5 Ways to Get Alternative Treatment for HIV

1. Stress Less

Stress can affect the body's ability to fight off illness and disease. For an HIV patient, too much stress means a greater susceptibility to infections, disease and a quicker onset of AIDS. Recommendations to HIV patients include reducing stress in their life as much as possible. To this end, body and massage work is often used as a way for HIV patients to relax and distress. Body and massage work also has the added benefit of reliving a variety of physical symptoms associated with HIV such as chronic pain.

2. Try a Little Prick for Relief

Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years and in the U.S. is one of the more common complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices. Acupuncture seeks to restore and maintain health by stimulating certain points on the body through the use of thin, stainless steel needles placed in the skin to stimulate areas of the body. In HIV patients, practitioners use acupuncture to relive some of their symptoms such as fatigue, pain and neuropathy and also as a way to boost the immune system.

3. Eat Right to Fight HIV

Diet and nutrition are very important to a person with HIV because inadequate nutrition can wreak havoc on the immune system and increase their susceptibility to infections, disease and more rapid progression of the virus. Protein is an important part of any HIV diet regime because it helps to boost the immune system and alleviate pain. Dr. Kaiser, a California-based doctor who wrote, "Healing HIV - How To Rebuild Your Immune System" suggests an HIV patient consume .06 grams of protein per pound of body weight as a way to boost their immune system and slow the progression of the virus.

4. Use Mind Over Body Concepts

Mind-body therapy is another common CAM practice. Mind-body therapy concepts believe that the mind has a great effect over the physical self. It's believed that the mind can fight off disease in the body and uses techniques such as meditation and visualization, a technique where people visualize their self as fit and healthy and the disease as weak and beatable, to achieve the goal of a healthier, disease free self. For HIV patients this would mean visualizing the body fighting off the virus and in turn boosting their immune system.

5. Give Yourself a Supplemental Boost

HIV patients use dietary supplements to help boost the immune system, Supplements also help replace nutrients and vitamins that may be lost due to common illnesses associated with HIV and its treatment such as diarrhea, vomiting and loss of appetite. Some common dietary supplements recommended for HIV patients include Vitamin E, Vitamin C, coenzyme Q-10 and N-acetyl cysteine.