1. Systemic Symptoms: Fever, dehydration, night sweats, weight loss (but losing more muscle than fat), low or no appetite, nausea, vomiting (these lead to wt loss), malabsorption, diarrhea from infection/parasites, and/or increased metabolic rate. 2. Sinopulmonary Disease: Pneumocystis pneumonia, other infectious pulmary disease, noninfectious pulmonary disease, sinusitis. 3. Central Nervous System (CNS) Diseases: Toxoplasmosis, CNS lymphoma, AIDS dementia, cryptococcal meningitis, HIV myelopathy, Progressive Multifocal Leukencephalopathy (PML) 4. Peripheral Nervous System Disease: Inflammatory polyneuropathies, sensory neuropathies, mononeuropathies 5. Rheumatologic Disease 6. Myopathy (muscle disease) 7. Retinitis 8. Oral lesions 9. Gastrointestinal: Candidal esophagitis, hepatic disease, biliary disease, enterocolitis, gastropathy, malabsorption Skin: Herpes simplex and zoster, molluscum, staphylococcus, bacillary angiomatosis Malignancies 10. Gynecological: Vaginal candida, cervical dysplasia and neoplasia, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Research on Alternative and Chinese Medicine Treatments for AIDS

It's difficult to study treatments for AIDS because a high percentage of chronically ill patients drop out... their disease and study are usually too demanding for them. Nevertheless, some good studies exist. Herbs and herb formulas' effects as reported in studies are mentioned below. Others mentioned below may not have been studied. In both cases, chinese medical functions may be mentioned as well.

Chinese Herb Formulas for AIDS Treatment

The most common chinese herbal treatment strategy for AIDS is Fu Zheng, Supporting Righteous. That means boosting immune system, etc. This is most common because many AIDS patients are also on western drug cocktails. These drugs take quite a toll on body- among other things, they injure qi, create phlegm, and cause Liver-Spleen disharmonies. Fu Zheng therapies can help restore balance.

* HY-1: chai hu, huang qin, ban xia, ren shen, da zao, gan cao, sheng jiang, huang qi, fang feng. Based on Xiao Chai Hu T & Jade Wind. Harmonizes Liver and Spleen, Boosts Wei qi * HY-2: huang qi, fang feng, ren shen, huang jian or ye jiao teng or he shou wu, yin yang huo, shu di huang. Boosts Yin and Yang. * Milingwang: huang qi, ling zhi, dang shen, bai zhu, gan cao, shu di huang, sha shen, wu wei z, sheng jiang, da zao, ji xue teng, tu si zi, shan yao, jie geng, nu zhen zi, bai shao, chen pi. Boosts bone marrow, RBC, inhibits viruses (polio). * Resist: huang qi, nu zhen zi, dang shen, shan yao, ji xue teng, ling zhi, ren shen, bai shao, shu di, wu wei zi, siberian ginseng, gan cao. Increases red blood cells, white blood cells, B cells, hemoglobin, and phagocystic action of leukocytes.

The second most common treatment strategy is Qu Xie, Dispelling Evil. This is roughly same strategy that western drug cocktails use... what is commonly thought of as 'chemotherapy.' It can also be done with herbs. Sometimes it is even used in concert with drug therapy.

* HY-3: da qing ye, chai hu, lithospermum, gan cao, chen pi * HY-4: ban lan gen, zhi zi, blechnum, gan cao, chen pi. To reduce virus potency, alternate with other Qu Xie formulas to avoid tolerance, less specific than other forms) - Good for asymptomatic patients

Single herbs: zi hua di ding, xia ku cao, tian hua fen, huang lian, jin yin hua, chuan xin lian, niu bang zi, yin yang huo, zi cao, gou ji, guan zhong, qian li guang

Sometimes, both strategies (Supporting Righteous and Dispelling Evils) are used together.

Acupuncture is good not only for headache, but for various types of migraine auras, AND for preventing migraines. Also, you can use points I'll suggest below to give yourself acupressure at home for free!

Acupuncture and migraine treatment, like all acupuncture, is based on principles and theories of Chinese medicine. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, causes are emotional excesses (stress, long-term emotional disturbance, even just long-term frustration!), dietary imbalance (too much of wrong foods and too little of right ones), and deficiencies inherent in aging process can lead to symptoms of migraine.

Acupuncture points may be different for acute attacks, and for prevention. There is acupuncture to treat, for example, a one-sided headache, and then a slightly different acupuncture to treat susceptibility to stress that causes it.

Acupuncture - The Pain "Reset Button" A neurologist told us in a guest lecture at my alma mater, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, that acupuncture is best therapy for chronic pain. He said that chronic pain signals can get 'grooved in' to brain. That means that even after real problem has been totally eliminated, brain may still be "echoing" pain signals to us. This fits with Oliver Sach’s observation that migraine is like a neurological configuration or ‘frame of mind’ or arrangement that migraineur keeps falling into.

Acupuncture can act as a 'reset button' to end these echoes of pain. The sooner you get acupuncture, better, because longer pain is there, more difficult it is to change.

In Chinese Medicine, we diagnose each patient according to what is called a pattern of imbalance, a group of symptoms. There are 5 basic patterns involved in migraines, but real people are complex and may have several patterns going on at same time.

Let’s take a look at acupuncture and migraine in terms of 5 patterns mentioned by Bob Flaws and Philippe Sionneau in their “Treatment of Modern Western Medical Diseases in TCM.” Acupuncture is much more effective than acupressure, but in case you want to try out some of these points on yourself, you can massage them. Check out this link for locations of these acupuncture and migraine points.