Red Flags - Alternative

Nothing Spreads Faster Than Word Of Mouth

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 04:00:00 -0400

So there you are — not yourself, perpetually tired, sleeping badly, getting repeated sniffles, coughing, maybe losing weight or putting on weight in all the wrong places, suffering various joint pains, headaches, maybe even the odd bout of eczema, boils, warts, mouth sores, shingles, thrush and the like. High blood pressure or low blood pressure, pre-diabetic or full-blown.

If you are in South Africa, the last thing you do is check in at the outpatient clinic of your local government hospital. Why? Because you will be pressured into taking an HIV test. If you resist, you will be given short shrift and sent on your way. If you do take the test and it’s positive, your life is over. It’s Bactrim or antibiotics until your CD4 count (a measure of you immune system) drops below 200, and then it’s antiretrovirals (ARVs).

AIDS Does Not Mean Death - 45 Hours On Film Proves It

Tue, 10 May 2005 04:00:00 -0400

Everything about Tine van der Maas is larger than life. A few moments in her towering 6ft 2in no-nonsense straight-talking presence is a tonic - proof that she practises what she preaches: laughter is the best medicine. How she can still be laughing given what she is being subjected to is a triumph of the human spirit.

She is a trained nurse, but no longer registered, and a qualified midwife with 22 years of experience working with the poorest of poor South Africans. Tine and her "best friend," her mother, Nelly, and associates of Health Education Services (HES), have travelled across the country and neighbouring states spreading the message - no one need die of immune deficiency.(1) That’s her heresy.

Cancer Journey

Thu, 09 Jan 2003 04:00:00 -0500

My uncle, Edward Holasek, was the youngest of nine children in my father’s first generation American family. He was the first Holasek to graduate from college, and he spent his career in engineering, and then joined a team at University Hospitals in Cleveland which pioneered the use of ultrasound in retinal detachments. He was also an instructor of Biophysics, division of ophthalmology at Case Western Reserve University. Although he had type-2 diabetes, starting in his mid fifties, he was in fairly good health until his mid-sixties, when he started having weird symptoms of leg pain, tiredness, and muscle cramps.

The Story Of A Woman Who Sought Alternative Medical Care To Defeat Her Cancer

Thu, 05 Dec 2002 04:00:00 -0500

In the mid-1990s, when Barbara Folden was diagnosed with carcinoid tumor of the small intestine, it had spread to her liver. She had lived with symptoms for many years, but no one could figure out her problem. Finally, a CAT scan showed something, and a surgeon went exploring. He ended up taking out several feet of her small intestine and noticed numerous spots on her liver. Although, carcinoid tumors can be slow growing, cancer already attached to a person’s liver is an ominous development. The oncologist was called in. Barbara knew this caring cancer specialist because he had attended to her father. She recalled that when he put his arm around her and said he would take care of her just like he had taken care of her father, "At that moment I knew I was going to die."