Overcoming Aids With Natural Medicine [Paperback]

Stephen C. Byrnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1997

Overcoming AIDS with Natural Medicine by Stephen Byrnes, N.D, PhD. This critically acclaimed book is a virtual MUST for anyone whose life has been touched by this disease. AIDS can be healed naturally, and this information-packed book tells you how to do it. Acupressure, orthomolecular nutrition, herbology, homeopathy, and reflexology are presented as effective options over standard drug therapies. The book also discusses the history and spread of AIDS, naturopathic approaches to disease and healing, and the role of the mind in creating wellness. Read and recover today! Softcover; retail price: $18.95.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

. . .should be required reading by everyone affected by the AIDS crisis.

Martin Walker, author of Dirty Medicine

Overcoming AIDS is one of the few books endorsed by Project AIDS International. This is a book of healing. This is a book of hope. Read and recover today.

Jeremy Selvey, Founder & CEO of Project AIDS International

Overcoming AIDS is proof that Stephen Byrnes is both a passionate believer that AIDS can be healed, and a meticulous researcher into the precise formulas that can bring about such a healing. He has done his homework, and as such deserves high praise for the completion of this important publication."

Julia Woodford, Editor of Common Ground Magazine (Ontario), Fall 1997

The idea of the book is so simple and its structure makes such sense that after reading it, I wondered why no one else had written a similar book before. . . . Byrnes has designed the kind of handbook which . . . should have been published long ago. It is a book full of optimism, not a vacuous New Age optimism, but a flinty optimism of traditional wisdom addressing new problems."

Martin Walker, author of Dirty Medicine, as reviewed in The Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, April 1998

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

In August 1995, I was dumped by, it seemed, my umpteenth boyfriend, and I had truly had it with "love." Since I had come out eleven years ago, I had been on an obsessive mission to find a significant other, that led to many heartaches as each potential partner turned out to be a flake, a liar, or worse. I truly believed that I had been cursed by God not to find love in this lifetime but, deep down, I was hoping that was not true so I kept up the search, year after year. This time, however, I'd had it, and I completely put to rest any hope of finding "love."

With that weight lifted off of my shoulders, I spent my free time watching movies, hanging out, and dancing on the weekends. I was in hog heaven: total enjoyment, no emotional hassles, no burning need inside to see anybody; I was free and loving it.

On a Friday night, late in August 1995, I headed down to Hula's, the most popular gay club in Honolulu, to hang out, waste time with my friends, and dance. After a couple of hours I was ready to head out when I spied a dark, exotic looking man sitting by himself. Despite the dark lighting of Hula's, I could see him fairly well and, intrigued, walked up to chat with him. I really do not know why I did this, seeing as how I had decided recently not to bother with meeting others, but I was drawn. He said his name was Alex, that he was Mexican-Japanese, and that he had lived in Honolulu for sixteen years. He made his living as a front desk attendant at one of the large hotels in Waikiki and was out "just to see what was happening." We talked for about two hours.

I suddenly realized that it was after one o'clock and that I had missed the last bus to my neighborhood, so I asked Alex if he would mind driving me home. "Not at all, but I need to stop off at my apartment to get the keys. Let's go. It's close by." The night, however, had gotten the better of me and, while sitting on Alex' couch, I fell asleep and ended up staying the night on the couch. The next morning, he finally gave me that ride home, and I fixed us some breakfast. I thanked him for the ride and he got up to go. I gave him my number, he did not give me his, and I figured that was that. "Who cares?," I thought, "I didn't want anybody anyway. What's the big deal?" I baby-sat my phone the following week despite my best efforts to remain detached, and was cursing myself for getting my hopes up again.

Eventually, at the end of the week, he called and we got together again. And again, and again, and again, until I realized we were dating (?!) and getting emotionally attached to each other. "Wait a minute! ," I exclaimed to myself. "I didn't want this!" Nevertheless, I was hooked and so was he.

After three weeks of dating and dinners, Alex called to say he had to come over to talk to me. At first I thought he was going to tell me that he was going back to his ex, and I tried to prepare myself for being dumped again. Alex got right to the point when he came over. He was not returning to his old boyfriend. "Steve, since it looks like you're getting attached to me emotionally, I have to tell you that I'm HIV-positive and have been for about eight years. I'm letting you know now so that, if you want to walk away before you're too involved, you can." I had broken out in a cold sweat while my mind was drowning in a cacophony of "Oh my God's" and "Oh no's."

At the time, I wasn't really worried about my exposure risk for we had had "safe sex." On the contrary, I was worried for him, for I, at the time, believed he had an incurable disease. I figured he had about two to three years left based on everything I had read in the media, gay or straight, and was dying inside that, after finally finding someone I was happy with, he was not long for this world.

Despite all of this mental chatter, I managed to look composed and asked Alex if he was doing anything for his "condition." Alex responded that, despite heavy pressure from his doctor over the years, he had steadfastly refused to take AZT. When I asked why, Alex responded that all of his friends who had taken the drug had died, whereas all the ones who hadn't were still alive and in very good health. Alex revealed that he was, however, on sleeping pills regularly, recommended by his doctor, for chronic insomnia and that his glands were perpetually swollen. Additionally, he had had a dull ache in his chest for about eight years and night sweats. Alex added that he had asked his doctor about these conditions and his doctor confessed ignorance about what the symptoms might mean or what was causing them, "It is probably HIV affecting your body in different ways. You really should go on AZT, quit working, and stay home and rest." Alex said no to these suggestions and was frustrated that he could not get a satisfactory answer about his chest pain.

After telling me this, I asked if he was taking any drugs, legal or illegal. Alex responded that he regularly smoked marijuana to stimulate his appetite. When I logically asked him why he needed to do that, he answered that he had entered the clinical drug trials for a new AIDS drug called the protease inhibitor and that, four months into the study, he had lost close to 20 pounds because the drug made him nauseous. It was also making his urine bloody. I asked him what his doctor had said to all of this. "Well, he didn't tell me to stop smoking the pot but suggested that I go on Marinol [a marijuana- derived drug designed to stimulate appetite] instead. As for the drug reactions, he said that my body was probably just adjusting to the medication and to stay on it, that it was helping me." Alex then showed me the pills. I noticed that there were two different pills in the case, "What are those?" "Well, as part of the double blind study, there's the possibility that I might be taking AZT along with the inhibitor; it might be AZT."

Alex then continued to tell me of the changes his body had gone through since beginning the medication: extreme fatigue, loss of appetite and memory, lower back pain, and, of course, the bloody urine. "Why did you decide to take these things after all these years and after what happened to your friends?" I asked. Alex's eyes watered a bit, "Well, I figured that since I'd been positive for eight years, I only had maybe two years left; I was trying to buy more time, I didn't know what else to do."

I responded that I'd read somewhere awhile back that AZT was poison and that nothing good could come from it and, further, that it seemed he had deteriorated while taking these drugs and I urged him to stop taking them. For years, I'd been an avid dabbler in "alternative medicine," herbs, homeopathy and such, and had had great success with them. When you live with no health insurance, you learn very quickly how to take care of yourself to avoid a huge doctor bill. I'd read about an herbal treatment for cancer revealed to a Canadian nurse by an Indian medicine man and how it had helped thousands of people with cancer and AIDS. I suggested to Alex that he try it as I knew where to purchase it. Alex agreed.

I must confess that I have little faith in medical doctors: my mother had rheumatoid arthritis and all the doctors, drugs, and operations she'd seen, taken, and undergone had done absolutely nothing for her agony or her disintegrating body. She was crippled at age sixty-two. After hearing a little of Alex's story, my hackles were up again: a doctor not worried about bloody urine? Marijuana use? Seventeen pounds of weight loss? Addictive sleeping pills? Persistent chest pains? Night sweats? What kind of doctor is that?

Alex went home that night, and I had a rough week, for I had to decide if I wanted to keep seeing someone who was "positive." Monday I decided no. Tuesday, I decided yes, and so forth and so on. After much tears and agonizing, I decided to keep seeing Alex. He had ordered the herbal tea ingredients from Los Angeles and was eager to start drinking it. All of this, however, did not erase the sinking feeling that I felt: that this man whom I'd fallen in love with had, what I thought was, a terminal disease. Or was it? I don't think I ever really believed way down that AIDS was incurable, for I somehow knew that Nature had an answer for everything, one just had to find it. At the time, however, all I could concentrate on was Alex and HIV. The next couple of days, my mind was preoccupied with thoughts as to how Alex could be cured, wishing and hoping that some miracle would occur. In the end, however, I let all these thoughts go, for I thought that HIV=AIDS=DEATH. I'd never heard of anyone ever recovering from AIDS in the decade that I'd been out, why should someone recover now?

The very next day, Alex called to tell me of a book his landlord's friend had given him, seemingly out of the blue, called The Cure for HIV and AIDS by Dr. Hulda Clark, a naturopathic doctor and cellular biologist (Dr. Clark's book and theories will be discussed in a later chapter). Alex was excited and hopeful. I was flabbergasted: "Well at least one person thinks there's a cure, I wonder if there are any more?" That evening I went to a large bookstore near my home and went in search of any other books on recovering from AIDS. To my surprise, I found three: Deadly Deception by Dr. Robert Willner, AIDS: The Good News is HIV Doesn't Cause It, the Bad News is that Recreational Drugs and AZT Do by Peter Duesberg, Ph.D. and John Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D., and You Don't Have to Die by Dr. Leon Chaitow. I distinctly remember standing in front of that bookcase in an utter stupor, totally floored that there were, in print in front of me, three books written by different doctors saying that HIV did not cause AIDS and that AIDS was a treatable and non-fatal disease. It also reconfirmed what I thought after hearing Alex's story: that AZT was poison. Over the next three weeks, I bought all these books and Alex and I read all of them voraciously. During that time, Alex had gone on the herbal and dietary protocol recommended in Dr. Clark's book and was feeling great. He had also flushed his AZT and protease inhibitor down the toilet after he had called and spoken with Peter Duesberg, one of the authors named above (more on Dr. Duesberg later).

Over the next two months, Alex's symptoms disappeared, and he and I immersed ourselves in the "dissident AIDS movement," contacting groups like HEAL and Project AIDS International; each day was a new learning experience for us. Eventually, we became convinced that HIV is not the cause of AIDS and that AIDS is not a sexually transmitted disease, but a toxicological one. We have no fear of death from a virus that, probably, doesn't even exist. Alex recovered his health by following a natural regime of whole foods, supplements, herbs, and exercise, and he did it all without consulting a medical doctor or taking one drug.

During all of this time, I was, for lack of a better word, his "doctor," researching herbs, supplements, and treatments. The entire experience had a profound effect on me: it made me change my career to nutrition, herbalism, and natural therapies. In this book, you will read the fruits of our experience and my education and learn how to bring about a total healing of mind and body from AIDS using natural methods. You will also learn some unsettling facts about AIDS, what causes it, how it was blamed on a virus with no real proof, and how dissenting views of prominent scientists and doctors have been, for the most part, censored and not covered by the media, especially the gay media. When Alex and I embarked on our "quest" we both kept asking ourselves, "WHY haven't we seen any of this before?" The unsettling answer is that, for the most part, the gay community, our community, has been utterly brainwashed by the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Despite almost fifteen years of failure and death, the gay community, as a whole, still puts all its faith in the establishment medical system and is convinced that it will produce a "wonder drug" to cure this disease.

Alex and I got a firsthand taste of this brainwashing when I wrote a long article chronicling our experiences and discoveries and submitted it to a local gay magazine. In my cover letter to the editor, I gave mine and Peter Duesberg's phone numbers in case they wished to verify the story or had questions. One month later, an "article" appeared in this magazine (1) which attacked the dissident movement, and also Peter Duesberg, accusing him of being a murderous homophobe (an outright lie). Without my permission, they quoted freely and very selectively from my article, left out all the parts that would have contradicted them, and only printed the parts that they could attack (very poor attacks, I might add). The article also extolled the allopathic medical profession for its "hard work and diligence" in trying to find a "cure" for this "deadly disease." Of course, the article neglected to mention the fact that this same hard working medical community has yet to save ONE LIFE from AIDS. I immediately wrote a letter to the editor in protest, carefully and methodically showing up their poor reporting and flimsy scientific "proof," and they refused to print it. I sent this same article to many gay publications throughout America: all refused it. A shortened form of the article was finally published by a large holistic health magazine in Canada to very favorable response (2).

The book you now hold is divided into 3 sections: the first is an analysis of the HIV theory itself, whether it holds any water, how it was arrived at, and such. This will be followed by an explanation of what is really causing AIDS. The second section will deal with naturopathic approaches to disease, toxemia, and specific herbal, homeopathic, and nutritional approaches to specific "AIDS conditions/diseases." The third section will deal with current trends in AIDS research and some personal advice to every reader as to where they might want to head now if they are faced with a diagnosis of "AIDS." The various appendices will contain herbal formulas for specific conditions and cosmetics, household cleaners, etc., as well as one on foot reflexology, incorporated into some of the protocols in chapter nine, one on the biochemic cell salts, one on major acupressure points, also used in some of the protocols, and a list of "dissident" contacts around the world, including the Internet.

Because so many have died needlessly, I'll be the first to admit that this book has much anger in it. Still, it also has much hope. It is the hope that one person will not die because of it. It is the hope that an "HIV positive" pregnant woman will not abort her baby or take AZT because of it. It is the hope that the people who find this book will overcome disease. That is what healing is all about.

Notes to Introduction 1. Watanabe, R. "Are AIDS Dissidents on Track or Headed for Derailment?" Island Lifestyle, Feb. 1996. 2. Byrnes, S.C. "Overcoming AIDS With Herbs, Vitamins, and Hope." Common Ground, Spring 1996.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Centaur Books (February 1, 1997)
• ISBN-10: 1891530046
• ISBN-13: 978-1891530043
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,560,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)