Did you know that AIDS isn’t one single disease? Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a medical condition that results from a strong assault on the immune system.

What exactly does that mean? It means that in AIDS a persons immune system is damaged and unable to fight off infections or diseases. Most often today we think of AIDS as synonymous with HIV but it really is a separate entity. What is AIDS is a question best answered by understanding how the immune system helps to fight off infection.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a condition that is acquired and not inherited or genetic. Whatever illness has caused the damage to the immune is separate from the AIDS itself. However, having damaged the immune system there are now more illnesses and diseases that can invade the body and cause massive damage and death.

The immune system, made up of fighting cells, is responsible for battling infections, bacteria, viruses and cell mutations to keep the body healthy and working. Our immune system is fed and supported through good nutrition, sleep and fresh air. When we deny those essential support factors to our immune system then it is also more vulnerable to attack by outside infections. This is why we are more likely to get a cold or flu when exposed if our diet is low in fresh fruits and vegetables, if we are tired or stressed and if we spend all of our time indoors.

AIDS is actually a group of diseases and conditions that result when the immune system is severely compromised. That group includes several types of cancer, yeast and fungal infections, and pneumonias caused by specific bacteria. The condition, AIDS, is caused however by one giant infection that wipes out the immune system of the sufferer.

In many cases today, that infection is HIV. The infection, HIV, causes the condition, AIDS, that results in further opportunistic infections and ultimately, death. Researchers have estimated that the number of deaths attributed to AIDS has been declining in the US since 1993, while the number of illnesses grouped with AIDS has increased from 12 to 28.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the US estimates that there are between 1 and 1.2 million people with the HIV infection and that 25% of those or at least 250,000 dont even know they have the infection. The feel well, they look well and they arent sick. Thats because HIV works insidiously in the body, sometimes for up to 10 years, before the person begins to feel sick or demonstrates full blown AIDS.

At the time that the AIDS becomes evident the sufferer is experiencing other infections that are attacking the immune system that has been damaged over time. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that the HIV virus can take up to 10 years to become evident but that timeline pertains only to people who receive good nutrition, good rest and practice safe health habits. Those people who are malnourished, take recreation drugs, smoke or have poor sleep habits will develop signs of infection and subsequently die much more quickly.

What is AIDS? So while AIDS isn’t an infection itself it is an acquired immune deficiency that allows other opportunistic infections to take over and ultimately kill the sufferer. This damage to the immune system isn’t reversible and cant be cured but with medications developed today, the life expectancy of a person suffering from HIV can be extended for years, if not decades.