How do you feel about western approaches to HIV/AIDS?
Western approaches to HIV/AIDS overly focus on the virus as a separate entity from the person it is inhabiting. Unfortunately, most of the research (1) attempting to understand TCM’s effect on HIV/AIDS employs a Western scientific model--using one formula to treat symptoms of HIV in a variety of patients. I have yet to find any solid research using TCM diagnostic methods in order to come up with specialized treatment protocols for each patient diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
Because modern medicine is so dominated by profit and Cartesian logic, it is difficult to explore other models of treatment--ones that are more holistic and do not require patients to become indefinitely dependent on the substance helping them.
- https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/950757/
What are your thoughts on the issues around the PrEP treatment?
With all medical treatments, the crux of its validity is dependent on the agency of the person being treated by it. PrEP has pretty horrific side effects, which would likely dissuade most people, who have access to other methods of safer sex, from taking it. Also, the high cost disbars many people who would like to take PrEP from taking it as well. With more research, prophylactic methods of HIV prevention can be very liberating for those who are at risk for exposure.
Beyond PrEP, there are many sociological approaches to HIV prevention. They include: reducing stigma (1), creating a culture of consent (I read an article earlier in the year stating that, teaching skills around consent to kindergarteners reduced levels of STI’s in those same high school students, ten years later) and having free and easy access to testing and treatment. For example, when Vice President Mike Pence cut funding to Planned Parenthood during his term as Governer of Indiana--HIV scores skyrocketed. While the event is tragic, we can also ascertain that when people become aware of their HIV status--they act in ways that reduce the chances of other people becoming infected as well. (2)
(1)http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2017/october/20171002_confronting-discrimination
(2)https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-indiana-hiv_us_57f53b9be4b002a7312022ef
Can TCM strengthen our immune systems?
Yes! TCM can strengthen our immune systems. In a self-referential way, Chinese Medicine has claimed to improve immune function for thousands of years. Herbs such as Huang Qi (Astragalus propinquus) and Fang Feng (Radix Saposhnikoviae) are historically proven to boosts the body’s capacity to deal with infections of all sorts. These herbs are said to strengthen or consolidate the "Wei Qi" which is a specified form of our body's metabolic function which circulates through the fascia keeping various pathogens from entering our systems.
Modern research also supports this claim. In a 2015 study, researchers found that stimulation of the acupuncture point Zusanli or Stomach 36 increased the barrier within the intestinal mucosa, reduced inflammation, and increased the count of immune cells within the digestive tract. (1)
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4540978/
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