Hello, Sweden calling! I'm a 28 year old HIV+ Swedish guy, and Im the tall and slim type, 190 cm. and 73 kilos (sorry if this sounds like a contact add...!). I would like to put on a few pounds by starting to do fitness training 1.5 hours 3 times a week, which I guess qualifies as hard excercise ("no pain, no gain"). However, this spring my lactic levels rose to 3.9 and I had high liver counts. I was taken off meds (Videx+Zerit+Ziagen, my first regimen) and switched to Sustiva+Combivir after the lactic level and liver counts had normalized in about 2 weeks. They have been within the normal range ever since. My question is: Does fitness training pose a risk in terms of lactic levels/liver counts? Thanks for a great forum - I use it quite a lot from this side of the "pond"!

Training such as you are considering would not increase the risk for liver or lactic acidosis related problems. Such training might make it harder to evaluate for those problems since heavy muscle activity can temporarily increase lactic acid levels and some muscle enzymes also found in the liver. If you are working with a good HIV doc-the two of you should be able to sort out what is going on while allowing you to exercise heavily. KH