HIV infection has no known cure at the moment. When living with HIV/AIDS, its necessary to take care of your health. Early virus diagnosis and effective antiretroviral treatment help keep the immune system strong. Here is a detailed guide on positive living with the virus.
What Is Positive Living and Why Should You Care?
A person diagnosed with HIV/AIDS may develop stress and other negative experiences that might worsen the progress of virus treatment and lower the quality of life [1].
Living with the virus should not be a major problem. Positive living is a strategy that involves taking care of your health and body while being infected with HIV. With proper medication and the right strategy for mindset and daily routines, an individual can live a long, normal, healthier, and productive life [2].
Importance of Timely HIV Treatment
Although there is no cure to fully eliminate the infection in the body, there are highly potent medicines that effectively fight the virus and give the HIV infected individual a stronger immune system and improved life expectancy.
HIV can multiply rapidly and affect the CD4 cell count. Replication of the virus in the body weakens the immune system and makes the body susceptible to external opportunistic infections that may be life-threatening.
How can a patient live long despite the virus in their system? Early diagnosis and proper treatment help protect the immune function and decrease the viral load. With all the best practices of positive living, the patient can live a longer and healthier life.
Effective medication plays a major role in fully suppressing the virus and preventing it from multiplying. As a result, it decreases morbidity and mortality from opportunistic infections.
While there are other drugs to medicate the condition, comparing Descovy vs Truvada leads to the conclusion that these two can be very effective as a remedy to HIV/AIDS. Truvada is also approved as PrEP to help HIV-negative individuals who are at a higher risk of getting the infection stay safe [3] [4].
Your health is paramount, so it is highly recommended to seek help from a medical professional and follow-up with them while under medication.
Tips for Positive Living for HIV Infected People
No matter which med your doctor prescribes you, if its right for you, there are other important things to consider in order to remain healthy.
Some of the tips to live positively with HIV include the following:
- stay active and exercise. Engaging in various activities keeps your body strong and able to fight the disease. The human body needs a daily activity to stay healthy;
- get plenty of sleep and rest to allow all of the body systems to regenerate and fight the illness;
- eat a balanced diet to achieve sufficient levels of energy, strength, and protection from illnesses. While under medication, your body needs extra minerals and nutrients, therefore a healthy diet can make treatment more effective;
- drink lots of clean, safe water;
- avoid alcohol and drugs. These bad habits make the immune system weaker while damaging the liver and kidneys. Abusing alcohol and drugs can cause failure to adhere to the treatment schedule. It makes the antiretroviral medicine you are using less effective and can worsen negative effects.
Its also necessary to manage stress. A medical specialist can give you the supportive guidance on how to stay positive. Its very important to find a support system to help you cope with the challenges you might experience living with the virus, so you can stay healthy and strong in both mind and body.
References
- Stress & HIV: the good, the bad, & the ugly. Published: January 2010. Pwatoronto.org.
- Living Positively with HIV. Published: 2013. Ccp.jhu.edu.
- Truvada. Retrieved: January 7, 2020. Drugs.com.
- Descovy. Retrieved: January 7, 2020. Drugs.com.