Acupuncture and Moxa: A Randomized Clinical Trial for Chronic Diarrhea in HIV Patients

The objective of this study is to test alternative treatment strategies to reduce the frequency of chronic diarrhea among HIV positive individuals. 60 percent of patients with HIV disease in the U.S. will have diarrhea at some point in their illness. Although in general many of the opportunistic infections (OI\'s) associated with HIV have decreased due to new \"drug cocktails\", many of these drugs, however, have diarrhea as a side effect. In Asian countries, acupuncture (including moxibustion) has been widely used for the treatment of various gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. However, there are no published studies that test treatment protocols using acupuncture or moxibustion on patients with HIV experiencing chronic diarrhea.