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.
Hi Terry_S,
What meds are you taking?
Hi , i have recently been diagnosed with HIV and would like to find out if i can take iron and vitamin c supplements with the ART treatment. And if the supplrments will not interfere with the meds.
Thank you
Hi Paul. I haven’t seen reports of a direct effect either way from smoking weed on CD4 counts. If the joint includes tobacco, this is not good for your friends health. The safety or harm of smoke from weed is likely to be similar to smoke from tobacco though, which does have long term health risks. Smoke in your lungs is not good, so other ways to take marijuana might be safer.
Hey a friends recently find out that he is hiv positive and is a active weed smoker will it lower his CD4 count, while taking arvs
Hi Yvonne,
Some women will have children even when they have low CD4 counts, so its really a personal choice. Ideally though you should try for a family when your CD4 is stable and when you’re on meds.
What does a persons CD4 need to be before they can plan to have kids?
Hi Xolani,
What meds are you taking?
Hi would like to know if someone who is HIV positive can he or she use the supplement if he is going to the gym or not .if the answer is yes which one if it’s why please advise.thank you
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it. I will do my best.
Hi Abigail,
I’m sorry for your loss. Losing someone to HIV can be a very difficult thing.
With regards to your brothers girlfriend, the only thing that she can do to control her HIV is to take ARVs. Though HIV is low in El Salvador, she should be able to get access to medication for her HIV. Other than that, there isn’t anything that she can take to control her HIV.
If she needs emotional support, then maybe you could give her this?