Lark's Helpful AIDS Links

www.houstonbuyersclub.com	HOUSTON BUYERS CLUB provides vital nutrition information and nutritient supplements at a low cost to people with chronic illness, as well as to the general public. The goal is to provide the supplements, along with information on how to use them, that can help people eliminate miserable symptoms, including drug side effects, and boost overall quality of life. The How to Manage Side Effects guide, online shopping, and other important resources are available on their website.
www.aegis.com	ÆGIS: AIDS Education Global Information System. The mother lode of AIDS information. Aegis' webmaster, Sister Mary Elizabeth, did it first, and still does it best. In 1990, she set out to make AIDS information easily accessible and widely disseminated, and has succeeded so well that the Centers for Disease Control calls Aegis a service that is, quite simply, "the best of its kind." Starting out as a simple two-line electronic bulletin board, it has now grown into the largest HIV/AIDS knowledge base on the world wide web. Go there to read treatment newsletters, professional publications, the latest news on AIDS from the world's publications, and much, much more. And while you're there, click on the button that says "Make a contribution". Sister Mary Elizabeth has always done this on a shoestring, and deserves vastly more support than she has ever been given.
www.aidsnews.org	AIDS Treatment News reports on experimental and standard treatments, especially those available now. Its publisher, John S. James, is a hero to those of us in the AIDS information business, and to all those for whom his timely provision of information may have meant the difference between life and death. With so many newsletters now available, it's hard to remember that there was a time when the only thing standing between those in the world of AIDS and a black hole of ignorance was John, first with his column and then with his groundbreaking newsletter. As POZ Magazine once put it, "Which came first: AIDS or ATN?" Most of us can't remember, but we do know that John gets the credit for the latter. When there was nothing else around, he was answering the questions we all had. Over the years, he and his colleagues have continued to do a truly heroic job of keeping us all informed of the latest and most important breakthroughs in potential treatments, with comprehensive discussions of many of the drugs and other therapies that seem to be the most promising, along with very practical and useful information on where and how to obtain them, appropriate dosages, cautions on side effects, and so on.
www.aidsmeds.com	AIDSmeds.com -- Complete and easy-to-read information on treating HIV & AIDS, including guided treatment lessons, info on drugs, recent news, community forums, a drug interactions checker, & "Graph My Labs". HIV+ Owned & Operated. This is simply one of the very best sites on the internet for treatment information, including very in-depth info on AIDS meds. It’s the first place Lark goes for the latest information on drugs and their side effects. Included on the site is an overview on nutrition for people living with HIV written by Lark.
www.amfar.org	amfAR: The American Foundation for AIDS Research is one of the nation's top nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of HIV/AIDS research. They also have an excellent monthly newsletter that provides a clear understanding of even the most complex treatment topics, and a treatment directory that lists all the AIDS therapies currently available or being studied.
www.catie.ca	CATIE: The Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange offers services across Canada through the HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Network, including toll-free phone service and Internet service. CATIE relies on the communities of people living with HIV and AIDS for their insight and direction in shaping their services, and has always provided information on the components of an integrated approach to HIV. They have excellent summaries of treatment information in their Practical Guides. Lark is the author of A Practical Guide to HIV Drug Side Effects and A Practical Guide to HAART, and has written numerous articles for CATIE’s The Positive Side magazine, including "The Divine Secrets of the + Sisterhood", a major feature on HIV-positive women’s treatment needs, and "We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby" on pregnancy issues for HIV-positive women, both of which appeared in the Spring 2003 issue. Other excellent Practical Guides are A Practical Guide to Complementary Therapies, A Practical Guide to Nutrition, and A Practical Guide to Herbal Therapies. To locate all of these, on the main page, first click on "English Pages." Then on the left side, click on "Publications." Then go down to "The Positive Side" or "Practical Guides."
www.gmhc.org	GMHC: Gay Men's Health Crisis, founded by volunteers in 1981, is the oldest and largest not-for-profit AIDS organization in the United States. Their newsletter, Treatment Issues, has always been brilliantly done, and often offers in-depth reviews of the latest information on complex treatment topics. In addition, GMHC offers hands-on support services to more than 9,500 men, women and children with AIDS and their families in New York City annually, as well as education and advocacy for hundreds of thousands nationwide.
www.jonkaiser.com	Jon Kaiser, MD, an HIV specialist with a large practice in Northern California, is currently carrying out a study on the use of nutrients to treat drug-induced neuropathy. If you might be interested in participating, click here.
www.medibolics.com	MEDIBOLICS E-zine on anabolic steroid use and non-traditional medical therapies in the treatment of AIDS. Michael Mooney and Nelson Vergel provide HIV(+) individuals with powerful advice on nutrition and hormone strengthening that standard medicine all too often leaves out or doesn’t understand
www.medpress.com	MEDPRESS Books in easy-to-understand language offering comprehensive help on peripheral neuropathy, a nerve disorder which can cause foot and body pain, as well as muscular weakness.
Michael Mooney's Site	Michael Mooney Great nutrition info from industry insider and researcher Michael Mooney. This website is his personal effort to simplify complex information about nutrition and health that is too often misunderstood even by those who are considered to be authorities. Michael is an expert in clearing up nutrition myths, and exposing the truth about what works and what doesn't. His investigative style is to pull no punches while fully referencing what he says with published scientific literature. Confused about competing nutrition claims? Head for this website to separate fact from fiction. For the info compiled by Michael and his colleague Nelson Vergel on the importance of hormone replacement, bodybuilding exercise, and nutrition for HIV/AIDS, see his other website www.medibolics.com
www.aidsinfonet.org	The New Mexico AIDS InfoNet -- A collection of single-page fact sheets on over 100 HIV/AIDS topics. Written in non-technical language and available in both English and Spanish. The site also includes a listing of over 500 Internet web sites related to AIDS, broken down by categories.
www.projinf.org	Project Inform: Established in 1985 as a national, non profit, community-based HIV/AIDS treatment information and advocacy organization, Project Inform serves HIV-infected individuals, their caregivers, and their healthcare and service providers through its national, toll-free treatment hotline, their excellent newsletter, the PI Perspective, and other publications, educational Town Meetings, on-line services and research and drug access advocacy programs. Whether in his inspiring speeches or his treatment articles, PI's founding director, Martin Delaney, has always seen to it that the information is up-to-date, easily understood, and straightforwardly honest. All information is available free of charge; donations are strongly encouraged.
www.poz.com	POZ Magazine: POZ magazine is a nationally distributed publication that covers a broad range of AIDS topics, including important treatment information on both pharmaceutical and complementary therapies. The POZ Magazine website has an Archives section which contains hundreds of articles written by Lark on countless different treatment topics, both during her lengthy tenure as the magazine’s Science Editor, and later as a contributing writer and editor.
www.thebody.com	The Body: A Multimedia AIDS and HIV Resource. The Body is one of the largest AIDS resource sites on the web. It has a huge amount of treatment information, conference coverage for all the major research meetings, and a great "Ask the Experts" section where you can email in your questions.