People who have been exposed to the Human Immune Virus (HIV) and those who have suffered the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) should avoid toxic substances as much as possible.

AIDS weakens the immune system or defense mechanism by making the health of the patient weaker. Smoking is one of the toxic substances people living with AIDS have to overcome and stop.
 
Cigarette smoke can destroy lung parenchyma and expose the patient’s lungs to any infection. Therefore smoking is incompatible with good health and since the goal of recovery is to return to good health, there is no need to use cigarettes when already exposed to HIV.

Some patients are shy to seek medical advice and tend to prescribe certain HIV/AIDS drugs for themselves. Some of the HIV/AIDS drugs are toxic when prescribed singly and not in combination.

An anti-retroviral drug like zidovudine (AZT) and other nucleosides drugs are highly toxic when not combined with other drugs to counteract their toxicity. It is important to understand that to take a nucleoside analog, either singly or in combination with others, negates the possibility of recovery and death within a few months or a few years is the inevitable out come.

Some people living with the virus sometimes, take medications whose side effects are sufficiently serious to hinder a return to full health. People should know the exact medical circumstances before making a decision for a medication to take.
 
Since orthodox treatment of people living with AIDS is based on a misunderstanding of why and how they are sick, they tend to take most medications inappropriately.
Sometimes people should allow their body to heal itself naturally through detoxification, nutrition, exercise, and rest. Any drug that weakens the body is a step backwards in the long run.

But important to note is that people with a life threatening opportunistic infection should receive treatment. Patients with some dangerous opportunistic infection like the pneumocystis carinii should take drugs immediately.

A drug like bactrim commonly referred to as cotrimoxazole has some toxic effect but may be necessary to pull a patient through in case of the Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) infection, and giving him at least a chance to make a full recovery later.

Today PCP is one of the leading causes of death in people living with AIDS.
People who are exposed to HIV and have no opportunistic infection should not be referred to as AIDS patients. AIDS patients are those who have been exposed to HIV/AIDS and have opportunistic infections.

Opportunistic infections are infections which only happen in a very sick body, a body whose immune system is hardly functioning at all. The opportunistic infections are caused by micro organisms which are ubiquitous, and which are harmless in any halfway healthy body.
 
For example every human being in the world has pneumocystis carinii in his lungs, and ordinarily it just sits there doing nothing. It becomes a problem and when the defense mechanisms of the body become weak and the normally harmless microbes become pathogenic.

When the real causes of sickness are identified, and appropriate steps are taken to reverse the process of pathogenesis, there should be no need to fear such infections.

Ends