When your natural immune system is working well, you can adapt to successful viral mutations within days. This applies to HIV and AIDS as well. If your immunity is going strong, your body can deal better with any type of viral infections.
Now, you can optimize your immune system in two ways – by taking supplements and by regulating your food intake. Here are the top supplements to boost your immune function in the order of importance.
Vitamins And Minerals That Optimize The Immune System
1. Vitamin D3
Vitamin D3 dosage is always a challenge. An average adult should take approximately 2000 IU in winter and less in summer, provided you get adequate sun exposure routinely. Preferably, take this vitamin supplement with a meal that contains fat.
Of course, darker skin is both a protection against sun damage and an impediment to the creation of vitamin D3 from sun exposure. So, dark-skinned people in northern latitudes are very likely to be vitamin D deficient and may need higher dosages.
2. Selenium
The ideal dosage of selenium is about 100 to 400 mcg per day. Take this supplement with a meal that contains fat. If you overdose on selenium, the cuticles underneath your fingernails will get inflamed and turn red. In such cases, stop the selenium intake for a few days and then resume with a lower dose. At the lower end of the dose, 100 mcg/day is unlikely to produce overdose symptoms for an adult unless you eat Brazil nuts frequently.
For adults, 200 mcg/day is commonly recommended, but this can produce overdose symptoms more easily. A dosage of 400 mcg/day is more likely to generate overdose symptoms. Avoid such dosages unless you have a reason to take high amounts of selenium (such as a persistent viral infection).
3. Organic Sulfur
Organic sulfur supplements should be 99.9% pure. Eat between 1 and 2 teaspoons of organic sulfur twice a day on an empty stomach. Do not eat or drink anything else for the next 30 minutes. You might get more benefits if you experiment with higher dosages.
4. Vitamin C
An ideal dosage of vitamin C supplements would be about 1 gm, twice a day.
5. Vitamin E
Vitamin E naturally occurs in 8 different forms. When buying vitamin E supplements, make sure that it contains all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienols. This will make it a full-spectrum vitamin E and is an indicator that the manufacturer is actually trying to improve your health. Take vitamin E supplements with a meal that contains fat.
6. Copper And Zinc
These two need to be kept in balance, somewhere in between a ratio of 10:1 and 15:1 with a higher dose of zinc. A high zinc level reduces the function of copper and a high copper level reduces the function of zinc. It is a good idea to take this as a combination supplement so that if you run out of it, you run out of both at the same time.
Vegetarians tend to have a higher level of copper. In such cases, you will probably need just the zinc. If you are a meat eater who believes that a vegetable is a garnish that is supposed to be left on the plate, then you will have high levels of zinc. So, just take the copper or at least reduce the ratio of zinc to copper to 5:1.
If you live in an old house with copper pipes and you drink tap water, you can skip the copper supplement as you probably get enough that leaches from the water pipes. Always take copper and zinc supplements with a meal that contains fat.
7. Turmeric
This is a wonderful herb most of the time and a problem the rest of the time. Turmeric grown in lead-contaminated soil can be disastrous because it naturally accumulates lead. Even buying “certified organic turmeric” doesn’t guarantee that the soil used was lead-free. This herb is one of the best arguments for learning how to muscle-test. Take the dosage indicated on the bottle.
8. Acetyl Glutathione
Glutathione peroxidase is an important part of a healthy immune system. Most of the glutathione taken orally is broken down by the stomach acid, so you end up with only about 10% of the dose that you took. In this form, the acetyl group protects it from the stomach acid and you might get 60% or more of the dosage that you take. Take 200 mg of acetyl glutathione 1 to 2 times per day, preferably on an empty stomach.
Food Habits For A Better Immune System
Food is an important part of maintaining the immune system, but it can get terribly complex and individualized. So, here’s a thumbnail sketch to guide you:
- Avoid refined foods.
- Eat enough vegetables that would make your grandmother proud.
- Do not consider corn, wheat, and soy as foods. These are almost always genetically modified (GMO). Additionally, you might face problems related to gluten and gliadin in wheat, even if it’s certified organic.
- Prepare most meals from scratch (canned/bottled packaged food is always inferior)
- Avoid added sugar, even if it’s unrefined and certified organic.
- If you eat beef or lamb, make sure it is sold directly to you by a rancher you trust. Ensure that the animals were 100% grass-fed on pastures that never saw herbicides or pesticides. The animals should also not be administered growth hormones or antibiotics.
- If you eat chicken, raise it yourself or get certified organic products.
- Do not use fluoridated water for drinking or cooking.
- Buy organic products as much as you can afford, especially oils.
- Eliminate all dairy foods except organic butter.
Effect Of Optimizing The Immune System
Once you neutralize the nutrient deficiency syndromes of AIDS, all that is left to do is to get rid of a not very infectious virus. This is why optimizing your immune system is of utmost importance. Now, this method might not always work. But, even if it doesn’t completely eliminate the virus (a sterilizing cure), it will generally improve your health or quality of life. It may even lower the viral load to an extent where you might not need ongoing medical attention (a functional cure).
The Possibility Of An HIV/AIDS Vaccine
The most important defensive characteristic of HIV is that it mutates rapidly. This is primarily due to it being an RNA virus, which always will have more mistakes than DNA replication.1
[pullquote]There are so many different strains of HIV that the likelihood of vaccinating an individual with antigens from the exact right strain or even a strain close enough to produce meaningful antibodies is an unappealing low percentage.[/pullquote]
While there has been a lot of discussion on the possibility of an HIV vaccine, an RNA virus like HIV is the least suitable target for the development of a vaccine. A vaccine has a multi-year timetable for development, testing, and deployment. An RNA virus like HIV can easily mutate and spread that mutation widely in a patient in 3–6 months. This strongly implies the improbability.
A much better approach to treating HIV and AIDS is to keep your immune system running like a well-oiled machine. Keep your system running well to prevent the need for drugs with side effects and not wait for a vaccine that is not in the near future.
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