Vitamin pill salesman and his campaign against AIDS treatments

[muriel_volestrangler]

This is the chapter left out of Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" book originally, because the odious Matthias Rath was still suing him when it went to press. Rath has now lost (and has to pay costs - and, being much, much richer than Goldacre, he can probably afford the £500,000), so Goldacre has published it on his website:

The Doctor Will Sue You Now

...
This man, we should be clear, is our responsibility. Born and raised in Germany, Rath was the head of Cardiovascular Research at the Linus Pauling Institute in Palo Alto in California, and even then he had a tendency towards grand gestures, publishing a paper in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in 1992 titled “A Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular Disease Leading the Way to the Abolition of this Disease as a Cause for Human Mortality”. The unified theory was high-dose vitamins.
...

˜The answer to the AIDS epidemic is here,” he proclaimed. Anti-retroviral drugs were poisonous, and a conspiracy to kill patients and make money. “Stop AIDS Genocide by the Drugs Cartel said one headline. “Why should South Africans continue to be poisoned with AZT? There is a natural answer to AIDS.” The answer came in the form of vitamin pills. “Multivitamin treatment is more effective than any toxic AIDS drug. Multivitamins cut the risk of developing AIDS in half.”
...
This is a chilling testament to the danger of elevating cranks by engaging with them. In his initial letter of motivation for employment to Matthias Rath, Brink described himself as “South Africa’s leading AIDS dissident, best known for my whistle-blowing exposé of the toxicity and inefficacy of AIDS drugs, and for my political activism in this regard, which caused President Mbeki and Health Minister Dr Tshabalala-Msimang to repudiate the drugs in 1999″.
...
And now, at last, we come to the lowest point of this whole story, not merely for Matthias Rath’s movement, but for the alternative therapy movement around the world as a whole. In 2007, with a huge public flourish, to great media coverage, Rath’s former employee Anthony Brink filed a formal complaint against Zackie Achmat, the head of the TAC. Bizarrely, he filed this complaint with the International Criminal Court at The Hague, accusing Achmat of genocide for successfully campaigning to get access to HIV drugs for the people of South Africa.
...
http://www.badscience.net/2009/04/matthias-rath-steal-this-chapter/

The whole chapter is available there.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. HAART

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x49626

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00033176

Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Double-Blind, Active Control, Single Group Assignment, Efficacy Study
Official Title: Immune Restoration by Lipoic Acid in AIDS

Further study details as provided by National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM):

Estimated Enrollment: 33
Study Start Date: February 2002
Estimated Study Completion Date: August 2004
Detailed Description:

AIDS is characterized by infection with HIV which leads to collapse of the immune system. Although highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has contributed significantly to lowering morbidity and mortality from AIDS, antiretroviral drugs do not fully restore the immune system and patients often fail multi-drug treatment. Hence, there is a need for alternative/complementary medicine (CAM) that can restore an immune system ravaged by HIV/AIDS. To address this need, investigators have formed a multidisciplinary collaboration to evaluate and demonstrate utility of natural immune-based modulators in ethnically diverse patients with HIV/AIDS.

The long-term goal of this proposal is to develop a CAM therapy to facilitate immune reconstitution and HIV eradication following cessation of antiretroviral treatment or concurrent with continued antiretroviral treatment. It is based on the premise of a widespread deficiency of glutathione (GSH), vital to lymphocyte function, in patients with HIV/AIDS. The proposed project will study the immunomodulatory and antiretroviral effects of a dietary antioxidant, alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), which is known to efficiently boost systemic GSH.

In this study, HIV-infected adults unresponsive to HAART (i.e. those with persistent CD4+ count > 50 cells/mm3, viral load> 10,000 copies/cc) will be randomized into a treatment or a control arm. The treatment group will be given 300 mg ALA thrice daily for 6 months and the control group will receive inert placebo. Studies performed at baseline and at 2,4, and 6 months will include estimation of CD4+ count, HIV RNA, T-cell reactivity in vitro and whole blood GSH level. Significance of changes from baseline parameters will be analyzed by t-tests. The proposed research will show whether GSH augmentation by ALA increases CD4+ cell number and T cell function and reduces viral load in subjects unresponsive to antiretroviral therapy.

[trotsky]

2. Sounds like a good proposal.

Link says it's complete. Any word on the results yet?

[cosmik debris]

3. It was completed in August of '04

And still no word on the miracle cure for AIDS.

They must have been bought out by big pharma. :rofl:

[trotsky]

4. I'm sure that LEF magazine would have announced it immediately...

if it meant they'd be able to pry even more money from their loyal believers readers.

[Why Syzygy]

6. .

http://www.aidsinfonet.org/fact_sheets/view/700?lang=eng

[cosmik debris]

7. From the same web site:

How to Spot HIV/AIDS Fraud

http://www.aidsinfonet.org/fact_sheets/view/206

WHAT IS HIV/AIDS FRAUD?

HIV fraud is the promotion, advertisement, or sale of products that are supposed to diagnose, treat, or cure HIV when those products have not been proven to be safe and effective for those purposes.

Regular medicine does not have a cure for HIV. Because it is a serious illness, many people with HIV disease are willing to try almost anything to get healthy. Some unproven treatments may be harmless, but others can be dangerous. For example, one brand of “Brain Wave Synchronizer” caused epileptic seizures.

Be careful when you choose treatments for HIV disease. This fact sheet will help you evaluate treatments and be sure that you’re not dealing with an HIV fraud.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WARNING SIGNS OF AN HIV FRAUD

If you notice any of these warning signs when you consider an HIV therapy, be very careful! The treatment might still be a good one, but you should ask extra questions about it. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.



The product prevents or cures HIV or AIDS. Researchers have been working hard for over 10 years, but there is not yet any known cure for HIV or AIDS. The only sure way to prevent AIDS is to avoid being infected with the HIV virus.



The product is a quick cure for a wide range of ailments. Most products are effective only against a specific illness or a few closely related medical problems.

Personal success stories are the only evidence that the treatment works. Of course, if a treatment works, you can find people who will tell you about it. But testimonials don’t prove that the treatment worked. Look for results of research studies or other evidence.

Be suspicious if the promoters use key words like miraculous cure, amazing breakthrough, foolproof, suppressed treatments, or secret ingredients. These words are often used to make you think that a treatment is valuable even though there may be no proof that it works.
The treatment was discovered and tested in another country, or is only available outside the US. Certainly, valuable treatments are developed and tested in other countries. However, many other countries permit health claims without the kinds of proof required in the United States.

The treatment is only available privately, for a short time, or from only one source; or if it requires payment in advance. If a product really works, why isn’t it advertised and available publicly? This may be a way to get around government regulations.

You can only get the treatment by paying to take part in testing an experimental treatment. When most experimental treatments are tested, people receive them free of charge.

<snip>

THE BOTTOM LINE

HIV disease is very complicated. No cure has been developed yet. There are many different treatments and products that claim to help people with HIV disease. Some of these have not been carefully tested, and some might even be harmful.

Take your time to evaluate any product or treatment, especially if you see any of the warning signs of an HIV fraud.

[Why Syzygy]

8. Duh.

Unlike you, I am willing to READ. Of course people should investigate. Never said they shouldn't.
:freak:

Regular medicine does not have a cure for HIV. Because it is a serious illness, many people with HIV disease are willing to try almost anything to get healthy.

[cosmik debris]

9. LOL!

You think I didn't read?

How else could I have found the information I posted?

I read the site to which you linked, and I read several of the sites that were linked to by that site.

You just don't make any sense at all sometimes.

[Why Syzygy]

10. Yet

you assume I post a link to a page I haven't read!

Otherwise, why post your poorly spaced "GOTCHA" attempt. No answer needed.
A *caution* does not negate helpful information.

More from the site:

http://www.aidsinfonet.org/fact_sheets/view/801

WHAT ABOUT OTHER SUPPLEMENTS?

In addition to vitamins and minerals, some nutritionists suggest that people with HIV take supplements of other nutrients:

* Acidophilus, a bacterium that grows naturally in the intestines, helps with digestion.
* Alpha-lipoic acid is a powerful antioxidant that may help with neuropathy and mental problems.
* Carnitine (also called acetyl-L-carnitine) may help prevent wasting and provide other immunologic and metabolic benefits,
* Coenzyme Q10 may help with immune function.
* Essential fatty acids found in evening primrose oil or flaxseed oil can help with dry skin and scalp.
* N-Acetyl-Cysteine, an antioxidant, can help maintain body levels of glutathione. Glutathione is one of the body’s main antioxidants.

[cosmik debris]

11. I made no assumptions, but it seems you did.

I posted additional information.

I don't know why additional information was objectionable enough to provoke your insults, but if you object to posting information from the web site you cited, perhaps you shouldn't have cited it.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Wow.

This just shows how dangerous ideologues can be.

The Treatment Action Group sound very admirable. Mbeki, Tshabalala-Msimang, Rath and Brink and their like - and the pharma companies that make vital drugs unaffordable in developing countries are responsible for thousands of deaths.