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Rural Support - South Australia Only |
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 19:28
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Live in Rural
South Australia?
Do you want
more
information and
support?
Get Linked
Up!
For the past four months, the
Getting It Together Rural Peer Support Project has been experimenting with a new
way of sharing information and linking people with  hepatitis C who live
throughout rural SA.
The Get Linked Up service is a free monthly phone link-up that provides people with an opportunity to
talk with others from rural SA, and to access easy-to-understand information
about hepatitis C. The team behind the planning and facilitation of the link-ups
bring a wealth of personal knowledge and understanding about hepatitis C, and
really know just how difficult it can be living with hepatitis C in a rural
community, dealing with misunderstanding and stigma.
Two of the team members, Robbie
and Karen, participate in the link-up from rural SA, where they have lived for
many years. Will and Lyn also bring a detailed personal knowledge to the
service, and a comprehensive understanding of current hepatitis C information
gained through their work on the Hepatitis C Council Info & Support
Line.
Anyone from a rural community
who has hepatitis C can phone into the link-up free of charge and use the
opportunity to ask questions and to share information and ideas.
When: On the 4th Tuesday of each month; 1pm - 2pm
How: For information about how to get linked up, call Lyn
Green or Leslie Wightman at the Hepatitis C Council of SA on 1800 021 133 or 8362 8443, or email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 13 December 2007 10:48 |
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Bipolar conditions and Hepatitis C treatments |
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 19:28
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By George D Henderson (AHCS)
Given that the need for help in the management
of unpredictable moods is a common reason for people to become drug
adddicted, we might expect to see an elevated incidence of bipolar
conditions and other mood disorders in people with HCV. These are not
always diagnosed, as the effects are often aggravated by and attributed
to the drugs, and cyclothymic disorder, as well as disthymic and
hypomanic disorder are often ignored by clinicians concerned with the
more serious manic-depressive disorders.
A person with hypomania may just be thought of as "intense", disthymic
disorder often presents as mild depression or pessimism, and a
cyclothymic is often considered a "typical artist", a "drama queen",
"moody" etc.
Because the hypomania has never extended to a delusional, psychotic
mania, and the depression has never turned suicidal, cyclothymia is
easy to believe in as just that individual's character. Most
cyclothymics are normal much of the time. But it does matter when you
are considering Interferon-ribavirin combination therapy, because any
instability is magnified. If these mood disorders are diagnosed, they
will probably be reasons why therapy is contra-indicated; if it is not,
you may well find that symptoms such as "Riba rage" become unbearable;
this could end with you terminating treatment (and complaining about
the effects for some time to come), or perhaps result in you and/or your
provider trying to manage the symptoms with antidepressants, sleeping
pills, and other drugs.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 20 May 2007 23:17 |
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Selenium and HIV/AIDS, Selenium and Vitamin C, and Vitamin E |
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 19:28
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By George. D. Henderson (AHCS)
 The following quote
is from a Life Extension Foundation newsletter on a trial using
Selenium in HCV. A lot of what it says is applicable to HCV infection,
including the influence of poor nutrition on seroconversion.
One-hundred seventy-four participants completed the nine-month
treatment period. Not surprisingly, blood selenium levels rose in the
group that received the mineral. Greater selenium levels predicted a
decline in HIV viral load, which subsequently predicted increased CD4
counts. Participants in the selenium group who did not respond were
found to have a greater incidence of poor adherence to the treatment
regimen. No adverse events occurred.
Although the mechanism of selenium against HIV infection has not
been defined, one hypothesis suggests that the mineral’s antioxidant
property repairs the damage inflicted on immune cells by oxidative
stress, which is increased in HIV patients. Additionally, the HIV-1
virus may need selenium to produce some of its enzymes, which
contributes to depletion of its host’s selenium reserves. The authors
note that chronically ill or impoverished populations frequently have
dietary deficiencies, and the resulting increase in oxidative stress
can increase the virulence of some pathogenic viruses.
The authors conclude that "Given the challenges of using
conventional pharmacotherapy to achieve and maintain virologic
suppression in HIV-spectrum disease, our results support the use of
selenium as a simple, inexpensive and safe adjunct therapy."
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Last Updated on Sunday, 20 May 2007 22:20 |
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"Triple Antioxidant" therapy for Hepatitis C |
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 19:28
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By George D Henderson. (AHCS)
The copy of berkson's paper below is from the site http://allinone-nutrition.com/6.html
which offers all these nutrients in one pill - "Hep C Complete". I have
removed the advertising material, otherwise this is the paper as
presented there. I have a hard copy of another translation of the paper
from another source, the Auckland Hep C resource centre magazine "The
Chronicle", and can verify that this version is accurate.
I will be
commenting on this paper, which is one of the most important documents
for Hep C treatment, later; I will only point out now that A-lipoic
acid is much more expensive than NAC, though it seems to be as or more
effective in the long term - NAC may not have been as suitable for
patients with such severe liver damage - it does not seem to relieve
the subjective Hep C symptoms - pain, pyrexia, rigor, depression,
fatigue - as quickly as NAC does.
I hypothesise that these improvements
might be intially begun by l-cysteine alone, before it is used to
synthesise glutathione, a step missing when ALA elevates GSH. A
combination of ALA, NAC and SAMe might be ideal)
The Berkson Clinical Study
Shown below is a paper from American physician Dr. Burton Berkson
titled "Alpha-Lipoic Acid Breakthroughs." The paper details the
positive outcomes of Hepatitis-C patients following a conservative
treatment regimen with the three potent anti-oxidants contained in Hep
C Complete. A few highlights from Dr. Berkson's research include:
There is no reliable therapy for chronic Hepatitis-C since
interferon and antivirals work no more than 30% of the time and liver
transplant is risky, uncertain, expensive, disabling, and in the long
term often ineffective.
Patients were treated daily with the triple anti-oxidant combination of
alph-lipoic acid (600mg), silymarin (900 mg), and selenium (400 mcg)
because these substances protect the liver from free radical damage,
increase levels of other anti-oxidants, and interfere with viral
proliferation.
The patients detailed in the report recovered quickly from this
potentially devastating viral infection, avoided liver transplant
therapy, and returned to living normal lives.
The author presents a conservative treatment that has provided strong
results at a fraction of the cost of prescription drugs or liver
transplant.
The Berkson Clinical Study
The following paper was written by an American physician Dr.
Burton Berkson but the results of his work were not published in the
American medical journals. The study results were published in
Germany’s medical journal "Medizinische Klinik". The article has been
transcribed in English but is provided esentially unchanged for your
review.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 13 May 2007 00:56 |
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