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.

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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.

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

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.

HIV Treatment Adherence

Treatment adherence (or compliance) refers to the HIV positive individual’s ability to stick to the prescribed method of treatment. This includes such things as taking your pills on time, not missing a dose, and following any recommended food guidelines.

Adherence is important for two reasons:

1.) If you miss even one dose, the levels of medication in your blood drop, allowing faster replication of the HIV virus.
2.) Drug resistance develops much faster when you miss even one dose. This means that the drugs that you are currently taking may not continue to work, including some drugs that you may have not even tried yet! You will have fewer options for treatment in the future.

An excellent way to make sure that you never miss a dose is to use a scheduler on your computer that you can set up to prompt/remind you when to take your medication. Others may find marking it on a calendar may be a quick and easy way to keep track.

What are your tips for ensuring personal adherence to your HIV treatment? We’d love to hear your suggestions.

HIV and Selenium

Selenium is a mineral that has been in the news over the last year for its apparent beneficial results in HIV positive people. Selenium is an essential micronutrient; its dietary sources are nuts, cereals, meat, fish and eggs. Selenium deficiency is apparent in HIV disease, and predicts an increased risk of death. Current studies are finding promising results from selenium supplementation, and it should be considered as part of your supplementation program.

Daily supplementation with 200μg (mcg) of selenium has been shown to help stabilize viral load, and modestly increase CD4 counts in patients on antiretroviral therapy. These findings suggest selenium supplementation as a simple and inexpensive complimentary therapy for people with HIV. 1000μg is the upper tolerance, and selenium becomes toxic above this daily level.

Have you been taking selenium as part of your supplementation? We would love to hear what your experiences are.

HIV and Vitamin D Deficiency.

Vitamin D deficiency results in impaired bone mineralization, leading to diseases such as osteomalacia (bone softening) and osteoporosis. Vitamin D also plays an important role in maintaining organ systems. The Canadian Food Guide recommends a minimum of 200 IU daily for healthy individuals, with the upper daily tolerance around 2000 IU. The only significant natural dietary sources are oily fish and egg yolks, but it is not possible to intake enough through these foods alone. 15-20 minutes sun exposure, twice weekly will produce enough Vitamin D as it is synthesized through the skin, or a daily supplement can be taken.

Are you getting enough vitamin D through your diet and supplement program? Your doctor can test you to see if you’re deficient or not. Is vitamin D deficiency a concern to you? Do you take a vitamin D supplement already? If not, would you consider supplementing or not, and why do you feel that way?

Health Canada, Vitamin D.