Hi Ben

Thanks a lot for all the help you are doing for the people all around the world. I heard grape seed extract is a powerful anti oxidant and is very effective in nfighting the HIV virus. What is your opinion on this. If any one uses these herbal pills(garpe seed extract) who is also on HART , does it interfere with the HIV medication. I know there is very limited research on this.Does taking any herbal pills with high anti oxidant will help T cell growth.

Thx alot Tony

Thanks for your post.

Your right, there's very limited data on the safety of grape seed extract, especially when it comes to the issue of drug-drug interactions with antiretroviral medications.

Here's my take (again) for those interested in unproven supplements-- all foreign substances that we ingest (this includes prescription medications, over-the-counters,herbs and supplements) have the potential to cause benefit as well as toxicity. Unless the complete package of desireable effects and risks (including drug-drug interactions) is known, I'd hate to see such products interfere with the only things that we know (proven in clinical trials) to cause long-term suppression of HIV and restoration of immune health.

So, while grape seee extract has had a couple of interesting pre-clinical, in vitro studies, Ill wait until there's considerably more data before making this recommendation to my patients (or to you). BY