Response from Mr. Vergel
Dear Mark
You have been exposed to one of the combinations that has been shown to cause more metabolic disorders than most for a long time. Crixivan is well known to cause insulin resistance and AZT is well known to cause lipoatrophy. The two together have synergistic effects on both fat gain and lipoatrophy. I am not sure where you live since that may also be a deciding factor on your options. Lexiva is not known to be the most "lipid friendly" protease inihibitor out there, and you are still taking AZT. Without seeing your genotype test (which you may not have if your viral load was undetectable at the time of switching), it wis difficult to know exactly why your doctor chose to switch you to that combination in 2008, when more metabolic friendly combos are out there (more metabolic friendly combinations can be created with Truvada, Reyataz, Viramune, Isentress, Celsentry, Intelence, and moderately with Invirase)
Unfortunately, even after 12 years of HAART, we have very little data on what happens with visceral fat when people switch, for instance, from Crixivan+Combivir to boosted Reyataz plus Truvada or Viramune plus Truvada. Luckily, we have learned that those who switch from D4T or AZT to Viread or Ziagen have been able to stop lipoatrophy and regain some subcutaneous fat slowly, although not fast enough to see marked differences in 1-3 years.
There are some interesting studies that have looked at using Metformin (an old diabetes drug) to decrease visceral fat that have produciced encouraging results with exercise. Some studies have also shown that Metformin may have a benefitial role in decreasing liver fat, so that is something you may want to investigate. However, Metformin can also increase fat loss under the skin, and if you have lipoatrophy that may be an issue for you.
Some people have found doctors who would perform neck and hump liposuction and write great medical necessity letters to get reimbursement from third party payers including Medicare. You can email me for a list of doctors out there that have experience in this type of procedures at powertx@aol.com, or visit the resource page of my web site facialwasting.org
When it comes to diet and fat gain, we have very limited data from a study at Tufts University that showed that those who consumed higher amounts of soluble fiber (from fruits and vegetables) had a lower incidence of fat gain. It makes sense since soluble fiber tends to improve insulin sensitivity and slow down the fast absorption of sugar into the body. Some people in my pozhealth listserve have used lower carb diets like the South Beach diet or the Sugar Buster diet(there are two books) with good results to shrink their bellies. You may want to read either or both of those two books and see how you would adhere to those diets. Using cardio exercise for 30 minutes 4-5 times a day with a lower simple carb diet should do the trick, but many people are not willing to work that hard or have adherence issues to this kind of life style changes.
I would also keep me eyes open for the upcoming approval (probable but not 100% sure) of the growth hormone precursor product Tesamorelin-TH9507, made by Theratecnologies. This product is adaily injectable that has shown to slowly decrease visceral fat in HIV. We have no data of its use with exercise but I predict that the fat loss would be accelerated that way.
It really concerns me about the amount of work that many of us have to endure just to undo a lot of the metabolic and body changes that some drugs have caused in the past.
Please let me know what you chose to do and what results you get. We are here to help and love to follow up so that others can benefit from your experience.
You may want to read this article to get an overview of where we are after 10 years of lipodystrophy :http://www.thebody.com/content/toparts/art45454.html
You may also want to read this article:http://www.thebody.com/content/treat/art884.html
Good luck
Nelson
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