My Primitive Cocktail: August 2011

Monday, August 1, 2011

After reading up a bit more on the supplement Osteo Bi-Flex I'm currently taking, I might decide to stop. There is some controversy about whether it messes with your sugar levels. And that's something I do not wanna mess with...

Years back when I was on my med's I would be at the gym & start to feel real shaky, faint, and nauseous. I got a bit scared & asked my doctor for a glucose test. Ended up I was fine... But still scared me.. And it's around that time I decided to stop my med's.. (The Glucose test sucked ass by the way!!) ~

Anyway, for some reason I decided to read up on Glucosamine a bit more and found one article saying "Glucosamine may have an effect on your blood sugar. It may decrease insulin productions and cause a change in your blood sugar level.".....

And another saying "There has been some small studies in rats showing glucosamine can impair insulin resistance. One study showed that this did not occur in diabetic rats, just the normal ones." .......

I had read other articles of people saying they had no problems. But the key thing I'm picking out is that glucosamine might impair insulin resistance... That's just something I don't wanna take a chance with.. And it was one of the main reasons why I stopped taking the med's!... (Diabetes was just one of many possible side effects listed when taking Trizivir.)

Something else I'll be changing with my regimen is the intake of NAC. In hopes to reduce my viral load, I'll be increasing to 600mg 3 times a day. I had found an article stating "A total of 1800 to 2000 mg. per day in 3 doses of 600 mg. or 4 doses of 500 mg a day of NAC on an empty stomach will benefit your immune system and suppress viral activity. Absorption rates are greater for most amino acids when taken on an empty stomach. This may be true for NAC as well. Take it on an empty stomach with either water or fruit juice (the sugar in the juice enhances absorption). It is also recommended that three times as much vitamin C should be taken at the same time to prevent these amino acids (NAC) from being oxidized in the body."

So my new regimen will be the following:

Jarrow Formulas N-A-C sustain: 1 capsule of 600mg 3x a day

ROEX Oleuropein: 1 gram in a.m., 500mg middle of day, and 500mg @ night

Cell Forte IP-6 & Inositol Ultra Strength Powder: 3 grams 2x's a day

Vitamin Shoppe Liquid Vitamin D3: 5000IU 1x a day

Vitamin C: 1000mg (2-stage, timed release) 3x's a day

Multi-vitamin

Again, I want to encourage others to comment. Share your success stories, thoughts, questions, etc...

My Story

I believe it was 1994 I became positive, but didn't find out I was until 1995. I didn't have insurance at that time so I was tested anonymously. A few years later, I received insurance through my work & then found a local Infectious Disease Doctor. She then sent me to have blood work to see where my numbers were.

Two weeks later I had an appointment to find out my results. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but it was something like my T cells at 1,800 & my viral load was 200,000. My viral was somewhat high, but my cell count was way up there! She told me I was in a grey zone for beginning a cocktail regimen. At that time I was scared & didn't know much about the whole HIV thing. I thought "Well, I have a son in elementary school. I need to be here & healthy for him." So I told my doctor I wanted to begin treatment.

I wasn't too good at swallowing pills so I chose the simplest cocktail at that time. And that was Trizivir (Trizivir contains three different medications: Abacavir (Ziagen®, ABC), Lamivudine (Epivir®, 3TC), and Zidovudine (Retrovir®, AZT, ZDV). Before taking the drug I told her "I wanted the drug that was the least one to cause lipodystrophy." She then told me I would be safe with Trizivir. After two weeks it had brought my viral to undetectable. So yeah, it kicked butt. It kicked butt for about 9 years keeping my viral undetectable and my T cells between 800 and 1,200.

During the last 3 years on Trizivir, I began having odd feelings of being overly hungry. That nausea feeling you get when you’re hungry but more intense. I recall a time after the gym I was in a drive through line ordering food and had to open my door because I felt like I was going to vomit. And it seemed I would get that feeling once a year for a couple of months the last 3 years.

I then started to notice a little bit of lipodystrophy in my legs & face. Nothing others would pick up on at that time but I know my body well and I could see it. After noticing that change I became scared & stopped taking Trizivir. Of course my doctor wasn't happy. So being scared of dying, I began the cocktail again after 3 weeks of being off of it. The next year there were times at the gym I thought I was going to vomit and/or pass out. So here we are again (and now that I look back, I feel those times of feeling nauseous & wanting to pass out was probably a build of toxicity from the Trizivir.).

My Primitive Cocktail

Monday, August 1, 2011

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