Good nutrition and weight maintenance are important for people living with hiv/hepC. The vitamins, nutrients and energy that nutritious foods provide can help stave off illness. Maintaining weight, and preventing the loss of muscle mass (called lean body mass), bolsters general health and the body's ability to fight disease.

That said, malnutrition and weight loss are common problems associated with HIV disease. Malnutrition can result from a loss of appetite due to depression, fatigue, illness or drug side-effects and mal-absorption. Without an obvious loss in a person's weight, it can persist undetected.

Weight loss can be an obvious sign of malnutrition. It can begin and become severe anywhere in the course of HIV disease. Wasting is extreme weight loss -- an unexplained loss of 10% or more of a person's normal weight. Some people report wasting despite having very high CD4+ cell counts. However, the risk of wasting and serious malnutrition increases dramatically when CD4+ cell counts fall below 100.

Vitamins and nutritional supplements should not be used to replace food. Whenever possible, it's preferable to take in more vitamins through better eating habits.  Supplements can be too expensive for people on strict budgets, disability or other assistance. Some people spend hundreds of dollars per month on these products. This is probably unwarranted in most cases. There are little data to support using "mega" doses of vitamins and supplements in HIV disease. It is a wise move, however to get regular mineral testing (iron, selenium, etc) If  a blood test reveals any deficiencies then supplements should be taken to restore the mineral balance of the blood. Selenium in particular is vital for the good working of the thymus, our T-cell power house, and is not readily found in Australian soils.

Project inform 2003