< return to articles page >

Insulin potentiation therapy and the treatment of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

SGA, M.D., Clinical Instructor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, Il. 60064
Unpublished article, 1987

[ Summary by Chris Duffield.  The original article may be available directly from Dr. SGA. ]

[ We believe this article was distributed at a poster presentation at an AIDS conference. ]

        Insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) is an innovative protocol that has been used many different diseases, including cancers, chronic degenerative diseases, and bacterial and viral infections.  It could also be used for treatment of HIV/AIDS.  

        HIV infection thrives in the brain, with primary and secondary manifestations.  Anti-HIV drugs can clear the peripheral circulation of the virus, but after treatment is stopped, the virus returns.  The hypothesis here is that viruses in the CNS, protected from antiviral drugs by the blood-brain barrier, survive and reemerge to reinfect the rest of the body. 

        IPT may be an effective protocol to simultaneously treat HIV and secondary infections in the brain and throughout the body.  IPT potentiates drugs, and allows integrated combinations of smaller doses of drugs to be given simultaneously to treat many different symptoms and infections at once.  Insulin potentiation works by increasing concentration of drugs within cells by facilitating transport across cell membranes of many tissues, and across the blood-brain barrier.  

        Successful applications of IPT for treatment of neurosyphilis and polio paralysis suggest that similar success can be had for treating AIDS.  Indeed a few cases of AIDS treated with IPT have had very positive results.  More research and controlled studies are needed.