NEW Source, Issue 9, May 1992 Page: 3
7 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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NE.WSiurce
May 1992HIV & Syphilis: Scary Tango
by Matt Earnest
After penicillin therapy was discovered for
syphilis in the late 1940s, the medical profession and
the general public breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but
sister syphilis is once again dancing amongst us, and
her partner? Our old pal, HIV.
The AIDS epidemic has brought syphilis back
into the limelight, and HIV and syphilis frequently co-
exist. In the days before the epidemic, penicillin was
an effective cure for syphilis. Nowadays, it is gener-
ally necessary to maintain penicillin treatment forever
because of immune dysfunction.
The genital ulcers, or genital sores, that come
with syphilis are excellent portals of entry for HIV.
Recent studies in Kenya support this claim: persons
with syphilitic ulcers have an increased chance of
contracting HIV.
According to The New England Journal of
Medicine, new, (though unnamed) analytical methods
of diagnosis are becoming available, and there is a
growing knowledge about the relationship between
HIV and syphilis.
[Editor's note: For more information about syphilis
and its eventful history, please read Bad Blood, a book by
James Jones; or, if you are lucky as we were in Dallas re-
cently, you might catch a local production of the play,
"Miss Ever's Boys" by David Feldshuh. Both of these
works deal with the infamous Tuskegee study, in which a
group of poor, Black, Alabama farmers were deceived and,
unbeknownst to them, denied treatment for syphilis as part
of a US study into "The Effects of Untreated Syphilis in the
Negro Male. "]
References:
1. Hook, Edward W. III, M.D., and Marra, Christine M.,
M.D.; "Acquired Syphilis In Adults'; The New England Journal
of Medicine, VoL 326, No. 16; pp 1066-7.
What is a Jarrow Pak?
by Matt Earnest
It's an amazing group of products from Jarrow
Formulas that has a lion's share of vitamins, minerals,
herbs, and other good things. It's also one of the
products that appears on the supplement list of Dr.Joan C. Priestly, noted and beloved HIV/AIDS practi-
tioner.
The Dallas Buyer's Club is now carrying
Jarrow products.
NAC
by Matt Earnest
Although much has been said and written
about NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine) in recent years, it is
not entirely clear how the compound works.
What is known for certain is that NAC, a by
product of a common manufacturing process, has
the ability to restore levels of Glutathione in the
system. This Glutathione, or Glut, is understand-
ably and commonly low in PWAs.
Glut is essential to several key immune
functions, including: the synthesis of DNA precur-
sors, regulation of enzyme activities, defense
against free radicals, production of antibodies, lym-
phocyte activation, and the neutralization of harm-
ful or heavy metals and various other toxins.1
Another reason for restoring your Glut level
is that it enhances the body's ability to metabolize
food, thereby strengthening resistance to AIDS re-
lated wasting syndrome.
NAC has had a degree of success against
HIV directly in laboratories, especially in combina-
tion with other anti-AIDS drugs. It has blocked
syncytial formation in chronically infected T cell
lines; inhibited reverse transcriptase activity and
p24 production. It is still not entirely known if NAC
is as successful in the body as it is in the laboratory.
The results of a one year NAC study done in
Holland should be released soon, but at present, the
only information we have been able to assimilate on
NAC has been anecdotal. Many PWAs apparently
do well with NAC as part of a combination therapy
with an antiviral (hypericin, perhaps). NAC is a
very potent compound, and it must be taken with
food to prevent nausea.
NAC has obvious potential, but the fact that
no large NAC studies are underway leads us to
think that it has lost its flavor-of-the-month status
among researchers, a dangerous occurrence with a
therapy with this kind of track record. We'll pass
on more information as we receive it.
References:
1. "Glutathione Levels Raised with NAC"; STEP
Perspective, March 1991; pp 1, 17; no author credited.3
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Dallas Buyer's Club. NEW Source, Issue 9, May 1992, periodical, May 1992; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc271480/m1/3/: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.