Compound From Olive-Pomace Oil Inhibits HIV Spread

Researchers in Madrid are claiming that they have discovered that a type of wax found in olive skin can help to slow the spread of HIV. "Their work shows that maslinic acid - a natural product extracted from dry olive-pomace oil in oil mills - inhibits serin-protease, an enzyme used by HIV to release itself from the infected cell into the extracellular environment and, consequently, to spread the infection into the whole body. These scientists from Granada determined that the use of olive-pomace oil can produce an 80% slowing down in AIDS spreading in the body."

Comments

its NOT in the Extra Virgin Olive Oil

[G4from128k]

Olive pomace is the left-over skins and fruit pulp for the first pressings of the olives. Secondary treatment of the pomace with steam and solvents extracts the residual oil and also extracts this seemingly beneficial oil/wax.

Ironically, the cheaper grades of olive oil probably have more of this oil.

Re:oral or topical?

[Otter]

The only experiments described are in cell cultures. (I.e. the stuff is dumped directly on cells in in a dish.) The "can produce an 80% slowing down in AIDS spreading in the body" seems to be just wishful thinking at the moment.

OT: E.V.O.O doesn't mean what she thinks it means.

[SatanicPuppy]

She uses it to fry things, which is a big "WTF?" if you know anything about olive oil. The whole point of extra virgin olive oil is that it's a lighter more flavorful oil, and it's usually substantially more expensive. Use it in a salad dressing or as a condiment, drink it straight out of the bottle like the Greeks do, but don't fry in it, jesus! It doesn't even have a very high smoke point, compared to refined olive oil.

It's like frying something in sesame oil, or flaxseed oil, or any other oil that you can think of that is used primarily for how it tastes, rather than as an efficient conductor of heat.

Of course, in the U.S., EVOO is defined by acidity, so you're not buying real EVOO at the stores, just regular refined oil with a low acid level.

Italians?

[Zarjazz]

So how come the home of Olive oil, Italy, has one of the highest infection rates in Europe? http://www.overpopulation.com/faq/hiv-aids/hiv-aid s-infection-rate-by-country-europe-and-the-new-ind ependent-states/

Re:Here is why

[eln]

Of all the common viruses, it is one of most deadly and the hardest to cure. It kills millions of people every year. Which other virus is doing that? Please tell me. Not caused by a virus, but how about malaria? It not only kills millions of people a year but has severe economic impacts, because even if it doesn't kill you you can get it over and over again. It's hard to develop an economy when a huge chunk of the people are sick most of the time.

Malaria and AIDS in concert are great contributors to the overall sense of hopelessness and the inability to sustain a functioning society that plagues much of Africa. They are both exacerbated by poverty, and in turn exacerbate poverty, making it much more difficult for people to lift themselves up.

Finding cures for malaria and AIDS would probably do more for the overall global economy than anything else could.

Re:Please help me understand this.

[Ironix]

I'm a homosexual and I've been HIV+ for 11 years now. Lucky for me, I'm one of the small percentage of people with whom the virus seems to have a difficult time spreading. As such, in those 11 years I have yet to take any medication.

Now with that out of the way, I must stress that as a homosexual I am completely and utterly uninterested in converting ANYONE to my lifestyle. Nor have I ever in my 13 years of being 'out' even tried to 'convert' anyone. I would think that you would find this true of most any homosexual that you'd care to talk to.

With that said, I have yet to collect a toaster oven.

Re:Correlation

[alx5000]

As a Spaniard, I'd like to point out that, even thought a majority of the Spanish population would declare themselves as Catholics:

  - A couple of years ago we had one of the lowest birth rates in the world (I'm not implying Catholics must have lots of children, but, come on, people fuck no matter what).
  - Prostitution is one of the main industries (if not the biggest) here.
  - The average age for getting married is 31 in men, and 29 in women, whilest losing one's virginity happens at 17 years old (also on average); yes, there's a lot of not-too-Catholic out-of-marriage sex.

So I wouldn't be so careless as to attribute a lower number of HIV infections to abstinence. IMHO, education (there's a lot of emphasis on wearing condoms here) is one of the keys (I have no clue about olive oil).

Re:hmm.

[drinkypoo]

Actually yes, any old oil will dry out latex, that includes corn oil. But there are also polyurethane and vinyl (eew?) condoms.

Re:a rather evil suggestion

[doktor-hladnjak]

Of course you're assuming that if the condom fails, you will get definitely HIV, which is a faulty assumption.

You really need to multiply that 1% (the chance of failure) by the chance that you'll become infected from a known positive partner (depends on the act but even receptive anal sex is about 1 in 50 or 2%) by the chance that your partner is HIV+ in the first place (varies greatly by population but even among gay men in big cities it's about 10%). So instead of 1%, you're looking more at something like 0.01 * 0.02 * 0.1 = 0.002% or about 500 times less risky than the figure you claim. And that's for a high risk population engaging in a lot of sex with different partners.

Re:skeptical at best.

[Chris Burke]

You have no idea where Universidad de Granada is, do you? Hint: Granada, Spain, a "First World" NATO country. TFA even says it's the medical branch in Madrid. You know where that is? Hint: also Spain.