Question
How soon can I eat after taking Odimune?
21 August 2012. Related: Adherence, All topics.
I hear you say its advisable to take odimune (efavrienz+ FTC+ tenofovir) at bed time and its only taken on empty stomach, how long exactly should i stay away from food before taking it? The reason i am asking this is I can not starve the whole day before taking the tablet.
Answer
Saying that Odimune needs to be taken on an ’empty stomach’ doesn’t mean you need to starve yourself. It is fine to eat something before or when you take this, but you have to be careful to make sure this is not a high fat meal.
A high fat meal will increase levels of efavirenz and so you may get more side effects (mood changes, anxiety, disorientation or interrupted sleep etc). Food low in fat or with just a little fat, will be fine.
More about this is explained in this question: What happens if don’t take Atripla on an empty stomach?
Odimune is a generic version of Atripla which includes the same meds but is just made by a different company.
I’m a college student so I have to study really hard when its time to write my exams but I get to tired and feed-up very quickly so to avoid that I buy some energy drink so it can keep me going……..so there a problem to drink energy drink while I’m eating Odimune medication?.
Hi Luyanda, thanks for your comment and for getting in touch.
There is lots of time to work things out before next year, but the best thing would be if I can put you in touch with a counsellor at TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) who you can talk to. They will be able to help with things better than me, because they understand the context.
You are not the only person who is in this situation but you are taking a leadership role in finding out the best ways to deal with all these important issues.
Please email me personally if you would like to do this: simon.collins@i-base.org.uk
I’m HIV+ and I haven’t go to the bush to get circumcised I will go next year so in my religion we should not eat or drink Liquid including water for the first 7days I will only be allowed to eat the maize meal….but after 7 day I will be allowed to drink water so it clearly shows that I won’t be able to eat my pills for that 7 days and the problem is that I haven’t told my family about my sickness ……….so what is the risk of that or can you give me some advice what should I do because I’m really scared?
Hi Exinia,
Gaining weight around the tummy – or abdominal fat gain – is now much less common with modern ARVs. However, diet and exercise, along with some treatments, may help to reduce this. Using more than one approach may be important. For example, using diet and exercise in addition to anything else you try.
Diet means having a healthy balanced diet. It does not mean you should dramatically cut calorie intake, which could make fat loss more difficult.
It’s important that you talk to your doctor about this so that your TB treatment, your ARVs and your weight loss programme all work together.
best wishes, Roy
I didn’t have big tummy before but since I take TB treatment and ARVs my tummy grows fast and I gain weight, what must I do to be normal. Even give me advice for my diet please, my body has changed.
Hi, efavirenz is one of the drugs in the tablet called Odimune.
There are different generic tablets that have different names because they are made by different manufacturers. It’s unusual to take efavirenz on it own. But I might have misunderstood your question.
A similar question was answered here:
http://i-base.info/qa/9002
We are taking Odimune, last month was efavirenz, is it fine
Hi Cindy. HIV meds can still work even if the CD4 count has become very low. The low CD4 count means that other infections might be casuing these symptoms and the doctor needs to look for the cause of this. Sometimes adfter startgin treatment with a low CD4 count, a new infection causes problems. The doctor needs to look for this. It is good he is still on TB treatment and that he has now started HIV meds too. It might be that it just takes a bit more time.
Pls help my brother has been sick for 2mnths they did some tests n found out he got tb n he’s hiv+ with a cd4 count of 29 after 3 weeks on tb treatment they gave him odimune but ever since he started the treatment he got worse he lost weight can’t eat, can’t walk and it been 2 weeks on the treatment, my question is will his situation change or he need to change from odimune to something else pls help
Hi Adelaide. Thanks – everything you have done will be okay. Taking Odiume during the day is definitely not good as you will get more side effects. All these side effects should start to get better over the next few weeks – but definitely better to take them beter you go to sleep.