fr— out ▼ March
18. 1984 ▼ 13
BACK TO TmomoN
A Portland clinic uses traditional Chinese medicine and techniques to
challenge the notion that HIV is a death sentence
▼
by Pamela Lyons
been in a car accident in May of 1992 and had
severe back problems. The herbs, acupuncture and
massage treatments increased her energy level and
helped take away nerve pain in her arm brought on
by her back injury.
John Clark, who had AIDS for about three
years before he entered the clinic, said the treat
ments have taken away some severe pain from a
nerve disorder in his feet—a condition that leaves
him feeling like he has lumps in his socks. Daily
acupuncture treatments have taken away about 70
percent of that pain, he said.
Rick Barnett said he took herbs similar to those
prescribed in the clinic for about two years before
he entered the program. When he stopped taking
them on his own, for financial reasons, he said he
noticed a big difference in his health. “Basically, I
fell like crap,” he said.
When Barnett started going to the clinic and
taking the herbs again, he fell almost an immediate
improvement. “At my first time with acupuncture,
I knew there was something to it,” he said. “It was
making me feel very calm.” In the three months
that he’s been going to the clinic, his headaches and
stomach problems have become less severe.
here isn’t much you can do, and
you will die in 18 months."
These were the words that Roger
Propst heard when he tested posi
tive for HIV. Like many people,
Propst was told by this doctor that having HIV
essentially meant a death sentence. Propst tested
positive in 1984.
After his diagnosis, Propst said, he decided he
wouldn’t let the virus kill him. “I saw things that
were miracles,” he said about friends who had
lived for long periods with HIV or full-blown
AIDS.
The idea that people with HIV or AIDS can live
long-term is just beginning to make inroads into
Western medical practices. There are other ap
proaches to taking care of people with HIV that
begin with the basic assumption that the affected
person is going to live.
The staff at the Immune Enhancement Pro
gram, at 2009 SE Hawthorne St., cares for people
with HIV or AIDS using this approach. The pro
gram, which is part of the Institute for Traditional
Medicine, servesabout 130peoplein Portland. For
$100 each month, a client will receive Chinese
herbs that have been especially formulated for
HIV-related conditions, acupuncture and massage
therapy.
Subhuti Dharmananda, director of ITM, said
the Portland program mirrors one in San Francisco,
which was developed after a 1986 study showed
the effectiveness of Chinese herbs in easing condi
tions due to HIV infection, such as diarrhea or loss
of appetite. ‘‘Overall, people say they feel better
[when they take the herbs],” Dharmananda said.
It can take up to three months for many clients
to notice health improvements, Dharmananda said.
Propst said he felt effects from the treatment after
the first few days. “I had what I call a ‘healing
crisis’ after my first acupuncture treatment. I knew
this would make me feel better,” he said.
In 1986, Dharmananda was teaching a private
class in Chinese herbal medicine in Berkeley,
California. The AIDS crisis was into its fifth year,
and Western medicine had not made any break
throughs in finding effective treatments.
Dharmananda decided that as part of his class, he’d
have his students test herbal combinations on people
with HIV or AIDS to see what effects they would
have.
Out of the 20 people who took specific Chinese
herbs in the study, 19 had significant health im
provement after eight months, Dharmananda said.
Some had gained weight and had an increased
appetite, others’ digestive problems were cleared
up.
An article about the study’s results in a San
Francisco sexual minority paper generated many
responses from people who were looking for relief
from HIV-related conditions. Based on the results
and the interest, Dharmananda opened the Immune
Enhancement Program in San Francisco to treat
people with Chinese herbs. That clinic has grown
to serve about 250 people. A 12-week study at the
San Francisco clinic, in the fall of 1990, verified
the findings of the first study.
Dharmananda opened the Portland IEP clinic
in 1992. A survey of clients who had stayed with
the program for at least a year showed that the
health of most improved or stayed the same. Those
clients whose health worsened usually developed
opportunistic infections. “Since many of these
Most of the clients at the clinic have primary
care physicians through places such as Kaiser or
Oregon Health Sciences University. Bamctt said
his doctor at Kaiser is supportive of his attending
the IEPclinic. “She’s a little more modernized and
open-minded about it than most,” he said.
Dharmananda said some Western doctors are
skeptical of traditional Chinese health care, but
most don’t discourage people from going to the
clinic. “If they havedoubts, the main thing they say
is that there is no proof,” he said. He said one doctor
he talks with feels that going to the clinic is at least
“better than doing nothing.”
Traditional Chinese medicine and Western
medicine approach disease treatment in some dif
ferent ways, he said. Western doctors tend to try
and stop a virus with external means. With AIDS,
this means antiviral drugs such as AZT, ddC and
ddl. “The Chinese view is to support the normal
function of the body,” Dharmananda said.
The puzzle of AIDS is challenging the
individuals have been hospitalized with opportu adaptiveness of both Western and traditional Chi
nistic infections prior to entry into IEP, and since nese medicine. Because no cure or vaccine has yet
published one-year survival rates for such patients been found for HIV, Western doctors have to look
are about 25 percent, this demonstrates that the to other methods for care. And because the virus
Chinese medical program is likely having a life- affects the immune system, the Chinese method of
prolonging effect while also providing improved supporting the body’s own functions can be prob
quality of life for the majority of participants,” lematic. “Medical doctors and traditional Chinese
Dharmananda concluded in a study summary.
doctors—we’re all a little stumped by it,”
Many people who are currently in the program Dharmananda said. “It keeps all of us very open to
back up the results of these studies.
what improvements might come.”
“Within two weeks, I began to feel better,” said
Most IEP clients have gone through Western
Cheryl Brown, who entered the program in August routes of caring for themselves. Brown was on
1993. Along with being HIV positive. Brown had
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