PEP

[Jamjohn00]

Dear doctors,

I'm currently taking PEP and have a few questions to ask about it:

I do a lot of sport and have to do a lot of very intense exercising such as running, weight lifting. Is it ok for me to carry on with this while on PEP? (I must stress that it's very intense exercise)

Also I take vitamin tablets, vitamin C, multi-vitamin/mineral tablets and omega 3 or cod liver oil tablets. Is it ok if carry on with this?

it says on the pack of combivir to take them every 12 hours. So I've been taking them at 8:30am and 8:30pm along with Kaletra, is it ok to change this to say 6am and 6pm or will the moving around times effect their effectiveness at least on the day I changed the time of taking them?

Also will taking PEP have any long term side effects. It just that with all the sport I do I need to stay muscular, would PEP have any effect on this?

I'm currently taking Kaletra and Combivir. Up until last Tuesday I was taking Truvada instead of Combivir and will probably be moving back to the Truvada next Wednesday

[Jamjohn00]

Thanks for your answers,

the main reason I was worried about doing the intense exercise was because I read that immediately after the exercise your immune system drops.

When on PEP do I not need to rely on my immune system fighting the virus along with the PEP?

[Dr Sean Cummings]

Hello

I've repeated your questions beneath and will answer each in turn ok?

I do a lot of sport and have to do a lot of very intense exercising such as running, weight lifting. Is it ok for me to carry on with this while on PEP? (I must stress that it's very intense exercise)

Yes, if you feel fine then carry on regardless - make sure your water etc intake is good as usual

Also I take vitamin tablets, vitamin C, multi-vitamin/mineral tablets and omega 3 or cod liver oil tablets. Is it ok if carry on with this?

Yes, absolutely fine

it says on the pack of combivir to take them every 12 hours. So I've been taking them at 8:30am and 8:30pm along with Kaletra, is it ok to change this to say 6am and 6pm or will the moving around times effect their effectiveness at least on the day I changed the time of taking them?

You can change the time to make it more convenient for you to fit in with your life etc - switching by a few hours will not result in a loss of efficacy

Also will taking PEP have any long term side effects. It just that with all the sport I do I need to stay muscular, would PEP have any effect on this?

No, PEP will not have long term side effects apart from hopefully to keep you HIV negative

I'm currently taking Kaletra and Combivir. Up until last Tuesday I was taking Truvada instead of Combivir and will probably be moving back to the Truvada next Wednesday

We tend to use truvada and kaletra as it tends to be "smoother" with less in the way of side effect to using combivir. Also, you could if you wanted to take all four kaletra and the one truvada tablet all together as a single daiyly dose which sometimes makes it more convenient.

best regards, Sean