Deal with Antiretroviral Therapy Side Effects

Many side effects are associated with antiretroviral therapies. However, these side effects are not so harmful. By adopting certain things, one can easily deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects.

What are the usual side effects of antiretroviral therapies?

• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Lipodystrophy
• Heart problems
• Loss of appetite
• Mood swing
• Insomnia
• Headache
• Rash
• Anemia

How to deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects?

Nausea: Nausea can be recovered by:

• Drinking a lot of water
• Eat more than six small meals rather than large meals
• Eat cold food
• Stay away from cooking smells
• Avoid spicy and reach food.
• When you nauseate, eat mint and ginger

Diarrhea:

• Drink a lot of rehydration salt
• If you cannot go to the store to buy them, then mix salt and sugar to cold water and drink slowly
• Eat liquid meal like fresh juice, soups etc
• Don't consume caffeine, alcohol
• Do not consume spicy and oily food
• Avoid insoluble fibers like raw veggies, chapattis, whole grain bread, seeds etc)
• Eat soluble fibers like rice, lightly cooked veggies

Lipodystrophy:

• A good diet may not deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects of Lipodystrophy.
• The best way would be to exercise in order to burn the extra fat
• Injection of polylactic acid can help in weight gain if one is losing weight

Heart Problems:

• Completely quit smoking and drinking alcohol
• Exercises can strike a balance between all the components of the blood
• Fish oil is very good for heart problems. It should be consumed every day.

Loss of appetite:

• Eat protein food like soy, nuts and seeds. They are heavy and nutritious
• Get into a good weight gain exercise regime
• Try to have good feelings over food
• If possible try out different recipes that will increase your appetite by visual or nasal senses.

Mood swing:

• Sleep a lot
• Do not take overload with any work
• Work by setting a routine
• Exercising reduces stress and mood swing
• Do things that you like to do

Insomnia:

• Take warm water bath
• Listen to soft music
• Drink warm milk
• Do not take caffeine or cigarettes before sleeping
• Sleep on the back on a comfortable bed and pillow
• Sleep early and rise early

Headache:

• Close your eyes
• Take rest in a dark room not exposing your eyes to any light
• Take pain killers
• Use oxygen masks that will increase the level of oxygen in the blood and reduce headache
• Use rubs

Rash:

It depends on what kind of rash you are having. To best deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects in the form of rash, apply ointments and do not expose to excessive heat, cold or rain. Doctors and dermatologists can best suggest which ointment would be suitable for which kind of rash.

Anemia:

There are many easy home remedies to increase RBC in the blood and deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects.

• Eat dates, figs and other dry fruits which are rich in iron.
• Soak raisins in the water for sometime, and then drink the water along with the raisins
• Eat balanced diet with all proper nutrients especially green leaves, vegetables, eggs and milk.

It will not be a big problem to deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects. The above home remedies can work wonders if they are followed regularly for a few days. However, if your body cannot adapt to the therapy, then it is always advisable to visit the doctor and know better, how to medically deal with antiretroviral therapy side effects.