I've had severe fat accumulation behind ears, buffalo hump, and under chin and jawline for about 8 years now.I noticed when I was on hydroxy urea for two months several years ago that the fat pads seemed to melt away. I got out my physicians desk reference and noticed that Hydroxy Urea is commonly precribed for cancerous and benign fatty tumors of the head and neck. Could there be a connection here ? In '95 & '96 my CD4 counts were between 0 -9. I am now undetectable and CD4's 1076 and continue to climb even though I've been med-free 5 months. There has been no change in my fat pads since going off meds, but I have been drinking 6 - 8 cups of decaf Green Tea daily for past 3 months.Could this be boosting my CD4's ? Testoserone combined with HGH seemed to help fat pads...but my doc won't prescribe testosterone because my hemoglobin has run at a constant 18 - 18.5 for several years. My last testosterone labs were at 347 which is low. Why can't they simply phlebotomize to bring those levels down ?

Most of us are cautious with use of hydroxyurea as it was associated with a lot of toxicity problems and some deaths when used in the HIV setting in the mid 90s. Your doctor is right not to give testosterone when your Hb is high...further raising the Hb could put you at risk of clotting problems like vein thrombisis, pulmonary embolus or stroke. If you smoke, a common cause of high Hb, you should stop immediately. I know of no studies of green tea to boost CD4 but when you have a normal range CD4 it is common to see variation of >25% so a few samples in a row where it goes up are not beyond the realms of simple chance. That being said I see no harm in drinking green tea. The longer you can stay of therapy the more likely it is you will see some improvements in your fat accumulations

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Graeme