As Kurite asked me, here is a rough translation of the conclusion of Bruno Comby’s report “Influence du facteur alimentaire sur l'évolution de l'état de santé de sujets séropositifs au virus HIV, stade I, II, III “. Searching on the web, it seems this report exists in English and German as well , but I couldn’t find it on line.   
http://www.oocities.com/hotsprings/7627/rapportsida-22-23.html

Influence of dietary factors on the evolution of the health status of HIV seropositive subjects, stage I, II, III

By Bruno Comby

Date last updated: March 20, 1989

C0NCLUSION

The total number of 27 cases is too small to draw definitive conclusions in all respects. It would be highly desirable to repeat this study in better conditions (on a larger number of patients, all medically followed in hospitals).

However , on the whole the following seems to emerge:

Overall (stages I, II and III): The index of change in clinical status is positive as well as the index of change in results of laboratory tests and this is statistically significant. It is however difficult to determine the relative share in the result of the psychological factor, which can occur, and of the dietary factor. It seems however that the dietary factor is dominant since, in several cases, some people badly practiced instinctotherapy while believing practicing it well (consumption of foods denatured unknowingly to the subjects, who consequently had troubles).

Stage I (7 cases): The index of change in clinical status is positive as is the index of evolution of biological analysis, but the number of cases is still too small for these results to be statistically significant. Among HIV-positive in stage I (asymptomatic carriers) who practiced instinctotherapy, no cases developed into stage II. It should however be noted that asymptomatic carriers may not trigger AlDS-related symptoms for several years. Given the small number of cases and the limited fed back in duration (338 days on average) it will take to gain more data or a larger number of cases to significantly conclude on this point. A case of zoster has emerged, while several have noted an improvement in their overall condition (appetite, digestion, vitality).

Stage II (5 cases): The index of change in clinical status is positive as is the index of change in laboratory tests, and this significantly. None of the subjects involved worsened into stage III. Two have reverted into stage I. With patients in stage II an improvement in two stages was generally seen: in the first months, improvement in general health (appetite, digestion, sleep, vitality, acne ...). This improvement in clinical status is not unique to AlDS as as it is often observed in HIV negative subjects as well. In patients who persisted for more than 6 months (4 cases) an increased rate of T4 lymphocytes and T4/T8 ratio from the 6th month has been repeatedly found. A case of thrombocytopenia has emerged in the 15th month.

Stage III (15 cases): The index of change in clinical status is positive and statistically significant. The growth index of biological analysis is negative but not significant. No cases have reverted into stage II and 2 cases died. It should however be noted that none of the subjects in stage III has practiced instinctothérapy over 6 months, which is a duration necessary to show the rate of increase in T lymphocytes with patients in stage II. There is in most cases an improvement of the overall condition ever since the first weeks in patients with stage III (normalization of appetite, improved digestion, decreased pain and infectiond, improved sleep ...). Both subjects who died had started instinctotherapy at a very advanced stage of disease.

The most favorable evolution (maximum evolution index) for both the clinical condition and for the results of laboratory tests was observed in subjects who practiced instinctotherapy for longer than 6 months (6 cases having practiced instinctotherapy for 23 months on average). This improvement is statistically significant. This suggests a clear influence of dietary factors on disease progression. Indeed, in the absence of any effective treatment, indexes of long-term evolution are usually the worst.

Overall, subjects who responded most favorably to the change of nutrition are young patients in stage I or II who practiced instinctotherapy during at least 6 months.

However, elderly patients in stage III and suffering from toxoplasmosis or thrombocytopenia  seem to react less favorably to the change in diet.

The return to a traditional diet is usually followed by a worsening health status of the patients (11 out of 17), which translates into a negative index changes after resumption of the traditional diet. This deterioration is significant. It occurs most often within a few months after the resumption of traditional food but can sometimes be faster, especially in patients in stage III. This negative trend seems nonexistent or much slower in patients who continue to eat mostly raw after a period of instinctotherapy  (indicating no change after returning to a traditional diet but mostly raw).

In several cases, the rate of T 4 lymphocytes increased from the 5th month of instinctotherapy. In many cases we do not have lymphocytes measurements, either because these tests were not performed timely or because the results have not been disclosed. In one case, the rate of T4 lymphocytes continued to decrease in a patient who practiced instinctotherapy for 5 months.

PS (André Paillet): You would have to read the full report for explanations on how to do statistical calculations were done (complex for non mathematicians). The full study involved 27 cases. I do not know any following report published after this first one. Indeed shortly afterwards the court forbade Burger to mention instinctotherapy, which put an end to such research. But I believe that the trend described in this report of improved health of AIDS patients practicing instincto continued. But the subject is taboo and it is almost impossible to talk about it.

We miss your daily posts! Were you lost in action?
 

Tyler and Francois, I don't want to get into a debate on it, so I'll just report that while some elements of Instincto make sense to me, my experience doesn't exactly match yours when it comes to Instincto, so from my perspective you speak for yourselves on the topic. I think some of the more cantankerous debate could be mellowed out into more reasonable and fruitful (pardon the pun ) discussion if folks frequently made it clear that they speak only for themselves.

These are separate issues: on one side there are theoretical questions concerning everyone and on the other side personal experiences, which are anecdotal. So, about my anecdotal personal experience…  

1964. I was 18 years old and my health state was an absolute catastrophe. No wonder: I fed mostly on pastry, chocolate, white bread, dairy, supplements and the various medicine our family MD prescribed me - and I refused to eat meat! Then I read “The dance with the devil” of Günther Schwab. I could hardly believe what this guy wrote, as it was in complete opposition to the prevailing way of thinking at the time which assumed that technology and science would solve all the problems, mankind would dominate the world and be triumphant over nature.

But still the book was very well documented and the author seemed logical. So I decided to experiment his ideas to know whether he was a total fool or a clever unconventional thinker.

At once, I stopped to eat refined industrial food, especially white sugar, white flour, chemical drinks, coffee, all supplements (digestive enzymes, vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients) and medication. I started to eat much more raw fruits and vegetables, whole foods and some meat. The result was immediate: in one week I was fine. My former diet was simply causing acute deficiencies and by eating more natural food (in a Weston Price style) I just overcame those deficiencies.  

Günther Schwab on Wikipedia
Amazingly “The dance with the devil” is available on line, apparently on a religious website even if the book has nothing to do with religion. It just uses “the devil” words as a metaphor; the whole book reads like a kind fiction novel in the form of an interview with the devil in his premises.
Dance With The Devil, by Gunther Schwab – a must read.

Such an experience seem to happen quite often, as reports on this forum show. Fruitarians, vegans or even standard dieters in a poor state of health suddenly start to eat raw meat, sometimes even going from an extreme to the other, becoming “zero carbers”. They think they have found the holly grail as their health dramatically improves. But there’s no wonder: they are simply filling deficiencies induced by their former diet which prevented them to be in the normal shape their own genetic inheritance leads to. I didn’t go to such an extreme, but going to something like a partly cooked Weston A. Price diet sufficed to put me in an apparently good shape and health for more than two decades (from 18 to 41 years old).

But then I started to have growing health problems and, coincidentally, I read GCB’s book. Being skeptical (as always) I decided to try for one week to eat 100% raw, unmixed and unprocessed as he suggests. As I felt absolutely great, I went on for another week, at the end of which my wife told me: “we have some visitors for dinner tonight, you should eat with us”. It thought my raw experience had lasted long enough and I had seen what I wanted to see: Burger’s arguments were valid.  

So, I had a full standard cooked western dinner (but "healthy": grilled NZ grass-fed lamb leg, polenta, steamed vegetables, raw swiss cheese, fresh fruit salad). The result was that I subsequently felt so bad that I couldn’t sleep the whole night. Well… I felt that I had to still go on with raw,  since my body reacted to this cooked dinner as it had been poisoned. I never thought that I’ll do that for the whole rest of my live (it was just a temporary experiments of one week, 3 months, one year, another year…), but now I think I may well do it till I die. The pleasure is very important and I have more pleasure in eating that way than cooked. I wouldn’t be able to stick to a diet if I don’t find in it enough pleasure to eat.

I never pretended to detain the ultimate truth, I’ve just been experimenting in “natural” nutrition since… 1964, long before many here were born.

François

Just curious to know who has read GCB's book translated here:
http://www.reocities.com/HotSprings/7627/ggindex.html

I did read it in French and I don't know if the English translation is good, nor who has translated it.

This topic has been moved to General Discussion.

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com?topic=3709.0

This topic has been moved to Moderators.

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com?topic=3558.0

Friendly raw paleo dieters are welcome at my countryside place in South-West France. There are 2 guestrooms, 8000 m2 of garden and orchard, poultry, a spring with fresh water basin. No cooker. Please care of you own raw food, but meat grinders or other food processing equipments are unwelcome. Free lodging in exchange of some help to maintain the garden and house. Contact me by PM if you’re interested.

ScienceDaily (June 16, 2010)
Carnivorous Mammals Track Fruit Abundance
The scientific community already knew that many carnivores eat fruit, but had thought this was something purely anecdotal. Now researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) have shown that carnivorous animals such as foxes and martens play an important role in helping fruiting plants to reproduce and disperse their seeds.

A physicist friend of mine, Gerard Gewinner, has at my request written the following text intended to those who may think that feeling better shortly after a diet change is a kind of proof that their new diet is more healthy :

The response of complex systems such as the biosphere, the climatic system or a living organism to various perturbations is...complex. It exhibits usually an extended range of response or correlation delays that implies different things happening at largely different time scales as a consequence of the perturbation. Clearly such systems display historical character with their state at time t depending essentially on past events at all time scales.

In contrast many simple physical or technological systems such as a Geiger counter or a photomultiplier are characterized by and rely on the existence of a single relaxation time that measures the typical time scale over which memory of past events is definitely lost.

This situation makes the experimental investigation of complex systems quite difficult, involved and generates possibly a lot of confusion. For instance in life science this means that the effect of a  dietary change cannot be simply and reliably inferred from short term studies but should in principle be carefully observed over several generations. Just think of the famous Pottenger experiment on cats.

That is also why the experiments mother Nature has already done on our species in the past such as reported by anthropologists on our untouched by civilization hunter-gatherer ancestor's way of life and diet, are so tremendously important to acknowledge, learn everything we can about and finally try to take advantage of. Similarly in medical care if a patient feels better today, this unfortunately does not necessarily mean that it is merely the result of the drug swallowed or dietary change made yesterday.

Have some of you ever experienced paranormal phenomenon such as premonitory dreams, telepathy, visions or other kinds of extrasensory perception (ESP) ? Are those phenomenon more often experienced when we’ve eaten 100% raw paleo for some time and/or when we are in love?

Cheers
Francois

Hi everyone,

"Carnivore" is a friend of mine and he told me about this forum.

I've been eating exclusively raw and instinctively for 22 years, starting in January 1987 after having read GC Burger book. By the way, an English translation of the first edition of that book "La guerre du cru" is on line here: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/7627/ggindex.html

I hope to be able to contribute quite often to your discussions !

Best regards,
Francois