Raphael Pascale, A.S.A. volunteer
Roberto Adamoli, Centro Poiesis operator
Don Coene, physician

We define as conventional such therapies established by the National Italian Health Service. Alternative therapies, or unconventional, use means and methods which, almost generally, are not recognized by the National Italian Health Service.

Why do people choose an unconventional practitioner?

There are several reasons for addressing an unconventional practitioner:

• One might believe in a values system reflecting in unconventional treatment.
• One might consider unconventional therapy as complement of a traditional one.
• One might not respond (or respond anymore) to conventional therapies.
• Medical Science (the standard medical treatment) is unable to cure AIDS; this might inspire some persons to go and look out for new options.

Effects of Unconventional Therapies on AIDS

We have to say frankly that there is no unconventional therapy able to cure AIDS, even though sometimes, someone erroneously claims this. Nevertheless, some persons can draw several benefits following an unconventional therapy.

A great number of these therapies, besides fighting some troubles showing up with AIDS, also produce, due to psychological reasons, the effect to have persons staying better. This way, unconventional therapies can help to improve the quality of life.

At the same time, it could come that you 'd like to try everything to get healthy again. In this case you run the risk to contact operators who take advantage of your fear. Obviously, this risk of dependence, in which you could run into, could also occurr in case of a conventional medical treatment.

Unconventional Therapies advantage and disadvantage

The advantage of the unconventional approach consists in the offer of supplementary option with respect to those of conventional medical science. The advantages also lead persons practicing unconventional therapies to take greater responsibility in following the treatment.

Among disadvantages, there is a risk by some unconventional therapists who aim to refuse the whole conventional medical science and its positive results.

Some unconventional therapists affirm that the situation in which you might be depends upon you and on the fact you are unable to cure yourself. This is absurd! To think this way is dangerous for you and for your disease!

"Unconventional" and "conventional" physicians, may sometimes also be at odds. Nevertheless it is not essential to choose between one or another. It is surely possible to find a combination of the two approaches, which enables to gain advantage from both.

Choosing an unconventional therapy

There are many unconventional therapies, adopting different methods with different results according to disturbs. So, the most important advice we may give to you is: get information about a treatment, get advice from your physician and discuss it with a specialist. However, the risk of entrusting an incompetent always exists. It may happen a therapy to give illusory hope or to be too expensive or that the therapist is not qualified. To reduce these risks as far as possible, we have listed below a sequence of suggestions to follow and some questions to ask before you choose for an unconventional option. This long list it may be looked at as a too sceptic attitude; nevertheless, it has not the aim to keep you far from an unconventional therapist: it is about requests that you might also make to a conventional therapist.

Overall advices:

• We warmly suggest you not to renounce to the collaboration with your conventional practitioner.
• Do mistrust of unconventional therapists who require this renounce from you. Make sure that all persons helping you are in contact each others, in order to avoid that the different therapies may influence one another.
• If you go for a visit to an unconventional therapist, your practitioner might be disturbed. Although this is troublesome, don' t be depressed. The most important thing is insisting, in order to create a mutual way of consultation.
• Pick up informations from different points of view, not by the therapist only. A single treatment is not working for everyone: if a treatment worked well for others, it is not shure it works well for you. And above all: keep a critical spirit!

About treatment methods and results

• In conventional therapy there is the habit to verify results by means of controls over many persons and by means of statistical controls.
• Often unconventional therapists cite one or maximum a few persons, they may have cured (a sort of "miraculous recovery").
• Since there are no effective researches, results of unconventional therapies remain dubious. This also happens due to some health improvements occurring spontaneously.
• In addition, thanks to placebo effect improvements are possible. Placebo is a neutral substance, without active compounds, which is administered as a drug. The effect of such "drug" is based on the confidence that the person has with this drug. In fact, every drug may have a part of placebo effect.
• Often a therapy (e.g. acupuncture) is effective in a specific area (pain), but not in others. Choose a therapy, which adapts itself to your way of living, to your situation and above all to your needs.
• Try to obtain the most documented information possible on the therapy you are evaluating and on the concept of disease by therapists practicing it.
• Some therapies may not show results. Sometimes a therapist says: " It's up to medical science to demonstrate that there is no sense in what we are doing". Mistrust this kind of therapies, because if it could constantly obtain good results, those would be demonstrable.
• Some therapies require a complete change of your lifestyle, for example with respect to your diet, your behavior or hobbies. Initially this change may be a too heavy sacrifice for you and may estrange from your habitat. But, you may choose it if you feel it really belongs to you.
• Do not start a therapy that asks you to do abusive or secret actions.
• Beware of therapists who claim to cure you from AIDS.

About the unconventional therapist

Before going to a therapist, it is good to have answers for following questions:

• What kind of a professional training, qualifications or treatment experiences has the unconventional therapist whom you are addressing?
• What does he/she know about AIDS? Did he/she already have some treatment experience on AIDS infected persons? What kind of results did he/she have?
• Do you get along with him/her? Do you think to establish an equal term relation with him/her?
• Do you feel that he/she takes advantage of some of your fears?
• Does he/she agree to keep a correspondence with your conventional practitioner?
• Are you able to contact with other persons (with AIDS) whom followed a treatment with him/her?
• Are there other unconventional therapists who recommend this person?
• Is the therapist able to clearly explain his/hers thoughts, the treatment he/she is proposing, the number of treatment cycles you should foresee and the results you may expect, besides costs?
• Is it possible to have a first test treatment?
• The fact that a therapist is "qualified" doesn' t say much of his/her abilities. The needs imposed to therapists for their registration to professional boards differ in relation to the kind of therapy proposed. Sometimes, indeed, the therapist has to follow a long training, as for acupuncture, homeopathy and antroposophy. For other therapies, instead, it is enough to pay a contribution for registration (get informed and reflect about this point).

When to start a therapy

Make out before (along with therapist) the period during which you want to follow the therapy. Observe, after this first trial period, the results obtained and only then decide if to continue the therapy or not. This method has a supplementary advantage since you will not always be on treatment and you will have periods where you might evaluate the results. Establish in advance which results you wish to reach and the way you may check whether you have reached them. Eventually write down all this thoughts. It could be useful to you to take notes during the therapy in relation to: how it is proceeding, which results, etc…; this way you'll have a better vision.

In addition, you might use a great part of suggestions and questions in the relation with your conventional practitioner also. Remind that at present conventional medicine may do much against HIV infection and opportunistic diseases. So, if you don' t see any results with unconventional therapies, do not insist: stop and choose something else.

Cost of Unconventional Therapies

There are no fixed charges. Since these costs often change, keep informed in advance by the practitioner who prescribes them and, as a confirm, ask a sector's operator or some AIDS organization dealing with unconventional therapies (see addresses at the end of the manual).

Establish therapy costs in advance, the length of a sitting and the number of sittings. Put all this in black and white!

Ask for a receipt after each sitting (to prove you have payed and if possible to deduce from taxes)

Therapies and therapists observatory

Considering that data and trustworthy studies about unconventional therapies are lacking, it is important to pick up all the available information to better inform persons with HIV and AIDS. We therefore ask you to indicate to one of the organizations dealing with unconventional therapies your possible, positive or negative, experience with non-conventional therapies. This allows us to inform more authoritatively persons that are addressing to us. Further, it will help us to identify promising therapies for which to propose studies and also uneffective therapies, in order not to repeat the mistakes already made.

SOME THERAPIES BRIEFLY

Below you will find brief descriptions of some unconventional therapies. Describing them, we abstain from comments and recommendations in relation to their possible treatment effectiveness. It is our purpose to provide an overall information.

Phytotherapy

Phytotherapy is based on the use of plant extracts. It is a traditional system, spread all over the world, in different ways according to local plants.

Before conventional medicine, these were our drugs; for some it yet remains an important terapeuthic resource.

We all are used to see shelves full of jars and herbal teas packages, decoctions, infusions and other herbal based preparations in chemistries and in health food stores. In our country there is no modern legislation on phytotherapeutic products, thus it is not easy to find one's bearing in the jungle of preparations the market is offering. Further, due to a lack of positive and projective attention by our medical-scientific authorities, there are no points of reference for the real evaluation of effectiveness and safety of preparations.

In this situation you may find side by side plants with a light terapeuthic effect and plants with a strong one, good enough products and substances that may present side effects and toxicity, without this being documented or explained. This is a serious lack which underscores the need to find a therapist who represents a good point of reference for anyone who decides to use phytotherapy. It is important to turn to a practitioner who knows plants, but this is not enough: he also has to know about HIV infection, since the immune system is a complex reality and the use of the wrong therapy may cause troubles, rather than benefits. During the last years tens of vegetal origin extracts used against HIV infection have been studied. Many of them revealed unusable, other toxic, other ones seem to represent a resource and are therefore still under examination.

Usually only a practitioner is able to know the research trend and the specific effects of a preparation. Therefore, do turn to an expert practitioner, who is available to answer all your questions; beware of a superficial practitioner who doesn' t clearly tell you about the effect of the therapies he suggests. Medicine is not wizard and if someone prescribes some substances, he or she has to be able to explain to the patient why.

Homeopathy

It is a medical discipline based on the similars law:" similar cures similar". Homeopathy, indeed, different from conventional medicine (called "allopathic" by homeopathists), doesn't cure using antagonist substances of the disease, but through drugs which induce the same symptoms as the disease. These, administered in infinitesimal dilutions (the more diluted, according to heomeopathists, the more powerful), may stimulate the organism to produce defenses on its own.

The profound cause of the disease is diagnosticated by a complex system of indicators, physical, psychological and of health history of every single person.

Homeopathy is also widely spread in our country where, recently, homeopathic drugs have been recognized.

In homeopathic area, for HIV infection treatment also, there are different therapeutic orientations:

• Unicists prescribe a medical remedy for once, depending upon pathology;
• Pluralists prescribe several homeopathic drugs in different administrations and times;
• Complexists prescribe several homeopathic drugs simultaneously in a single formulation.

A unicist homeopathist doesn't forecast the use of standard remedies and treatment protocols,

retaining that each person has its own remedy.

Pluralist therapists and complexists instead use also products prepared for a specific disease (and therefore not for the single patient), retaining that in some situations (as seropositivity) valid remedies exist anyway.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

It is a complex system of diagnosis, prevention and cure of diseases established during centuries in China, which is currently also used as a terapeuthic resource by hundred thousands of people.

Chinese medicine has worked out an articulated theory, which is based on the existence of energetic meridians in our body and on vital energy. To act therapeutically on this vital energy, Traditional Chinese Medicine employs acupuncture and moxa, massage or also relaxation and meditation techniques (Qi-gong, Tai-qi-chuan, etc.). It also uses different medical herbs, alone or in combination. Finally, great importance is assigned to the diet.

In the last decades TCM (and particularly, acupuncture) has gotten known in the West, where it is practiced by many physicians. In some western countries it is studied and used also in hospitals.

It is the most largely tested medical system (together with phytotherapy) against HIV virus and AIDS, for which various methods have been set. Only an TCM practitioner may seriously work out an intervention strategy against HIV infection, while self-prescription and "to follow the advice of a friend" usually don't produce any particular results and the risk to exposure to possible toxic or adverse effects exists.

Other Therapies

There are many other complementary traditional therapies; some of them practiced here in Italy. We cite only two of them, rather diffused ones:

• Tibetan Medicine, which is the traditional medicine of Tibet: it acts on lifestyle and nutrition and employs herbes, medicated baths, physical therapies, etc…
• Ayurvedic Medicine (Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term which means "science of life"): the traditional Indian medicine for which Health is meant as physical and psychic happiness. It uses herbes, hygienic principles, meditation, massage, etc…. In Italy there is a great availability of Ayurvedic products, while it is more difficult to find an expert practitioner in Ayurveda, which is however important for anyone deciding to use this kind of therapy.

Body techniques

Ancients used to have a proverb which properly summarized the concept of strong unity between mind and body: "Mens sana in corpore sano", that is the more our body is in a good health, the more our mind, our psyche will be "well" and vice versa.

This concept, forgotten for much time by western medicine, is going to return in fashion. In traditional medicines of many other populations and in particular of the oriental one, it has always been present.

Some body or mind practices are considered an integrative part of therapies for all kind of troubles and it is suggested to practice them daily to stay in good health. Other practices of the same kind, but based on modern principles, are studied and proposed continuously. There are many body techniques now indeed with big or small differences, but here we will only treat mainly spread ones and particularly suggested to seropositive persons.

Qi gong

Qi, for Chinese, is the vital energy, therefore Qi-gong in Chinese means approximately "work on energy". This name involves many traditional movement, respiration and relaxation practices of Chinese origin. Qi gong implies deep respiration exercises which bring about a massage of the internal organs; mind exercises teaching to be aware of one's own organism, to control movements and to develope one's own vital energy; relaxation exercises have the main goal to enhance our internal energy, often dissipated in unnatural rhythms and ways of life and tensions.

During exercises, the oxygen consumption strongly decreases, slowing down metabolism - that is the consumption of our internal energy - and this allows to fill our empty reserves and thus to increase our force.

To give results, Qi going, as all disciplines, needs constancy and daily practice.

Acupressure

It is a technique, allowing to practice acupuncture without needles: indeed, instead of these, the finger pressure is used on points indicated for symptoms which have to be cured or effects that have to be obtained.

Acupressure may therefore be used also to stimulate the immune system. It is not a simple technique and it needs years of study to become a specialist: nevertheless, it is possible to learn some basic elements and some points to intervene also on one's own to relief from some complaints.

Reflexology

Reflexology is a massage therapy of the feet "reflex zone". The purpose is to re-estalish a perfect functioning of the organs, which have lost their regular functions with time. It is not means, in literally sense, of "feet massage" but of a sequence of thumb pressure treatment over the corresponding points of various organs of the body (reflex zone, precisely), provoking an increase of blood sprinkling.

Yoga

It is a complex discipline, both physical and spiritual, coming from India which aims to get a person to be free from pain and disease through meditation and practice of some physical exercises.

There are several kinds of yoga developing various aspects of the person. Further the yogi (teachers) often bears some personal variants of their teaching. In this context it is therefore difficult to treat the argument more diffusely.

Reiki

It is one of the most ancient methods of hands imposition, rediscovered in Japan since about two centuries.

In Japanese Reiki means "vital energy": energy flowing in our body and living in everything. The supporter of this technique affirms that through Reiki it is possible to boost and to regulate the own vital energy in all parts of the body, making detoxifications processes, mitigating strong and chronic pains and inducing a deep relaxation.

It is one of those techniques for which it is important to carefully choose the own therapist/instructor.

Massage

There are several massage techniques, which are remaked to as many setting-up and which are purposed to different targets. There are tecniques, which favour the energy circulation stimulation of the inside organism, techniques set with a greater extent the attention on the importance of muscle relation and many others.

This listing might continue again and become very long: from therapies, using music, dance, colors, to particular techniques coming from countries and philosophies very different from ours.

Of course, to approach some of these disciplines may be an interesting discover, a good company and above all an optimal way to keep the psychophysical balance.

Autogenous training

It is a technique with the purpose to teach muscle relation and psyche as a consequence. It aims to release tensions accumulated at a psychophysical level, tensions, which may influence negatively vital and psychological functions. Autogenous training helps to regulate blood pressure, to reduce the cholesterol rate, to increase the organic defenses and it gives energy and vitality.

It may help to eliminate anxiety, fear, emotional blocks and simultaneously to increase one's own confidence.

Source: A.S.A.; Commissione Europea; Fondazione Augustus "Il tuo manuale. Nuova Edizione" 1997: cap. 4