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| protection by mobilizing internal reserves of fat soluble nutrients, most notably vitamin A, carotenes and vitamin E and its antioxidant metabolites, at least partially through increased functioning of the vitamin E redox system. However in doing so, it can deplete these antioxidant reserves.14a This is especially important in HIV and AIDS because of the dangerous role oxidative stresses play in disease progression, and equally important because the majority of people with HIV/AIDS are considerably deficient in antioxidant nutrients already. |
| Lastly, one of the primary activities of echinacea is in enhancing the activity of macrophages, specifically including increased production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-a) that can help to combat cancer cells by destroying them.26 However, this toxic cytokine is also associated with the devastating wasting syndrome observed in patients with advanced stages of diseases associated with the deterioration of the immune system, including cancer and AIDS. |
| To sum up, in relatively healthy people who are HIV+, echinacea can be used safely as a means to manage occasional opportunistic infections. In people at a more serious stage of the disease, such as in those with severe swollen lymph glands or acute infections, echinacea may similarly be used with positive results short-term. However in all cases when taking echinacea, it is necessary to proportionately increase one's intake of antioxidant nutrients. |
| A Personal Note |
| Many of the findings of modern research on echinacea and other medicinal plants have been based on |
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