Self-Healing, Nutrition Therapy, and Alternative Medicine in the Era of HIV/AIDS

This article examines the usage of alternative therapies such as AL-721 and metaphysical healing by gay men and AIDS patients during the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. The usage of alternative therapies during the epidemic has usually been framed by scholars as a foil to more well-studied areas of palliative care. Instead, this article argues that these alternative therapies and lifestyle regimens are worthy of greater discussion as this alternative medical marketplace offered patients a meaningful choice in managing their illness. Furthermore, this alternative medical marketplace was a patient-regulated one, where the patients themselves decided who was and who was not a legitimate medical practitioner. Gay publications in Texas became a major hub for information and discussion about alternative treatments, which indicates that medical pluralism flourished even outside of AIDS organizations in New York and Los Angeles.