The results are better than expected and may hold a key for future researchers as they try to find solutions to the AIDS pandemic worldwide.

Boasting a 92% success rate, A.R.A.I. has been involved with rural Southern African grass roots organization leaders who have been giving FHL to people suffering from the AIDS/HIV virus. Typically when an HIV infected person adds 1.5 tsp of the FHL to their daily diet, their viral loads drop significantly (around 35% of them drop to non-detectable within the first 6 weeks!) and their CD-4 counts (measurement of immunity) raise in great numbers. A malnourished child will also typically start growing in height and weight once introducing the FHL into their diets. Many children have grown between 6-11 cm in a three month period!

Researchers can only speculate as to the exact function of the FHL that is causing the success. Many studies have been done in the U.S. by doctors that show lignans boost immunity. The FDA has reported that flax seed lignans have anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungus properties. Tests have shown that FHL's ORAC values (measurement of anti-oxidants) are very high. Kale, the super anti-oxidant dark leafy green vegetable, has an ORAC value of 1770, while FHL's equivalent ORAC value is 19,600. FHL has typically been researched for it's effects against cancer but now hundreds of people with AIDS/HIV are feeling better, going back to work, and are causing researchers to take a serious look at the possibilities of using a simple, all natural food supplement to help fight AIDS/HIV.

aidshivawareness/

When the researchers delivered tiny amounts of NAPE directly into the brain, it had the same effect as a larger dose delivered to the blood. This suggests that the compound communicates directly with the brain, Shulman says.

Indeed, they found that NAPE injected into the blood did cross the blood-brain barrier and was concentrated in the hypothalamus, a specific region of the brain that governs hunger. There, they found that NAPE calmed neurons that stimulate appetite. The team made those conclusions after inspecting brain samples that had been stained to reveal the cells in which NAPE was active. "Most appetite regulation is hypothalamic, so we were excited that [NAPE] was working centrally," Shulman says. "That suggests [NAPE] is involved in the gut-brain axis. It's a way the gut communicates to the brain that there's energy coming in and you need to shut down food intake."

The team next wanted to know if NAPE would stay effective with longer-term treatment, so they outfitted 22 rats with vests that allowed them to move freely in their cages while they hooked up to an IV that dispensed NAPE. The vests permitted the rats to eat, sleep, and rest while still receiving infusions of NAPE. Over five days, control rats continued to gain weight normally, but NAPE-treated rats ate less and lost ten percent of their body weight-while appearing otherwise well and healthy.

Shulman and his team are now monitoring NAPE levels in humans, to see if they rise after a meal the same way they do in rodents. They also plan to test NAPE for effects on appetite in non-human primates. If these studies parallel the results they have observed in mice and rats, Shulman says, a clinical trial with NAPE or NAPE-like compounds may be on the horizon.

hhmi/