Peter R. Rothschild, M.D., Ph.D.
Copyright/1989
The unforgettable Albert Einstein proved that everything is relative. The problem is that only a few of us really understand the ultimate meaning of relativity. (A bank manager, for instance, will take an extremely dim view of anyone’s attempt to interpret a loan payment as a relative obligation…) Nonetheless, whether we understand it or not, an overwhelming portion of our environment and also our everyday lives are governed by relative facts. (If in doubt, take a peek at political ideologies.)
We have all heard- some of you have probably even experienced – that persons, when facing mortal danger, are capable of “re-living” their entire lives up to the minutest details, in but a few seconds, or at the utmost, in a minute or two. How can anyone re–live events that lasted years in just a few moments? Comparably, our learned psychologists tell us that dreams – which frequently encompass events lasting several hours or even days – actually only last a few seconds. It would be impossible to explain such apparent impossibilities without resorting to relativity.
In the days of ancient Egypt – some four thousand years ago – the average life expectancy ranged from 28 to 30 years. The few “fortunate’s” who lived to be 40 or 45 were considered sages. Women lived – and continue to live – slightly longer and resisted, far better, many diseases. (There goes the myth about the weaker sex…)
The ailments those people died of at such tender ages come as a surprise to many, for they died of diseases similar to those that decimate the world’s population nowadays. They died of infections, heart failures, diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis and, yes, also of AIDS, which is causing at present an increasing rate of delirious goose bumps among a public evermore hungry for gourmet horrors.
UNSUSPECTED POTENTIAL
What made the difference was that those ancient Egyptians were not aware of their notoriously short life spans. Neither did they suspect that their bodies were equipped by nature to live up to a hundred years or so. (What we haven’t discovered up to this date is where to go for the warranty…) In other words, their life expectancy was a relative concept. The true explanation for their short life spans was buried in the depths of their ignorance of both diseases and possible remedies, let alone of prevention.
The lack of knowledge made any practical counter measures impossible. For who, in those days, could have suspected without being acquainted with some essential facts of physiology what diabetes meant? And, even less could he have imagined that someone’s suffocated demise, with a distended, ascetic abdomen, could have been caused by the same disease as the one which killed the patient with an incurably infected gangrene?
Historically speaking, our abysmal ignorance lasted up to very recent days. For instance, until the British, Harvey, discovered in 1749 that the blood effectively circulated as a stream through our vessels; treatments of cardio-vascular ailments were virtually limited to blood-letting by barbers or with leeches! Only a couple centuries ago did science commence to identify the real workings of the living organism and to discover the possible causes of ailments that afflict this mistreated species which, nonetheless, never stops raving about constituting the masterwork of creation.
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
On the other hand, it is equally true that every time a “new” disease is discovered the ailment turns inevitably into a thing of fashion. However, this prodigious multiplicity is not really surprising, because there are no new diseases. (Just like there are no new jokes, only people who haven’t heard them yet…) Thus, every time science becomes aware of a new disease, a statistically meaningful percentage of the population will identify with the description of which they were hitherto only symptomatically aware. That is, they were inflicted with an ailment whose true nature they ignored and came unhesitatingly forward when the condition was publicly exposed. Bingo! –the disease turned into a fashion. This is what happened also to cancer in the days when its nature was unknown; also to diabetes, nephritis and to a whole impressive catalog of syndromes. The latest of these happen to be AIDS and CFS.
Now before I am reprimanded severely by the irate reader for referring to mortal diseases with such frivolity, I hasten to insist on the undeniable fact that there are no new diseases! Even something so “modern” as radiation sickness is at least 3000 years old. Surprised? Yet, it is a fact. This, incidentally, proves how relative things are.
It appears that the pundits of ancient Egypt were already acquainted with the mortal effects of radioactivity. The Smith-Papyrus (christened after the mecenas who financed excavations, hoping to attain more popularity than his mediocrity would ever have granted him), carbon-dated as more than three millennia old, describes startlingly correct symptoms of over fifty diseases, among which are those produced by radiation overdose, also listed with high accuracy. Obviously, none of these listings offer any explanations. What really astonishes is that the symptoms listed in the curse engraved over the entrance of the tomb of the Pharaoh Tut-Ankh-Amon cover the effects of lethal radiation overdose with surprising precision. (The most surprised were the unfortunate members of the British team of archeologists when they all died within one year of entering the tomb of the very symptoms heralded by the curse whose threat they had dismissed so lightly).
Not until the event of the first atom bombs – who’s terrible after effects strangely resembled those described in the curse of the ancient pharaoh – that someone couldn’t help but discover the idiosyncratic analogy. He re-entered the tomb, this time sporting an anti-radiation suit and carrying a Geiger counter. He made an amazing discovery: The floor of the tomb was lined with uranium that, more than three thousand years after it was laid, was radiating a lethal dose of gamma rays.
Then, as you can appreciate Gentle Reader, there are really no new diseases.
AIDS: ALSO AN OLD AILMENT
Neither is AIDS a new syndrome. Quite to the contrary, the acquired immune deficit of the immune response – the loss of defensive ability of the body, that is – is as old as the human species itself. I think we better examine – however briefly – all this for what it really is.
AIDS – label for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome” – is founded on the fact that one of the two general types of lymphocytes, almost always the T-lymphocytes, begins to miss and fail in the blood. That is, not only their number is decreasing, but even those which circulate become defective. This implies that these exiguous T-lymphocytes become ever more unable to fulfill their commitment, consisting in devouring invading pathogens, including viruses. Before we continue, let us scrutinize the essence of a lymphocyte.
Both of their types – the T and B lymphocytes – belongs to the catalog of white blood cells which are in charge of the greater part of the body’s defenses. The B-lymphocyte is assembled by the bone morrow, hence the “B” classification. These are minute, veritable perambulating factories capable of churning out an enormous variety of antibodies at an incredible rate. Antibodies protect us against pathogen, bacteria, and other antigens.
The T-lymphocyte production, on the other hand, is governed by a small gland – shrunk in adults to half its original size – called thymus, which is emplaced under the base of our throat. The first letter of the thymus accounts for the code name T – lymphocytes. This very important gland – whose attributes make it participate in a surprising range of organic functions – is usually quite well protected by multiple mechanisms. Alas, these barriers are not invulnerable and any interference with the delicate programming of the thymus can bring on severe deteriorations of various organs and give rise to unyielding diseases, such as myasthenia gravis – the untreatable gradual atrophy of all muscles – CFS, the label for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, AIDS, and other lethal conditions evolved due to thymus deterioration.
HOW AIDS WORKS
Now, let us review briefly the symptoms of AIDS and analyze how they evolve. AIDS is associated with opportunistic, therapy-resistant infections that debilitate the body until eventually a malignant condition develops, usually Kaposi sarcoma. The most frequent symptoms are: Recurrent fever, sudden weight loss, diarrhea without evidence of intestinal infection, conjunctivitis, swelling of the lymphatic glands, painful enlargement of the liver, and bleedings.
The human body fights infections combining three principal methods: 1) antibodies – produced by the B-lymphocytes – take care of bacteria-sized pathogens; 2) T-lymphocytes – also called T-cells because the Thymus controls their productions – virtually devour antigens up to the size of large viruses; 3) Lactoferrin, that condemns the pathogens to iron-starvation. Iron is an all-important element for the metabolism of all pathogens. No germ, virus or yeast antigen can survive without iron.
The feeble theory that holds that AIDS is caused by a specific virus is founded on the premise that incompetent research “succeeded” in isolating a specific virus capable of attacking T-lymphocytes of supposedly healthy persons. (How exciting! Michael Crichton should get a load of this…)
Let us here establish the fact that none of these experiments tried to infect live healthy persons, (Thank the Lord for small favors!), but worked with T-cell cultures in vitro – that is, “in a glass” – transplanted from the blood of test subjects. These learned researchers’ ignored the fact that the lymphocyte is photo-sensitive. This means that once removed from the blood, the inevitable exposure to harsh light will diminish its aggressive defense potential. Even experiments carried out with the technique known as dark field microscopy altered the sensitive programming of the delicate structure of T-cells, for the culture were growing in harsh light. Their weakness increased until they became prey of any robust virus, so much for the specific HIV theory. Alas it is beyond dispute that T-cells are indeed being invaded – virtually taken over - by viruses. That is, there are T-cells that do fail there commitment. So, now let us find out what could trigger such a lymphocyte strike.
TROUBLE ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE
We have just stated that the production of T-cells is controlled by the thymus gland. Thus, it appears obvious that the tissue of the thymus in AIDS patients must be necessarily affected by some pathological process. First of all, let us examine which tissue inside the thymus is responsible for the T-cell production. There are cells in the thymus – the lymphoblastiod cells, also called Amalwa cells – that serve as cradle to the assembly of T-lymphocytes. One of the primary responsibilities of the Amalwa cells is the synthesis of the Alpha-Interferon – a polypeptide – which is a paramount tool for the vigorous functionality of all T-cells. It cannot execute its program without Alpha-Interferon. The Amalwa cells of the thymus supply their endowment before the T-cell is released from its cradle.
As already noted, although the thymus is extremely well protected, it is far from being invulnerable. These are some factors that can indeed affect the thymus. However, precisely due to its formidable defense resources, severe ailments of this gland were, until recently, relatively rare. This brings us to the explanation, why AIDS appears to virtually “specialize” among homosexuals and to drug addicts. The answer – once we eliminate the exquisite explanations en vogue, which are as foolhardy as they are picturesque – is quite logical. First of all, consider that all homosexuals are susceptible to AIDS! That is, in spite of everything that is said, the thymus of many does positively resist the onslaught of the “HIV virus” quite successfully.
What, then, is the factor that sets these apart from those who are victimized by AIDS? There obviously must be a common denominator that explains satisfactorily the enigma. And so there is.
EXPLAINING THE ENIGMA
The Author & colleagues have, in fact, found such a central factor that seems to explain why the thymus of some homosexuals, appear to deteriorate preferentially under the AIDS onslaught. Having sampled 100 homosexuals afflicted with AIDS, it was determined that 90% of these had been consuming – some even at the time of the sampling - long term, high-dosage female hormones. Many of them were also consuming drugs, ranging from heroin and hashish to cocaine, including the 10% that was not taking hormones.
The sampling of 100 healthy homosexuals revealed that only 7% of these were consuming female hormones at much lower doses and at irregular intervals.
Approximately ten years prior to this study, in the course of one of our periodic review of case-histories, we discovered that some of our female AIDS patients were previously treated with long-term, high-dosages of progesterone (one of the two female hormones). The purpose of such treatment consisted in the attempt of correcting the patients’ habitual tendency to miscarriages. Having detected the sixth of such patients in a span of five years, we decided to research the findings on our own.
We subjected ten young cows at our research ranch to high doses of progesterone. One year after the start of the treatment, two of the animals developed the bovine equivalent of AIDS symptoms. At this point, we sacrificed all ten animals and found that the thymus of all ten was in different degenerative stages.
At that time, AIDS was not yet considered a public menace, nor was it yet officially related to homosexuals. This is easy to understand when we consider that the wide use of hormones in general did not spread until the sixties. Thus, it was not until the mid-seventies that AIDS began to multiply beyond proportion and finally – by sheer mass of statistical findings – inevitably caught public attention.
The question which remains to be answered is: how do AIDS infect individuals who are neither drug-addicts, nor homosexuals?
THE KEY TO PREVENTION: A HEALTHY THYMUS
As we have seen, AIDS cannot develop in any individual whose thymus is in good batting order. We have also insisted on the fact that this disease was extant – albeit not frequent – among humans since the dawn of history precisely because the thymus, in spite of its defense mechanisms, is not invulnerable. However, in the early days of history sick people were mercilessly isolated from the rest, thus diffusions of the epidemics only occurred when volatile and food-transmitted pathogens, such as cholera, for instance, were afoot.
But at present, our evermore unhealthy way of living – polluted environment, toxic food, drugs, permanent, insurmountable and stifling mental stress, alcohol and relentlessly toxic “conventional” medicines – takes lethal tolls on human health.
It is said that the human body is marvelously adaptable to environmental changes. Well, that is probably true for a long-term process. The human body might be perfectly adapted to our actual pollutants that cause cancer in, let us say, twelve more generations that is in some 500 years. But in the meantime the generations in-between are extremely ill equipped to cope with toxic agents, some of which will indisputably wreak havoc on the thymus.
On the other hand, consider what happens when a heterosexual individual who is definitively not a drug addict succumbs to a pathological condition that is unrelated to AIDS, but could eventually entail influences that derange the Amalwa cells in the thymus. If such a person receives an infected blood transfusion, his weakened T-lymphocytes will be victimized by some virus. Now, I expect the Gentle Reader will holler that I am not abiding by my own statements! I have just stressed the fact that there is no specific AIDS virus. And there is none. So how come a debilitated person can be infected by an “HIV” virus? But I did not say he will be infected by an AIDS virus! I said he will be victimized by a virus, any virus. I went to great length of trouble to make it clear that deteriorated Amalwa cells will assemble defective lymphocytes. One of their most arrant shortcomings will be their lack of Alpha-Interferon which, associated with the circumstance that the exhausted immune mechanism will also fail to produce sufficient Lactoferrin – that would cause iron starvation in viruses – will result in the obvious outcome that any virus becomes enabled to invade the very T-cell whose primary commitment was to destroy that very virus’.
Now, let us go one step further and establish the fact that both the virus and the T-cells are genetically endowed with aggressive potentials. This, again, results in an unexpected consequence. The T-cell which allows it to be made into a host for the virus – regardless of its weakness – retains some residual presence of its original, genetically aggressive program. During its proliferated phase, the virus which has invaded it will incorporate into its descendants at least some of this extant aggressive genetically residue. The result will be a virus with super aggressive capabilities – virtually a super virus – which our learned researchers insist on identifying as a specific AIDS virus. That is, virtually any virus can become a super-virus given the above described circumstances! This illustrates satisfactorily how the immune system of a non-hormone users and non-drug-addicts can become so deranged that they can be victimized by AIDS. Once you begin to consider the facts – and provided you have succeeded in curbing your faith in the sensation-hungry press – it becomes perfectly clear how AIDS can infect individuals not prone to engage in sui generis sexual practices.
By the same token, it becomes also clear why research has not been able to come up with an effective vaccine against an existing virus. Since, given the circumstances, any virus can turn into a super virus and since all viruses are extraordinarily mutant – just remember how impossible it is to produce a working vaccine against the common cold virus – it is even less feasible to produce an anti-AIDS vaccine.
THE BEST DEFENSE
It is important to understand that no healthy person’s T-cells can ever be invaded by any virus, regardless of its acquired super-virus abilities. A healthy T-cell simply cannot be taken over, quite to the contrary. Healthy T-cells will be assisted by legions of antibodies that evolved the affinity for super-viruses. Antibodies perform this trick by identifying the viruses’ waste products which these shed during their proliferative phases. Now viruses which have incorporated residual T-cell information from their hosts into their own recombinant program shed radically different waste products to which antibodies will immediately react. This deciphers the mystery of why so many healthy individuals test positive to the quite asinine collection of AIDS tests devised by the savants of the Establishment. We have just stressed that no healthy individual can be affected by AIDS. The presence of antibodies against super-virus endowed with residual human genetics is the best proof thereof.
The all-time diagnostic ringer that can indeed herald the possibility of an AIDS infection is: A 50% or larger T-cell deficit associated with 3 or more simultaneous infections. The symptoms we described earlier in this essay close the case.
There is only one more facet which calls for discussion. Is there anything we could undertake in the face of such peril? As long as the patient is not in the last phase of the disease, the answer is emphatically affirmative. We have just examined in some detail what leads to the feasibility of an AIDS involvement. Thus, it appears obvious that we have to seek a nutritional program and proper supplementation that will enhance both the patient’s endogenous- body own- Alpha Interferon and Lactoferrin production and ensure the body’s proper detoxification. Such means are already available and could not only help millions of AIDS victims, but could also serve as a formidable means for effective AIDS prevention.
But the last word has yet not been said. By and large the human race is endowed with a set of quite prodigious abilities and, in spite of all its shortcomings, is far from being an endangered species. Our ultimate aim, then, consists in joining forces so we can happily make the best of what we were entrusted with.
Which is quite a lot?