Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Complementary Therapies and HIV

Many individuals with HIV find that adding non-western therapies to their treatment assists in reducing symptoms from both HIV disease and HAART. Other benefits realized may include a reduction in stress and treatment side-effects, pain relief and boosting the immune system.

These are just a few of the more common complementary therapies; Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Herbal Therapy and Juicing. Many of these therapies are simple and affordable, making them available to most.

Do you use complementary therapies? Or have you had an experience where complementary therapies have had a positive effect on your health? We’d love to hear what works for you.

More Information

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Questions To Ask Your Doctor When Starting Treatment

Current anti-HIV drug treatment is called HAART, or Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy. If you are HIV positive, at some point as the disease progresses, your Doctor will want prescribe this for you. You’ll be required to take in a lot of information, but there are a few questions that you will definitely want answered.
Keep a copy of this list to ask and take them to your Doctor appointments with you to ensure you get the knowledge and answers that you need.

• What is my CD4+ count and has it changed?
• What is my viral load and has it changed?
• What are the names of the medications that I will be taking?
• What should I do if I miss a dose of medication, or if I am too nauseous to take my medication?
• When do I take which medications?
• What are the side-effects?
• What can I do to help relieve any side effects?
• Should I take the medications with a full or empty stomach?

These are some of the more important questions that you want the answers to. We’d love to hear of other questions that you feel are important as well, drop us a comment.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

We Want Your Input

The Treatment Information Program (TIP) at the British Columbians Persons with AIDS Society (BCPWA), is conducting a research project to assess the HIV/AIDS treatment information needs in BC. The research is being conducted through a survey and we are asking all HIV positive individuals in BC to please take part. Participation must be completely voluntary and involves completing the online survey.

For more information, please click on the link below. We appreciate you taking the time to give us your input. This information will be used to recommend alternatives for TIP at BCPWA to consider as it plans future programming.

Take Survey

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Food and Water Safety for HIV Positive Individuals

There are many infections that can be easily avoided using a few precautions regarding food and water storage and preparation. These illnesses include Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and Cryptosporidium. These may cause nausea, diarrhea, upset stomach, vomiting, stomach cramps, fever, headache, muscle pain, meningitis and encephalitis. Precautions to take include:

• Meat, poultry (such as chicken or turkey), and fish can make you sick if they are raw, undercooked, or spoiled.
• Wash all fruits and vegetables well before cooking or eating raw.
• Don’t drink water straight from lakes, rivers, streams, or springs.
• Keep hands and counters clean, don’t cross contaminate with raw food such as meats or poultry.

Proper storage and preparation of food and water will decrease your chances of having to deal with these infections and is an important part of your preventative health care.

Do you have any questions regarding food and water safety? We’d love to hear from you.