Elevated Total Estrogen and HIV/FIV
Posted on March 22nd, 2014Is Elevated Total Estrogen the Reason Why HIV and FIV Cause Disease in Patients?
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) seems to cause a similar disease in cats as it does in humans that have been exposed to HIV. The real cause has not been identified yet. However retroviruses overwhelm some patients while others may have been exposed, yet never succumb to FIV or HIV.
A BRIEF HISTORY
The HIV virus was first discovered in humans in west-central Africa by genetic researchers in the late 19th century or in the beginning of the 20th century. The FIV virus was first discovered in cats in 1986 by researchers at the University of California at Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. They found the virus in a colony of cats that developed opportunistic diseases as well as degenerative diseases. Originally they called this a T-Lymphotropic Virus (FTLV).
Both HIV and FIV are referred to as retroviruses as are Feline Leukemia (FELV) and Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). A retrovirus is a single stranded RNA virus that stores its nucleic acid in the cells of the patient and can replicate in those cells as an opportunistic parasite, if a specific hormone imbalance might be present, which seems to be elevated total estrogen.
Both FIV and HIV are found worldwide and both can cause various degrees of disease. In humans, the degree of disease that is caused is based upon the number of protective T-lymphocytes and their function, while with felines it seems to be based more on the function of the T-lymphocyte and possibly not on their numbers.
The World Health Organization has listed four health stages as HIV develops into AIDs.
- Stage 1 is asymptomatic, but what is noted is that a certain T-lymphocyte (CD4) needs to number at 500/microliters in the blood.
- Stage 2 involves mild clinical symptoms including chronic diseases of the urinary tract including other mucocutaneous diseases. The T-lymphocyte count will number below 500/microliters in the blood.
- Stage 3 develops advanced symptoms with chronic diarrhea and severe bacterial infections with a T-lymphocyte number of less than 350/microliters in the blood.
- Stage 4 develops AIDs including candidiasis of the esophagus, trachea and the respiratory system and can also develop tumors.
The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a similar method of evaluating the severity of the disease caused by HIV but they relate mainly to the number of CD4 T-lymphocytes that are present.
- Stage 1 = a T-lymphocyte number of over 500/microliter.
- Stage 2 = a T-lymphocyte number of 200 to 500/microliter.
- Stage 3 = a T-lymphocyte number of less than a 200/microliter.
Apparently the T-lymphocyte does play a major role in determining if a retrovirus will or will not invade a patient whether in numbers and in function.
THE CAUSE OF RETROVIRAL DISEASE
What is the main role of the T- lymphocyte in humans and in cats?
The T-lymphocyte is present in patients in order to protect them against viruses and fungi. The main role of B-lymphocyte in a patient is to produce protective antibodies against foreign invaders and also respond to vaccines with protective antibodies. This is a simplistic explanation for both the B and T-lymphocytes, but should suffice for the purpose of this clinical article.
Pub Med reports that estrogen can influence the development and function of the T-lymphocyte. Recent findings indicate that high levels of estrogen can lead to thymic atrophy including a reduction in the bone marrow necessary for hematopoiesis.
What is hematopoiesis?
Wikipedia states that hematopoiesis relates to the production of basic stem cells that are created to produce three general types of blood cells. These three types of cells are as follows:
- Erythroid cells = Red Blood Cells.
- Lymphocytes = White Blood Cells and B and T-lymphocytes, referred to as lymphopoiesis.
- Myelocytes = Granulocytes, Megakaryocytes which are all involved with adaptive and innate immunity including blood clotting.
NOTE: This may explain the reason why female canines and felines may bleed more during surgical procedures, if they are going through a heat cycle and producing elevated ovarian estrogen, which may cause them to have a reduced ability for their blood to clot. This happens due to the elevated ovarian estrogen, which can have a suppressive effect upon the hematopoiesis in the bone marrow.
In the embryo, the blood cell formation occurs in the spleen, liver and lymph nodes, and eventually as the embryo ages, the bone marrow will take over this function. If elevated total estrogen diminishes the amount hematopoiesis in the bone marrow, so will the number of different blood cells that are created in the bone marrow, including both, the B and T-lymphocytes.
Wikipedia discusses the function of the thymus and its importance to the production of normal, functioning T-lymphocytes. When elevated estrogen causes this thymic atrophy in a patient and reduced hematopoiesis, this in turn will suppress the number of T-lymphocytes including their function.
NOTE: In my early studies that were published in Modern Veterinary Practice in an article entitled Canine Immune Complex Disease, November of 1976, p. 917-920, I noted that the number of lymphocytes occurring with immune diseases did not seem to increase or decrease, even though their function did seem to fail. In 1976, I was not testing for total estrogen at that time and as time passed, and I did begin measuring total estrogen, I did find, in some patients, a definite lymphopenia or decrease in the numbers of lymphocytes that were measured in the blood of a patient. This all correlated with an elevated total estrogen.
Hopefully you can begin to see the scenario that allows for a retrovirus like HIV and FIV to flourish in a patient and develop into a major disease, based upon an elevated total estrogen.
THE TREATMENT
I have successfully treated several hundred cats with the three different types of retroviruses which include FIV, FELV, and FIP. By measuring total estrogen and correcting this estrogenic imbalance, and in returning the T-lymphocyte function back to normal, it allowed the feline patient to return to normal health, without succumbing to one of those retroviral diseases. Many feline patients that had a retroviral disease recovered nicely and shed the virus and tested negative.
What is most important for you and your cat to remember, is the fact that the medical profession, whether for humans or for animals, normally does not measure total estrogen. In women, only the three ovarian hormones are being measured and in men and dogs and cats, only estradiol is being measured.
Several years ago, I was asked to get involved by a physician, who was treating six men that had AIDS and after making suggestions as to proper estrogen testing, all six males tested high for elevated total estrogen and tested normal for estradiol.
I have found in my feline patients, by reducing their total estrogen, the T-lymphocyte once again began protecting them against retroviruses and the patient often totally shed the virus and became negative for FIV, FELV and FIP.
Where is this excess estrogen produced and why?
The excess estrogen is produced by the inner layer adrenal cortex and occurs due to a deficient or defective cortisol, produced by the middle layer adrenal cortex that causes the pituitary gland to keep producing its hormone, ACTH. This occurs because the cortisol imbalance from the middle adrenal cortex can no longer fulfill the negative feedback mechanism to the pituitary.
When this happens, the inner layer adrenal cortex will respond to the ACTH with a direct feedback mechanism, which will cause an excess production of adrenal estrogen. This elevated amount of total estrogen will deregulate both the B and T-lymphocytes so that they no longer function to protect the patient.
Under GET HELP on this website, there is a Human and Animal Protocol that once performed, will help your health care professional reduce the elevated total estrogen and return the immune system back to normal function and protect you and your cat, if you have a retroviral disease.
Please remember if you or your pet is suffering from the effects of a retrovirus, you must have your health care professional definitely check your total estrogen.
These are only my thoughts and I do hope they help.
