Is this unusual??

[bahamasnut]

My husbands vl was 10million  after taking some supplements 5weeks later he got a mother blood draw to see what the supplements were doing if anything and his vl was 8.8 million.  Does the viral load fluxuate that much. ????? Please need help

[ninjamonkey]

Until i started treatment I took milk thistsle and though it didn't clear the virus amid did make me feel better and my ast and alt numbers finally we.t back to the normal range and when i stop taking them they jumped right back up so i think as long as Dr approves ymhe should continue and you should keep an eye on all his other test, if he feels better on them that's good for him, or o thought it was for me. Just my opinion.
Cas

[orphanedhawk]

I want to know what a mother draw is.

[bahamasnut]

Thank you the supplements are very expensive and no his doctor doesn't know.He is getting ready to start tx for the second time in about a month.First go around he was und from week 2-23. Of 24 wks. Geno 3 the doctor said he had a breakthrough. I hope it will be different this time......

[Bill1954]

It’s probably best to step back for a second and look at how large some of the numbers involved are. HCV, unhindered, is thought to replicate at an astonishing rate; roughly 1,000,000,000,000 (1 trillion, or 10^12) copies per patient day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C_virus#Replication

Obviously our immune response checks that figure, typically leaving patients with much lower viral loads such as your husband’s results, measured in the millions.

Given these very large numbers frequent changes are understandable. I believe most knowledgeable physicians don’t feel changes in viral load are significant unless they exceed a 1 log-10 change.

A significant change for your husband’s viral load might be from say, 8,800,000 (eight million eight hundred thousand) to 880,000 (eight hundred eighty thousand); this represents a 1 log-10 reduction. While this might have some significance, there’s still no evidence that that rate of decline will continue, unfortunately.

With all this said, hopefully hubby’s doctor is on board with his herbal/supplemental regimen and has offered his approval.  

Good luck-

--Bill

[nygirl7]

Watch his liver enzymes while taking supplements, especially if they are Chinese herbs or anything like that. VL doesn't matter it's basically the same number as hrsepwrguy already explainned.

[Sentinel13]

I agree with hrsepwrguy. Viral load is described by a logarithmic function, which means it's linear when plotted on log paper. Technical way of agreeing that there is not much difference in the two figures you provided. Cheers, GB