Necessity is the mother of invention. Nelson Vergel, a former chemical engineer born in Venezuela, has been HIV-positive since 1983 and is still thriving. By necessity, he became a leading treatment advocate for wasting/lipodystrophy syndromes and wellness in HIV disease.

http://thebody.com/multidrug/stories_nelson.html

In 1994, before the advent of protease inhibitors, Nelson’s weight dropped from 165 pounds to 140 pounds, and he exhibited many other AIDS-related symptoms. Most of his friends had died of wasting, but he refused to be the next victim of this dreadful syndrome. Since there were no approved effective treatments for wasting, he studied every available source of information and began a life style change that dramatically improved his health and quality of life. He gained 35 pounds of lean body mass in four months. His energy level jumped, his libido returned, and his AIDS-related symptoms disappeared. Nelson looked better than ever. He wanted to share his newly acquired knowledge so others could benefit from it. Using his chemical engineering knowledge, he gathered research data from studies in the fields of sports nutrition, supplementation, exercise and anabolic therapies.

Armed with this information, Nelson created in 1994 what is now known as the Program for Wellness Restoration (PoWeR), a national non-profit organization. PoWeR disseminates information about a comprehensive survival program for maximum health and productivity. Hundreds of physicians and dietitians across the country work with PoWeR to enhance the health of HIV-positive patients. After using the PoWeR program, many patients have experienced the same dramatic improvements as Nelson and are thriving again.

Nelson lectures extensively around the country and overseas, providing over 200 seminars in English and Spanish. He presented abstracts to the 1996 Vancouver International AIDS Conference, the 1997 International Conference on HIV and Nutrition in Cannes, the 1998 Geneva AIDS Conference, the 2000 South Africa AIDS Conference, and others. He co-sponsored the first International Conference on AIDS Wasting in November of 1997, featuring the world's leading experts. Because of his devotion to the subject, Nelson was asked to join the Metabolics Study Group at the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) of the National Institute of Health (NIH), the largest HIV research organization in the world. Along with his research partner, Michael Mooney, Nelson co-authored the book, Built To Survive which summarizes all the information gathered since 1994. All net proceeds from the sale of this book help to fund non-profit HIV wellness programs. Recently, Nelson edited and compiled information for the book, How to Manage Side Effects, published by the Houston Buyers Club, another non-profit organization he helped to create. Nelson is also the co-editor of the newsletter and the web site medibolics.com, which received over 195,000 visitors since April 1998. He also is the founder of facialwasting.org .

With the fund raising help of over 150 volunteers, Nelson's dream facility, the Body Positive Wellness Center (BPWC) opened in June 1998 in Houston, Texas. This is the first in a series of non-profit wellness centers Nelson envisions across the United States and overseas. These facilities will be modeled after the Houston center, and each will offer a fully-equipped gym staffed with certified trainers, nutritional evaluation by a dietitian, a dietary supplement buyer's club, massage and chiropractic therapy, stress management classes, and a conference room for wellness and HIV treatment related seminars. Nelson wrote two research grants that received funding to study the effectiveness of his program. To integrate his wellness program into a continuum of care, Nelson and board members facilitated the merger in January 2001, between BPWC and the Montrose Clinic, one of the largest HIV clinics in Houston.

Because of his dedicated efforts to help others, the Mayor of the City of Houston, Lee Brown, proclaimed September 13, 2001 as “Nelson Vergel Day”.

Nelson is currently traveling around the country giving his seminars entitled “How to Manage Side Effects- A Survivor Perspective” in English and “Viva la Vida con VIH” in Spanish.

Recently, Nelson has become of the main activists in the area of salvage (rescue) treatments for those patients that have developed resistance to their HIV medications. He founded salvagetherapies.org to advance this mission.

Nelson is the founder and moderator of the largest HIV listeserver on the Internet: Yahoo.com's PozHealth Group that helps people with HIV share information about their health. He is also an expert adviser at TheBody.com, the most popular information based HIV web site in the world.

Reprint of OutSmart article: Built to Survive, Nelson's Story

Since 2002, Nelson has been a very active force in the organization of the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC)  http://www.atac-usa.org/ , which is becoming one of the strongest activist groups in the HIV/AIDS community in the US that works with the pharmaceutical insdustry, researchers, the FDA, US government and physicians in advancing HIV research and services.

To say that his program has helped Nelson Vergel return to living with vitality seems almost an understatement when all is considered. He is his own testimonial to his work.

For more information about Nelson Vergel, his book, seminars, or wellness center, please contact him.