Customer Reviews

Built To Survive: HIV Wellness Guide Fourth Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is not bad. It gives you knowledge and choices. The author definitely did his homework. It is a great read, it gives you choices, just keep that in mind. Remember that what works for someone may not work for you!

This is a great book, well-organized and full of useful information. BTW, the authors frequently post to the PozHealth group on yahoo.groups.

This is a well written book that gives us alot of good tools to add to our arsenal in fighting this disease.

Nelson Vergel's expertise and experience in HIV, chemical engineering, clinical trials of pre FDA approval medicines shows. It is similiar to going to a specialist Dr. vs an Internal Medicine Dr. offered up with sage advice based on experiences. A surviver from the 1980's which decimated a large part of a generation of gay men shows his craft: giving direction and making sense of bewildering tons of information. Updated version to reflect changes in standardized care and medicines.

I have used this book as one of the most important references in my personal healthcare throughout the many years I have been HIV positive. The author has done extensive work in the preparation of the book and provides important guidelines to follow in order to help those with HIV to maintain the healthiest possible life. A book I am grateful to have in my library!

The back cover of this book states that it is "A Comprehensive Survival Plan for HIV(+) People Who Want Maximum Health and Quality of Life" but this is misleading. The front cover, which states that it is "A Comprehensive Guide to the Medical Use of Anabolic Therapies, Nutrition and Exercise for HIV(+) Men and Women" is a bit closer to the truth, with a HEAVY, almost exclusive, emphasis on the use of anabolic steroids. However, it is by no means the comprehensive guide it claims to be.

The book is a series of short, well-written and easily understood chapters, but the book focuses much, much too narrowly on the use of anabolic steroids as *the* solution for HIV wasting syndrome. I myself have HIV disease, and I lost 80 pounds over the course of eight months due to wasting, considerably more than many of the case studies presented in this book. I have now gained half of this weight back in less than six months, and without the need for steroids.

I fear that this book presents such a one-sided perspective so insistently that many recently diagnosed with HIV and have lost as few as 20 pounds will scurry down to their doctors demanding prescriptions for steroids. And if those doctors sensibly refuse to give those prescriptions, the authors provide a toll-free number for referrals to more "open-minded" physicians.

Its one-sidedness aside, the book is not entirely without merit. The chapter on "Orthomolecular Nutrition" was particularly good and I intend to incorporate some of its recommendations into my own treatment regimen.

The authors clearly are well-meaning and their hearts are in the right place. However, like the steroids this book advocates, the book should be used with caution. For the *true* "comprehensive survival plan for HIV(+) people who want maximum health and quality of life" I cannot recommend too strongly Dr. Jon Kaiser's book, Healing HIV: How To Rebuild Your Immune System (cited approvingly several times by the authors of this book) which, alas, is out of print but still available from Amazon through its Marketplace sellers.