Hi Nelson, I'm hiv/hbv. I'm on Videx EC, Epivir, and Sustiva after switching from Zerit to Epivir 10 months ago. I was on Zerit for almost 3 years. Will COQ10, L-Carnitine, and B complex vitamins help recover facial fat and stop further facial wasting? Also, should I also take a multivitamin and vitamin C and E? Many multivitamins contain many herbs in the base ingredients. What brand name multivitamin, if any, do you recommend that will not hurt my liver? Also, what company do you recommend I buy from? Thanks for all you do for everyone here! We appreciate your time and hard work. Mike

Mike:

There are no studies looking at supplements and facial lipoatrophy. I doubt that supplements that may help mitigate mitochondrial toxicity caused by Zerit or AZT may help those with moderate to severe cases of facial wasting. But who knows if they may help improve the reversal of facial wasting after someone switches from Zerit to another nucleoside ( studies have shown a slow recovery after 48 weeks without supplements.). We may never see data on this since BMS and other pharmaceutical companies have no incentive to perform those studies and no patents can be obtained for these products.

I love some of the comprehensive micronutrient packets out there. SuperNutrition's Easy Swallow (you can get them at www.houstonbuyersclub.com) and Dr Jon Kaiser's packets (he did a study that found a 24 % increase in T cells with the use of his packets) at jonkaiser.com are probably the most comprehensive I have seen. But keep in mind that they have 6-8 capsules each, so if you have a problem with pill burden, this may not be for you. If you do not have the gut or money to take these products, just find a good B-100 formula (100 mg of most B vitamins in one pill) plus a multivitamin with selenium (200 micrograms) ( you can also search those at houstonbuyersclub.com). These supplemenst actually improve liver function since theliver needs antioxidants and B vitamins (just avoid iron, Vitamin A and K at high doses)

Nelson