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Subjects in this issue:
Brain Fog
Squat Close to Load
Brain Fog
I am on the mail list for TPAN, and read this article the day it arrived in my home [The Buzz, July/August 2005]. I was stunned, and at the same time totally puzzled at the seemingly simple proposed solutions. I seldom send internet links as most of the time they seem irrelevant. In this case, however, I am forwarding you this link to read about some of us who have been struggling with this issue for years now. Please feel free to read it, and if you feel so led, please register with the site, and give us any commentary you would like. These people are bright, attentive, and totally awake, so you might like the people in this discussion, and maybe, just maybe, there will be hope for clarity for us in the future. Personally, I am 58 going on 59, and have been living with the virus since ’83. Dr. Bob Frascino was my first HIV doctor, and by some miracle he is still in the work. Please feel free to get back to me, as I am dealing with concentration issues that have become very severe and debilitating at times.
Name withheld, via the Internet
http://aidsmeds.com/Fusetalk/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=23654
From Dr. Dan Berger: Thanks for writing to me. I hope my article was helpful to you and your fellow e-mail buddies. I tried to write it as reader friendly as possible, and to avoid using terms that were unclear. For the others on the list who had trouble finding my article, I’ve posted the link at the end of this email that you can send to your list of members on AIDSMEDS. Also, I usually write for Positively Aware, my column is called The Buzz, which should be easy to find (www.tpan.com). I’ve read through the comments from the link you sent; most complain about similar cognitive neurologic symptoms that I have been seeing in our clinic for years. As an HIV specialist physician, it is frustrating to fully explain and watch, since many have undetectable viral loads, are otherwise healthy, but despite, continue to have what you all termed “brain fog” (I like the term, and may use it in the future). I have been seeing HIV-positive patients for something like 17 or 18 years, so I know that when a patient tells me something (and I know my patients fairly well), that this is a real problem. In fact, most have similar descriptions, and have much in common. One gentleman mentioned that he hopes no one at work discovers his handicap—this was all too familiar because I have heard that many times before.
We conduct many research protocols at our clinic (Northstar Healthcare, website is www.nstarmedical.com). But before putting a patient through this treatment, which we are currently studying, it’s important to make sure that there are no underlying factors. So, we rule out these possibilities first. We are currently studying “brain fog” as you call it, I am administering a specific cognitive testing process and then repeating it every three months while patients continue on treatment with minocycline. We’re using the testing to help monitor our patients more objectively. It’s too early to tell, but we’re hopeful that perhaps something can be done. Some patients have already reported benefit, but I’d be cautious about stating these results until we complete this project and analyze it closely.
I respectfully do not want to join your list, because of time constraints and hope that you are not offended, but am happy to answer your questions. Also, if you, or anyone on your list, is ever in Chicago, you are all welcome to visit us. If you want to participate in this study, you are also welcome to come in for testing.
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Squat Close to Load
Jim,
Thanks for a great article written so well with humor and truth. [Pickett Fences—September/October issue].
I was actually the vendor at the conference that had sent 3,000 safer sex kits including both condoms and lubes to the conference for bag inserts and they ended up sitting in front of my booth at the start of the conference to be handed out for the next three days.
Thanks for all of your hard work and keep up the good fight.
Best regards,
Don Nelson
Client Services Manager
Total Access Group, Inc.
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