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.
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Hi Portia,
When someone is new to Odiume its common to feel the way that your husband is feeling. These possible side effects usually go within a few weeks of starting treatment, so when a persons body gets used to being on meds. If he’s still feeling like this after a few weeks he should talk to his doctor about this.
my husband recently started using odimune 3 days later but hes experiencing a lot of neusea .sleepless nights and terrible headache.is it possible to usw any other medication for help
Hi Tshepiso,
What medication will be contained in the IV drip?
Hi
It is safe to do IV drip while on arvs.iv got skin blemishes an pigmentation due to a cream i ws using on my face.im on nevarapine, zimovudine.
Hi Mbali,
It’s important that any skin rashes like this are looked at by your doctor. Are you on HIV treatment (ART)? You can read about starting treatment in this Introduction to ART.
Hi
I have recently started to have red spots on my body which turn dark after few days, I’m left with spots dark ones, what’s the cause? How can I avoid those?
Hi Lucia,
Atenef is a generic version of Atripla. For how it should ideally be taken, please see here:
http://i-base.info/guides/1561
Iv just started Atenef @ noon I take molasses which holds the dizziness
1:30min before the pill I base with food and immediately after taking the pill I have my meals again.This really helped
Hi Deborah,
As your sister is eating nutritional food it’s not likely that vitamins will help. So can she talk to the clinic about these symptoms? It might be to do with her HIV treatment, or there could be another cause. That’s why it’s a good idea to for her to have a check up at the clinic.