Guest Post: People Living with HIV Can Increase Physical Health and Quality of Life through Exercise

By Jim Rollince, GymSource

Adhering to a rigid exercise program can seem intimidating to a person who has been diagnosed with HIV. Because this particular disease is so varied in how it affects each person who has it, people with HIV are often at various stages of physical health and emotional health. Sometimes, the disease can seemingly lie dormant for years. Other times, the disease can attack and leave a person feeling extremely ill, mentally depleted, and exhausted of nearly all energy. Exercise is one way that a person who has HIV can fight back and take positive steps to regaining strength and increasing his or her overall health.

Increased Cardio Health Benefits Stem from Consistent Exercise Routines

It is well known that physical exercise can greatly improve cardio health. In many situations, healthy hearts equal healthy bodies. Many people are able to fight diseases through consistent exercise programs. While beginning with a rigorous exercise program may not be feasible for an HIV patient who is fighting severe symptoms of the disease, beginning with a mild program and then steadily increasing it can result in wonderful improvements on the way the person feels each day.

Setting up home gym equipment is an ideal way to be prepared to exercise any time there is free time to do so. If an HIV patient is working full time or part time, going to regular doctor visits, and taking care of other responsibilities, a home gym may be the best solution to find time to exercise. Using a treadmill, an exercise bike, and an elliptical machine can result in tremendous health benefits and improved heart conditions. Improving the heart and blood circulation throughout the body will make the person feel physically stronger and this can have a great and lasting impact on how well the person is physically able to cope with the disease.

Remain Committed to Regular Fitness Activities for Increased Health

The US National Library of Medicine provides an online medical journal that details numerous benefits that people who have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS can gain from committing to regular exercise sessions. Psychological benefits, increased circulation, easier breathing, and stronger muscles are all potential benefits a person can gain by committing to exercise on a regular basis.

Getting outside during nice weather and taking advantage of warm and pleasant weather to hike, swim, or go biking with friends is an ideal way to enjoy exercise and socialization at the same time. When time is short, the individual can take advantage of fitness equipment at home to get in a few minutes of treadmill jogging or working out on an elliptical. Every time a person engages in physical activity, the body will respond by increasing metabolism and potentially increasing levels of energy.

HIV/AIDS: The Importance of Exercise (aidsinfonet.org)
The benefits of exercise for those with HIV (hivblogger.me.uk)
HIV Diminishes Lung Function
HIV and Exercise
Exercise and HIV/AIDS (TheBody.com)

Truvada Approved For HIV Prevention

Jul17 by D Gregory Smith

From Mother Nature News:

The first-ever daily pill to help prevent against HIV was approved Monday by U.S. regulators for use in uninfected adults who are at risk for getting the virus that causes AIDS.

Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences in California, has been on the market since 2004 and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for a new use as a tool to help ward off HIV in otherwise healthy people, in combination with safe sex and regular testing.

The pill as pre-exposure prophylaxis has been hailed by some AIDS experts as a potent new tool against human immunodeficiency virus, but some health care providers are concerned it could encourage risky sex behavior.

In addition, the regimen is estimated to cost around $14,000 per year, making it out of reach of many.

The National Association Of People With AIDS (NAPWA) had this to say:

The National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) strongly supports today’s move by the United States Food and Drug Administration to approve use of Truvada (emtricitabine/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV-1 infection.

“It’s time for people at high risk of HIV infection to be empowered to protect themselves and others,” said Frank J. Oldham, Jr., NAPWA’s President and CEO. “Today’s approval of Truvada for HIV prevention gives them an important new tool to do that.

“PrEP is not a final solution to the spread of HIV,” Oldham continued, “but it can be one tool, and a very useful one, in a well stocked toolkit of prevention measures. We urge all Americans to assess their HIV risk realistically and use condoms if they are at risk, but we thank the FDA for approving Truvada for PrEP for those who cannot or will not.”

Truvada is one of the pills I take every day- if it can prevent anyone from getting HIV- it should. The “how” is still being determined.

FDA approves Truvada, the first pill to help prevent HIV – USA TODAY (usatoday.com)
FDA Approves First Medication to Reduce HIV Risk (fda.gov)

Reminder: AIDS Is Alive And Well In Montana

Jul16 by D Gregory Smith

Kim McGeehan wrote an article for the Bozeman Magpie about HIV in Montana- and shared some of my story along the way. Excerpt:

English: HIV-1 particles assembling at the surface of an infected macrophage. Français : Des particules de HIV-1 s’assemblant à la surface d’un macrophage infecté. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I wasn’t diagnosed because I was scared. Now, I have memory issues and damage to my joints. HIV attacks soft tissues in the body—gums, brain, liver—even if you don’t have outward symptoms, the virus can still be doing damage,” Smith says. “At first, there were no treatments. Now there is a lot we can do. We can stop it or slow it down. You can live a healthy life. If you are on your meds and have a low viral load, your risk of transmitting the disease can be as low as 4%.”

That isn’t permission to take behavioral risks, but information that should encourage people to take advantage of the services offered by AIDS Outreach. Those services include fast, free, anonymous HIV tests, an HIV-positive support group, educational literature, and condoms condoms condoms.

Americans will soon be able to purchase an over-the-counter, rapid-response HIV test, but Smith worries that dealing with a positive result alone will be challenging for folks: “Denial is such a strong force in the human psyche. I remember it in myself. I’m worried that someone might test positive and not tell anyone, not get counseling or medical care.”

Read the rest:

http://www.bozeman-magpie.com/perspective-full-article.php?article_id=502

Gay Men and the HIV Stigma (everydayhealth.com)
FDA Approves New In-Home HIV Test (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)
A “Positive” One Night Stand (notsoperfectme.com)
Not all H.I.V Survivors Thrilled With H.I.V Home-Test Kit (dfw.cbslocal.com)
HIV Is In Montana- It’s No Bull (dgsmith.org)
HIV In Montana: It’s Not Classified (dgsmith.org)

AIDS Vaccine Possible Before End Of This Decade, HIV Scientist Says

Jul16 by D Gregory Smith

From The New Civil Rights Movement:

HIV Particle (Photo credit: AJC1)

A vaccine to protect against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS may be available before the end of this decade, a leading HIV research scientist says. RV144 may be the answer to fighting HIV/AIDS.

“We’re really working as fast as we can,” said Colonel Nelson Michael, director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, “who expects large-scale effectiveness studies to start in 2016,” according to a report in Reuters:

The hope is to have at least 50 percent effectiveness, a level that mathematical modelers say could have a major impact on the epidemic. Michael thinks this might be the pathway for getting the first HIV vaccine licensed, possibly by 2019.

Exciting news- Read the rest here

Scientists see AIDS vaccine within reach after decades (todayonline.com)
AIDS 2012: Time to recognize and recommit US support for R&D (one.org)
Secret of HIV’s natural born killers out (bigpondnews.com)

The Affordable Care Act & LGBT Persons

Jul11 by D Gregory Smith

In 10,000 Same Sex Couples Magazine, an excellent overview of the benefits of the ACA for LGBT persons. Excerpt:

Nondiscrimination protection measures have been included in the Affordable Care Act, and significantly, by 2014, insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions such as HIV or transgendered medical history.

Increased services for preventive care and HIV testing and treatment have been included in the ACA. As insurance companies will no longer be able to cancel or deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, Americans living with HIV will have better access to care and to life-saving drugs, whereas currently, an estimated 25% of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV in the United States have no health insurance coverage. Many of those living with HIV without insurance, or with insurance but consistently fearful of having it canceled due to a pre-existing condition, have been forced to pay out of pocket or seek other methods of treatment.

LGBTQ Activist Chris Barnett of San Francisco says: “I’ve been fortunate to have health coverage all my years of living with HIV, so pre-existing condition has thankfully never directly affected me. Though I must say, in my early years with this, late ’80s to early ’90s, I was fearful of using my insurance for fear of being redlined, so I paid for early treatment out of pocket, or found medical studies.”

As most states in America fail to recognize same-sex relationships, healthcare through a spouse’s workplace is not an option for many LGBTQ Americans. This often results in a high number of citizens forced to pay high prices for private insurance or to forgo having any insurance at all due to cost. With ACA’s expansions to the affordability and accessibility of healthcare, more LGBTQ Americans will be able to be covered.

Read the rest here.

Affordable Care Act a lifeline for people with pre-existing conditions (king5.com)
Republican Rep: I Don’t Think Someone Who Is Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor Should Have Health Care Provided (thinkprogress.org)
How the Affordable Care Act Helps Individuals with Disabilities (pattidudek.typepad.com)

United In Anger

Jul7 by D Gregory Smith

I remember ACT UP as a bunch of people who would do anything to get AIDS seriously discussed by officials- hell by anybody. In the 80s and early 90s, gay men were often reviled as AIDS-infested refuse. ACT UP was founded to fight for their lives.

In his new movie, Jim Hubbard tells the story of the group. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Deutsch: Act Up Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Making a confrontational movement accessible without diluting its life-or-death message, Jim Hubbard‘s United in Anger: A History of ACT UP offers a straightforward biography of the activist group as seen from within its ranks.

In opening titles making a few stark assertions — 40,000 people died of AIDS in the U.S. between 1981 and 1987 (others sources offer different figures), a period during which Ronald Reagan couldn’t say the disease’s name in public — the film establishes both the immense fear within the gay community and the way that fear and anger attached itself to uninformed, foot-dragging, or oppositional politicians and institutions.

Following an onscreen timeline, the doc begins with Larry Kramer‘s call for a protest movement in 1987, using copious period footage to show how quickly New Yorkers took to the idea. Video shot in meetings and on the streets shows a movement that, in laser-guided messaging and organization, contrasts with some current protest movements — a comparison made inevitable as we hear one ACT UP member suggesting they take over an official building “by occupying it with our bodies.”

With chapters focusing on major demonstrations at the FDA, Wall Street, NIH and White House, the film charts the movement’s evolving mood and expanding agenda. If bystanders at the time saw them as mainly making a lot of noise, Hubbard and his many interviewees cite an impressive number of successes arising from these events; sped-up drug approvals, lowered pharmaceutical costs, and various bureaucratic victories, seen in hindsight, allow veteran activists to express satisfaction they couldn’t show while chanting accusations or being hauled out of sit-ins in handcuffs. They also acknowledge how central ACT UP meetings became to participants’ social lives, with some members attending meetings every night; in between the die-ins and agit-prop campaigns, we hear, “ACT UP was very sexy.”

Probably hard to watch- I can’t watch AIDS-era movies without a deep, overwhelming grief- but I will. We can’t afford to forget.

Visual AIDS – A Review Of United In Anger: A History Of ACT UP (boyculture.typepad.com)
Movie Review: ‘United in Anger: A History of Act Up,’ by Jim Hubbard (movies.nytimes.com)
History Lesson: Rachel Maddow Spotlights AIDS Activist Organization ACT UP (dgsmith.org)
Gay Writer-Activist Larry Kramer Born (June 25, 1935) (thestarryeye.typepad.com)
Occupy AIDS: ACT UP Celebrates 25 Years by Marching On Wall Street (alternet.org)

AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Watch 7/1/12

Jul2 by D Gregory Smith

From NAPWA:

The waiting list numbers continue steady, just over 2,000, down from 9,000 in September of last year.

Coming off another National HIV Testing Day, we have to wonder how some states can encourage their citizens to get tested but not help them get lifesaving medicines if they test positive.

We also wonder what kind of cost analyses the waiting list states are doing. The cost of clearing the waiting lists completely just isn’t that great. Virginia has just under 600 PLWHA on its waiting list. If drugs cost $15,000 for one ADAP beneficiary for one year, drugs for 600 will cost $9 million – and we just don’t believe $9 million can’t be found in an $85 billion fiscal 2013 Virginia state budget. PLWHA on Virginia’s and other states’ waiting lists will cost the public sector a lot more if they don’t get drugs that can keep them from progressing to AIDS.

Here are the latest numbers from our friends at NASTAD:

‘Take The Test, Take Control’ On National HIV Testing Day (huffingtonpost.com)
Montana ADAP Waiting List: Tuesday: 0, Wednesday: 1 (dgsmith.org)
It’s National HIV Testing Day: Where You Can Get Tested for Free (laist.com)

Impact of Affordable Care Act On HIV/STD Prevention

Jun29 by D Gregory Smith

Wondering about the Supreme Court’s decision on HIV/STD prevention and care? Some help from The National Coalition Of STD Directors:

As you consider the impact of today’s Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act on different populations, I would like to share with you the impact of today’s ruling on our fight to prevent and treat sexually transmitted diseases.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major epidemic in the United States. Each year, there are approximately 19 million new cases of STDs, approximately half of which go undiagnosed and untreated[i], giving the United States the highest STD rate in the industrialized world.[ii]

STDs cost the U.S. health care system $17 billion every year—and cost individuals even more in immediate and life-long health consequences, including infertility, higher risk of acquiring HIV, and certain cancers.[iii]

Young people will continue to have expanded coverage under their parent’s insurance. Young people bear a disproportionate burden of STDs—those aged 15-25 make up half of the STDs contracted annually, but make up only one-fourth of the sexually active population.
Private insurance will continue to have to cover prevention services with no cost out-of pocket costs to patients. Many of those who visit STD clinics are low-income and would not be able to receive prevention sexual health services without coverage by insurance. While there is still work to be done for certain at-risk populations, such as men who have sex with men, expanded STD testing and STI counseling will be covered by insurance under this expansion of preventative care in the law and it is a great start.
The continued need for safety-net service providers is underscored. With the narrowing of the Medicaid expansion provisions, the very real possibility exists that many low-income individuals will not have access to affordable health care coverage. Patients at STD clinics are young, minority, and poor—populations that are bear a much higher burden of STD disease—and may be left without coverage in a state that may choose not to expand their Medicaid coverage.

HIV-specifics from Lambda Legal:

“This is a victory for all Americans, but in particular, the Court’s decision today will save the lives of many people living with HIV – as long as states do the right thing. The Affordable Care Act will finally allow people living with HIV to access medical advancements made years ago but that have so far remained out of reach of many. With continuing prevention education, early detection, and quality care for everyone living with HIV, we have the power to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“But this is not a complete victory, because today’s decision allows states to opt out of the Medicaid expansion that would provide insurance coverage for many low-income people who cannot otherwise afford it. Our continuing challenge will be to make sure that states opt to expand Medicaid so that more low-income people, and particularly those with HIV, can get the health care they urgently need.”

Who should go for a STD test? (healthnfitnesstips.typepad.com)
Teens don’t identify with STD messages (futurity.org)
Affordable Care Act a lifeline for people with pre-existing conditions (king5.com)
Obama: ‘National HIV Testing Day highlights the importance of HIV testing and the fight against HIV/AIDS’ (miamiherald.typepad.com)

It’s Here! Montana Pride 2012 Starts Today!

Jun15 by D Gregory Smith

And it’s gonna to be fantastic!

Click for schedule!

You can pick up tickets at the MSU SUB starting at 1pm today. Then check out the resource booths, hang out in the SUB with friends, take advantage of free HIV testing, grab some condoms donated by ONE® condoms, go downtown and support the businesses with rainbow flags, hit the Bears and Brews at the Bar IX and come back to the Ballrooms at 7pm for “The Made In Montana Drag Show” with DJ Missillaneous, Cloud City Jazz and then our headliner: Jessie and The Toy Boys.

There is also a fabulous after party and dance featuring Ebola Syndrome.

Underage and non-alcoholic activities in the Rec Center, hosted by PFLAG.

Security is provided- and Streamline buses will be running late to accommodate.

Like I said, epic- and this is only Friday!