effects. This ideal has proven to be elusive. What has proven to be true is that the higher degree of purification, the higher degree of side effects. Two thousand years ago, Chinese had an advanced knowledge of chemistry and made efforts to isolate certain ingredients from natural substances. This stage of Chinese medicine reigned for a couple hundred years and then eventually died down. Doctors came to a consensus that mainstream Chinese medicine was to continue to use natural substances in their whole state. The exploration into isolated active ingredients ended there. Natural substances used in their whole state have fewer side effects. Natural substances in their whole state contain ingredients that are meant to interact synergistically and to counteract potential side effects.

As Chinese herbal medicine gains more attention, researchers are turning toward these drugs to isolate their active ingredients. Isolating active ingredients from herbs runs counter to Chinese medicine’s basic philosophy of wholeness. An isolated active ingredient does not have the synergistic and buffering properties that it has when it remains in the whole form of an herb. Isolated active ingredients cause side effects and side effects are not tolerated in Chinese medicine. In fact, if side effects occur, the treatment is considered a failure even when the treatment is effective. By using whole herbs Chinese medicine can avoid and alleviate most side effects. To elaborate: A natural plant can contain dozens of active ingredients that all have chemical or physiological effects on the human body. At the same time, the plant may contain some ingredients that have no effect on the body. Within these ingredients are complex interactions. Take the simple saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The truth in this saying lies in the fact that the many active ingredients within the apple interact within the body. We do not completely understand the synergy that occurs with these active ingredients. But we do know that if we isolate all of the active ingredients from an apple and ingest them individually, we will never get the same health benefits as eating the real apple. It is one of the wonders of nature.

Instead of isolating active ingredients, Chinese medicine takes a holistic approach in using natural substances. In other words, Chinese medicine looks at the overall property of a natural substance. For example, if you have cold symptoms and you eat ginger and you feel better, then ginger must have a worthy property. One does not have to know the exact properties of each active ingredient within the ginger. Herbalists need to know how ginger interacts with other herbs because when herbs are put together in a formula there can be many interactions. Because of these interactions, Chinese medicine relies heavily on experience accumulated over thousands of years.

Part of the art of herb combining is controlling and minimizing side effects. The undesired aspects of herbs are canceled or balanced out by another herb. In addition, when herbs are combined there can be certain aspects that are not desirable for the particular treatment purpose. However, when properly combined, these aspects are balanced out by other herbs and the desirable aspects reinforced.

While it is extremely dangerous and inadvisable to self-diagnose and treat with Western medicine, Chinese medicine is more forgiving. Even if you are wrong, there often is no harm done. Taking the wrong herb or combination of herbs may not solve your problem, but most of the time it will not hurt you.

Brandon’s case presents a classic example of how people who would have otherwise quickly perished are being kept alive as a result of the technological advances of Western medicine. Brandon’s case also demonstrates how vital the quality of life is to our existence. Chinese medicine gives quality of life issues top priority by focusing first and foremost on improving or maintaining a patient’s sense of well being.

In July 1997, Brandon learned about Chinese herbs from an AIDS volunteer and sought out treatment at a clinic where Dr. Han was consulting.

Dr. Han recognized that Brandon’s illness had been caused by the External Cause HIV virus. The HIV virus is considered Wen Yi—a highly contagious External Cause. Given his advanced state, his External Causes and the medical conditions they had caused had deeply altered Brandon’s Energetic systems. He was severely Kidney Energy deficient. Kidney Energy in Chinese medicine provides the most important part of vitality. Kidney Energy has two sides, Yin and Yang. The Yin side is the cooling, calming, nourishing side, and Yang is the warming, active, functional side. Brandon’s Kidney Energy was deficient on both sides. Nearly all his Energetic systems were depleted, and on top of that there was a tremendous amount of Toxin stagnation. Part of the stagnation was from the virus, but part of it was clearly from the side effects of the medications he was on.

“Dr. Han gave me herbs to ‘cure my fever,’” Brandon said. “I thought, oh sure. I’d been to every top doctor on the West Coast and nothing was going to shake this.” To his great surprise Brandon began to immediately improve. “I could feel the fever lifting and I cried with joy. I started feeling stronger every day.” During this time, Dr. Han also weaned Brandon off the prednisone. Three weeks after beginning the herbs, Brandon’s Shen became strong enough that he accepted an invitation to a party—where he met his current partner. Brandon began living again and his Vital Energy returned.

Dr. Hosea learned about and was convinced of the benefits of Chinese herbal medicine through the positive experiences of his patients. “My personal approach is to support anything that helps my patients,” Dr. Hosea said. “With AIDS, we can treat the pneumonia and the meningitis, but we can’t effectively treat the nausea, the diarrhea or the other side effects of the medicine. I clearly remember when Brandon began the herbal medicines. He tolerated the medicines better, looked better and he was gaining weight.” Dr. Hosea is one of the many Western doctors who have learned about the benefits of Chinese medicine from their patients and who are now beginning to consult and work together with Chinese doctors on their patients’ treatment plans. “My patients have taught me the benefits of Chinese medicine. It is something we are just not taught about in Western medicine at all. I have been pleasantly surprised to find out that patients have sought out herbal medicines and are getting good results from it when I wasn’t able to help them with Western medicine.

“Chinese Medicine has been around a lot longer than Western medicine and they know a lot more about dealing with symptoms than does Western medicine. Western medicine often uses a hand grenade to kill a fly. Eastern medicine does a much better job of paying attention to the subtleties of symptoms and dealing with them to get people back into balance. It is the integration of Chinese medicine and Western medicine, of meditation, or prayer that creates a holistic picture.”

Throughout Brandon’s illness, a belief in a higher power and purpose stayed with him. Before his HIV progressed to AIDS, he had attend retreats at a Buddhist temple. “I found myself feeling good while I was there, but I knew that my good health was not going to last forever,” he said. “On one visit to the temple, I picked up a book in my room. In it was a newspaper clipping from India, dated July 1895—which was the same month I was there nearly one hundred years before. It said: Dear Sir, We feel bad about your illness, and we know it’s considered terminal. But we know that hope is on the Horizon, and we know that you will be well. A cure is being developed. Don’t hold any fear. Know that we are all thinking about you and that you will be fine. Throughout my illness, even when I couldn’t get out of bed that message stayed with me.”

Brandon and his partner recently bought a ranch in Santa Barbara. Against the window-framed backdrop of the cloudless sky and deep blue Pacific Ocean, Brandon looked very much the athletic, dynamic Hollywood mogul. Instead of producing, Brandon has turned to writing screenplays which allows him more free time. “When I was really low, I would go to the market and people would step in front of me to reach for something, or push their cart in front of me, or beat me to the checkout line. I was aware that the world was moving so much faster than I was, and I no longer felt like part of the world. But the down-and-outers, the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the old people, the really sick people, were on my frequency. They would be the only ones who would smile or talk to me. Like little voices of the underworld. As soon as I started getting healthy, they disappeared. During everything I went through, it was as if voices were telling me I had more to do with my life. I promised that if I got healthy again, I would do what I could to help people who have fallen through the cracks.” Several days a week, Brandon volunteers as a counselor to the homeless. “I see people that are in the shape that I was in. All they need is just a little bit of assistance to get them to that next place where at least they can function to go to the next step.”

Six years after Brandon began Chinese herbs, he looks healthy and vibrant—having gone from the brink of death to balance and vitality on a combined treatment plan of Western drugs and Chinese herbs. He also works to raise funds for herbal treatments as part of the recovery process. “Herbs were the major part of my recovery and I want to share that with others.”

Ways to boost your immune system if you have HIV/AIDS
Do not make any changes in your health program without consulting your doctor. If you are seriously ill, you need to see a health care professional to work with you and follow your healing progress. People with HIV/AIDS have varying degrees of sensitivities and must be carefully supervised.

•    Stool, hair and blood tests can determine if you have 1) high levels of accumulated heavy metals in your system, 2) sensitivities to foods, and/or 3) dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of the healthy and unhealthy bacteria and yeast in the gut, any of which may be weakening your immune system and draining your energy. If you test positive for any of these factors, your health practitioner can treat you on an individual basis.

Modify your diet.
•    Take extra care to cook foods well to defend against salmonella and E-coli bacteria.
•    Many AIDS patients can benefit from the extra phytonutrients, probiotics and electrolytes from fresh vegetable juices and/or super green food. However, raw vegetable juices can be too stimulating for weakened digestive systems. If you use raw juice or super green food, do so under the supervision of your doctor.
•    Detoxification can be hard on the body. Detox with spirulina, chlorella, cilantro, and parseley.

The following herbs/foods have been shown to have either anti-viral and/or immune system strengthening properties or to help treat the symptoms of AIDS.

Anti-viral foods
Aloe vera
Asparagus
Bitter cucumber
Dandelion greens
Fava beans
Garlic
Ginger
Mung beans
Seaweed
Small Chinese red Beans
Tumaric

Immune system enhancing herbs/foods
Astragalus
Chinese yam
Condonapsis
Lycium fruit
Poria mushroom
White woodear mushroom

Herbs/foods that have both anti-viral and immune system enhancing qualities
Pearl barley
Shitake mushroom
Water lily

Herbs/foods to treat the recurring diarrhea and digestive weakness commonly seen in AIDS
Kudzu root
Lily palms
Lotus seed
Pearl barley
Poria mushroom

Herbs/foods to treat the weight loss and dehydration of AIDS
Asparagus
Mung beans
White woodear mushroom

Herbs/foods that treat the loss of appetite associated with AIDS
Hawthorn berry
Bitter cucumber
Lotus palms

Eating coconut to reduce your viral load
Mary Enig Ph.D, an internationally recognized biochemist in the field of fats and oils and an authority on transfatty acids reports that eating coconut is thought to reduce the viral load of HIV. Coconut oil contains lauric acid, which is converted by the body into monolaurin. Monolaurin is thought to solubilize the lipids in the envelope of the virus, causing the disintegration of the virus envelope. According to Dr. Enig’s research, some of the pathogens inactivated by monolaurin include HIV, measles, herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), influenza virus and pneumonovirus, as well as several bacteria. Dr. Enig suggests a diet rich in lauric acid would contain about 24 grams of lauric acid daily for the average adult—based on her calculations on the amount of lauric acid found in human mother’s milk. To obtain 24 grams of lauric acid, you may eat 3 1/2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 10 ounces of pure coconut milk or 7 ounces of raw coconut per day. Since allergies to coconut are caused by the proteins, if you are allergic to coconut you can safely eat coconut oil.

Chinese herbs and Western supplements
•    Human growth hormone (hGH) is now being used by some Western doctors to prevent muscle mass wasting and to rebuild lean body mass in HIV patients. Discuss using human growth hormone (hGH) injections with your Western doctor.
•    Deer Velvet Antler, is an important Kidney Yang tonic that enhances strength and rebuilds lean body mass in HIV patients. Deer Velvet Antler must be used under the supervision of a Chinese doctor. Discuss using Deer Velvet Antler with your Chinese doctor to stimulate the natural production of hGH to rebuild wasted muscle mass.
•    Find a health practitioner to give you vitamin B injections or intravenous vitamins such as vitamin C, or a “Meyer’s cocktail,” which is a combination of calcium, magnesium, vitamin C and B complex.
•    Routinely, three times a day, 30 to 45 minutes before breakfast, lunch and dinner take 1,000 milligrams free form amino acids.
•    You can use Chinese medicinal herbs in recipes to boost your immune system. See chapter 21 for recipes. You can also take Chinese herbal formulas and Western supplements specifically formulated for HIV.

Om Shanti,
Your girlfriend in health,