Half of the US patients infected with HIV use alternative therapies while taking powerful AIDS drug cocktails, and nearly one in four choose alternative treatments that could interfere with conventional AIDS therapy. And many never share that information with their doctors, researchers have found.
Patients often believe that so-called natural treatments are helping to keep them healthy and diminishing the unpleasant side effects of prescription drugs. But megadoses of vitamins, homeopathic remedies and some herbs can reduce the effectiveness of the antiretroviral drugs that have prolonged patients’ lives.