Question
What vitamins or antioxidants are recommended HIV positive people?
19 September 2014. Related: All topics, Supplements and herbs.
I’ve recently been diagnosed with HIV and am starting to make changes to my diet. I’ve read your very helpful guide to vitamins and minerals on the factsheets page but am still a little confused about exactly what vitamins to use. I’m currently taking a one-a-day multi vitamin but understand that I need a little more than that.
My next appointment isn’t for another 3 months and I wanted to start taking vitamins before then. Please help.
I’m not sure if its significant but my CD4 count is 380.
Answer
Thank you for your question.
In general, there is unlikely to be a benefit from taking a multivitamin unless you have a vitamin deficiency. In this case your doctor would recommended the vitamin. When the vitamin or supplement is for a specific use there is likely to be proven evidence of a benefit.
Some people take a multivitamin if their diet is not good, but otherwise vitamin supplements are not usually needed in you have a balanced and nutritious diet.
If you want to do this, then any of the multivitamins in most supermarkets and pharmacies would be okay – and unlikely to do any harm. One recent caution, is that if you are using an integrase inhibitor in your HIV combination, the multivitamin should be taken more than four hour apart from your HIV meds.
It is also good to tell your doctor of any supplements or complementary medicines you are taking. If you are doing this for a specific symptoms, then your doctor may have other options.
Just as with vitamins, there is little evidence to show any benefit from taking an antioxidant, unless this is for a medical reason recommended by your doctor.
There is no evidence to show that vitamins or supplement have any effect on your CD4 count or viral load. When you come to need HIV treatment, ARVs are the only proven way to reduce VL and increase CD4.
The market for vitamin and supplements is part of a multi-billion dollar operation and given the vast profits that are made, it is a concern how little evidence is available for any benefit. When careful studies have been performed the evidence of benefit is not only not found but sometimes harmful results are reported.
Also given the size of this market, there is very little regulation to know whether what it says on the label is actually reflected in the supplements themselves.
Note: This answer was updated in September 2014 from an original question in May 2010.
I want to find out why the HIV tablet are so big they is no other way to reduce and make 480mg than 900mg is too much because you vomit whe you drink the tablet,
Nicole… Have you had blood tests done? CAn you specify what type /brand of vitamin c you are taking along w. the B complex? There are a zillion different options out there.
Hi Dany,
An undetectable viral load in the UK is when you have less than 50 copies.
What is that mean viral load under the detected ?
Hi Mona, I am sorry this is happening to you. Although you are HIV positive, this might not be related to HIV. Some people are unlucky and this happens for other reasons. What does your doctor say? Can your doctor refer you to a specialist?
Hi dear, i wonder if you have answer for this, i am young, i have been born with HIV. However the last three years, i am losing my hair. It is breaking dead like dry leaves. the house if full of hairs. It is not from the root but breaking. I used to have long hair now i can’t even tiy it back. please help give me advice which pill is better to take i am very sad to see my hair gone.
Hi Popie, it is good that you are thinking about treatment and that your doctor has prescribed these. It is also good that you are thinking about adherence and how to adapt to this new challenge. You are right that adherence is very important. If you find you are missing meds then talk to your doctor as soon as possible. I use a pill box with the days marked on. I fill this each week and I can see every days whether or not I have taken the meds. This has helped me more than anything else and over many years I have rarely missed a dose. Although adherence is important, everyone misses a few pills and this is okay. See this link for other tips.
http://i-base.info/guides/starting/adherence-tips
Everyone is different though – please let me know what you decide. Most people find that once they have started meds it is much easier that they thought it would be.
Hi All, i have been diagnosed with HIV 2012 June. I haven’t been on treatment since. Recently my CD4 Count is on 492 and i am about to start with treatment. I have collected my ARV’s in September but i haven’t started yet. i feel weak already when i think of taking this meds. i am so scared and don’t know what to do. the worst fear i have is the side effect that i will have. i am too forgetful and i have never in my life finish the course of any medication i got from my doc. i give up easily. i feel i will forget taking this meds sometimes and i will default and die. i am really not ready to take this meds. please advise,
Hi Nicole
Thanks for your experience. You have been very lucky and it is good you are still doing well. Nearly all research will show that you have just been fortunate to have a strong immune response to HIV. Perhaps 1% of people are in this situation. Everyone else – ie thee 99% of the rest of us, will definitely need ARVs to keep a strong CD4 count and to keep viral load undetectable.
We know this because whenever vitamins and supplements are studies in carefully design studies, they fail to have any significant effect on HIV.
Although some supplements have shown very small effects from when treatment wasn’t available, it is your immune system that has kept you well, and this is likely to have been just as strong without the supplements.
Unless you have a vitamin deficiency, supplements are unlikely to make any measurable health difference. If you have a deficiency then a supplement is important. Also if you don’t have a balance diet then a regular multivitamin might be useful and won’t do any harm. Multivitamins do interact with integrase inhibitors though, which involves separating the vitamin dosing form the ARVs.
Also, guidelines have recently changed for people in your situation who have been HIV positive for more than 20 years without using treatment. There is concern for having ongoing HIV for so long even at low levels and so treatment is now recommended for everyone. I imagine this might not be something that you want to hear, but modern treatment is now very effective and easy to take.
You were lucky not to have to used the first meds in the 1990s which had many difficult side effects.
Current HIV treatment (ART) is a completely different situation.
I’m 42 years old. I was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 whilst trying to get a life cover. I’ve never suffered any symptoms apart from an occasional cold sore, never lost weight, and never been to a doctor for medical issues. I exercise and eat pretty much everything. I’ve managed to steer clear of ARVs by taking a daily combo of 1000 mg Vit C, 1 Vit B Complex, plus 200 mg Selenium. This has been my routine since 1995. I did not imagine that i would still be alive 21 years later. I’m grateful for the day I learnt of these three supplements.