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William769

(55,871 posts)
Wed Sep 26, 2012, 02:33 PM Sep 2012

HIV patients aging prematurely

For a long, dark time in the 1980s and '90s, the Shanti Project and other agencies like it provided hospice-like services to the thousands of men suffering, and dying, from AIDS in San Francisco.

And then there was monumental success: new drugs to fight the virus and lift the death sentence of HIV infection. With the virus under control in their bodies, patients were healthy and active. They had decades of living ahead of them.

Many of them left the supportive care of places like Shanti, said Kaushik Roy, executive director of the program.

"Now they're coming back," he said.

More than a decade after the first truly successful AIDS drugs became available, a new image of HIV is emerging: People with the virus appear to be aging prematurely. After years of feeling healthy and recharged with the new drugs, they're suddenly slowing down not from the effects of AIDS, but from old age - a decade or two earlier than their noninfected peers.

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/HIV-patients-aging-prematurely-3893804.php

My body looks normal still, but my insides are definitely aging. I have been to the Doctors more this year for non related AIDS medical problems than I should at a person my age. I have discussed this at length with my infectious disease doctor & he told me even though there have been major advancement's, because most drugs are still new, not all is still known to the long term effects of the medicine's.

Case in point, there is no reason I should have a vitamin D deficiency (they have tried everything to boost it in my body and nothing is working), my body is just not accepting vitamin D from any source. I have other issues as well.

Though the medicine I am on has literally saved my life in the short term, we are going to have to deal with the long term effects.

Has anyone else here spoke to their doctor about long term effects?

3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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HIV patients aging prematurely (Original Post) William769 Sep 2012 OP
Hello BigDemVoter Oct 2012 #1
I haven't had any health problems but I do have advanced balding beyurslf Oct 2012 #2
My ex has had AIDs for 20+ years left-of-center2012 Nov 2012 #3

BigDemVoter

(4,553 posts)
1. Hello
Fri Oct 26, 2012, 04:12 PM
Oct 2012

I haven't yet, but I see my ID doctor in December and will definitely ask. I have an HIV-related problem, multi-centric Castleman's disease, which has given me more grief than HIV itself, so it may be hard to separate the two issues. I have NOT ever felt myself since I was diagnosed in 2009-- lots of fatigue still, despite undetectable viral load & CD4 count of 325.

beyurslf

(6,755 posts)
2. I haven't had any health problems but I do have advanced balding
Tue Oct 30, 2012, 10:59 PM
Oct 2012

to the point I am almost completely bald on top. My twin brother has almost no balding. My dad didn't start to bald until his 50's. I am probably balder than he is now I think. I don't know if that is the meds or not, but I have always wondered.

left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
3. My ex has had AIDs for 20+ years
Mon Nov 5, 2012, 12:37 AM
Nov 2012

I've not heard him say anything about this 'aging'.
He lives in CA and I live in NM, but we're quite close and in frequent contact via email and phone.
I'm hesitant to ask him as he gets quite depressed over his health and finacial situation.

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