I am a 31 year old male and was diagnosed HIV+ in november 2006 and infected shortly before then. My doctor is keeping me off HIV medications right now due to slow/no evidence of disease progression. I want to keep my progression slow, so I started supplements in 2007. Here is my current supplement regimen for this year. Almost all of them are from NOW foods. The daily cost is about $2.50.
- NOW adam superior multi (2 tabs)
- NOW l-glutamine 500mg (2 caps)
- NOW omega-3 (2 softgels)
- NOW acetyl l-carnitine 500mg (1 cap)
- NOW super enzymes (2 caps)
- NOW melatonin 3mg (1 cap)
- NOW C 500 (2 tabs)
- NOW EGCG green tea extract 400 mg (2 caps)
- NOW vitamin D 2000 IU (2 gels)
- NOW probiotics gr8-dophilus (2 caps)
- NOW B6 50mg (1 tab)
- NOW magnesium citrate 200 mg (1 tab)
- NOW alpha lipoic acid 250mg (2 caps)
- NOW vitamin E 400 natural d-alpha tocopheryl (1 gel)
- NOW vitamin B-12 1000 mcg (1 lozenge)
- Nature made calcium 750 mg/D400/K50 (1 tab)
- Jarrow n-acetyl cysteine 600mg (2 caps)
I split the above in 2 daily doses, with food each time.
My other long-term problems include bipolar disorder (mostly depression), sleep issues, heartburn, slow/frequent urination, and vitamin D deficiency. My physician has vetted all the supplements I take (he actually wrote me prescriptions for them, so I can buy them tax-free in my FSA, and he is not against the others). But he is not an authority on supplements, so I'm pretty much left on my own doing research on them. I chose most of the above for their anti-HIV activity based on studies I found. I have had levels taken for calcium, magnesium, selenium, B12 and D. I am on a high dose of D (about 5000 IU total per day) because my bipolar med (tegretol) depletes it.
Is there any other supplement you would add to the list if you were in my shoes ?
Obviously with the HIV I'm at a slight disadvantage for reaching immortality. But I still wouldn't mind taking other things that could benefit me. In particular anything that can give me more energy would be good. I tend to have a lot more fatigue than I used to, though I'm not sure if it's caused by the HIV, depression, or a little of both.
Cost is not the biggest issue. I could go to a $10/day regimen if I was convinced it was worth it.
I think it’s great that you haven’t started the HIV medications:
from Encarta:
To decrease the toxic effects of drugs and to defer costly therapy, in 2001 United States federal health officials recommended delaying drug treatment for HIV infection in people showing no symptoms and who have been infected with HIV for more than six months. The new guidelines call for delaying treatment until an infected person’s CD4 cells fall below 350 cells per microliter of blood or the HIV viral load exceeds 30,000 per microliter of blood. Evidence suggests that delaying treatment poses no harm to infected people and, in fact, benefits them by deferring the toxic side effects of the drugs. Anyway, about your supplements, Vitamin E should not be taken at that high dose especially if it’s only one form. There was a recent study that showed 400 IU of natural E increased mortality if used long term, you should try something that has all 8 forms of Vitamin E. I’ve searched all through Iherb and vitacost and it appears that only 2 brands have all 8 forms. Jarrows FamilE and GNC isomer E, but everyone here hates GNC and claim their low quality so Jarrow would likely be a better choice.
LongeCity
