Health Education AIDS Liaison, Toronto

Some thoughts on how this page at the HEAL Toronto site came to be

I have often said that I found life much easier when I believed that HIV caused AIDS. It might sound strange but it's true. I remember feeling confident that the Medical and Scientific establishments knew what was causing so many of my friends to fall ill and how best to treat them. There was something comforting in trusting their 'expertise', and knowing that if one ever became ill they would tell you what to do. Somehow, I found it re-assuring.

Then I started asking questions.

Disillusionment came quickly and often then, as each successive question I had was - almost without fail - casually brushed aside or dismissed by Doctors or AIDS Organizations. I kept asking myself: 'Why don't these people just answer the questions?'

It became clear that I could not rely on any of these people to provide me with the answers I craved. I was really very much on my own to figure-out what to do, or what to think, and I found myself with more questions than answers. Discovering that HIV theory collapsed under the slightest scrutiny was, as it turned out, just the beginning. The real challenge lay in trying to figure-out what that meant for all the people faced with an HIV 'diagnosis'. What did such a diagnosis really mean? Why do 'HIV' positive people seem succeptible to unusual illnesses? What alternative treatment options were there for 'HIV' positive people with health challenges? More daunting still, I realized that I might have to just live with the uncertainties that arose from my journey as an 'AIDS dissident', and that many questions could remain unanswered - at least definitively. I felt horribly naked and vulnerable. My only choice seemed to be to accept the uncertainty, take charge of my own health, learn as much as I could and stop relying on others to tell me what to do.

However, taking charge of one's health and trying to learn enough to make informed choices can be daunting and scary... And it's hard work!

This group of links is born of my desire to cobble together and share all the online information on alternative approaches to the preservation, maintenance or restoration of the immune system that I consequently encounter. It's one thing to deconstruct a populist theory but quite another to to fill the resulting void with something that better fits ones' own needs, observations and experiences.

I would guess that many of you who read this are also looking beyond the HIV/AIDS status quo for some answers. With that in mind, I hope that the information on these pages helps you find other options on your own path to maintaining or regaining your health.

If you discover information that you feel would be suitable to include here, please feel free to let us know by contacting us at:

tel/fax:(416) 778-4207


With all good wishes,

Carl Stryg, Co-founder, HEAL Toronto Collective.

Alternative Health, Treatment & Nutrition Resources

Powerhealth.net
Information on natural health and nutrition

Keep Hope Alive
Self-help for the Immune Compromised

DAAIR.org
DAAIR (Direct Access Alternative Information Resources) is a members-only, not-for-profit buyers club formed to promote self-empowered healing through the use of scientifically researched nutrients, other natural therapies and mind/spirit practices

Westonaprice.org
The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts

Information Sharing and Peer Support Online

HIV AIDS Alternative Views Forum
A highly informative and readable message forum with a search engine of a 4,500 message archive divided into folders, including one entitled Alternative Health with over 500 messages.

AIDSMythExposed Message Board
Shared Personal Experiences/Successes and Tips about Maintaining Health and Treating Illnesses are some of the many issues discussed on the Message Boards of this great Site

KNOWLEDGE IS THE CURE
Wes Bennett's personal recovery from 'HIV/AIDS' in 1989 is detailed with practical advice on health restorative approaches at his non-profit, non-sales website.

Products and Services

American College for Advancement in Medicine
The American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), founded in 1973, is a not-for-profit medical society dedicated to educating physicians and other health care professionals on the latest findings and emerging procedures in preventive/nutritional medicine. ACAM's goals are to improve skills, knowledge and diagnostic procedures as they relate to complementary and alternative medicine; to support research; and to develop awareness of alternative methods of medical treatment.

Pantox.com
Pantox Laboratories currently tests for the concentration of about 25 different chemical substances in human blood serum, and can help Patients and their Doctors identify Deficiencies and Toxicities

Toxi-Health International

Flame of Life
Support and Recovery of the Immune system with essential and plant oils

Healthmedicine.org
Search Service for Alternative Health Care Practitioners

Writing on Specific Topics Online

Nutritional Therapy Information
 Using Nutrition as Treatment and for the Prevention of AIDS; Scientific Bases

Information about Treating and Preventing AIDS
 A Guide to Basic Principles for Effective, Nontoxic and Inexpensive Alternatives

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
This is a paper that discusses Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of debilitating fatigue associated with HIV/AIDS. (J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care. 1993 Jul-Sep;4(3):33-8)

Altheal.org
Some Immune Stimulating Treatments and the Scientific Bases for them

Study on Reticulose
Preliminary results of a clinical trial of a non-toxic peptide nucleic acid drug called RETICULOSE in patients with AIDS.

Lauric.org
Center for Research into Lauric (cocoanut etc) Oils

Living-foods.com
More on the Immune Restorative Properties of Cocoanut

Article about Glutamine
"Glutamania! Is There Anything Glutamine Doesn t Do?" by Maia Szalavitz

A Paper on Glutamine
"Glutamine-antioxidant supplementation increases body cell mass in AIDS patients with weight loss: a randomized, double-blind controlled trial." Shabert JK, Winslow C, Lacey JM, Wilmore DW

A Paper on L-carnitine
"Effect of L-carnitine on human immunodeficiency virus-1 infection-associated apoptosis: a pilot study." Moretti S, Alesse E, Di Marzio L, Zazzeroni F, Ruggeri B, Marcellini S, Famularo G, Steinberg SM, Boschini A, Cifone MG, De Simone C.