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Biomedical subjects

Liz Highleyman

Publications and source records attributed to Liz Highleyman.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Nutrition and HIV.

Good nutrition is key to a healthy lifestyle, regardless of whether one is living with HIV/AIDS. Optimal nutrition can help boost immune function, maximize the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy, reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and contribute to a better overall quality of life. In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, many people with HIV were dealing with wasting and opportunistic infections (OIs) linked to unsafe food or water. While these problems are less common today in developed countries with widespread access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), many HIV positive people have traded these concerns for worries about body shape changes, elevated blood lipids, and other metabolic complications associated with antiretroviral therapy. Fortunately, maintaining a healthy diet can help address these problems. As HIV positive people live longer thanks to effective treatment, good nutrition can also help prevent problems (such as bone loss) associated with normal aging. But there is no single, optimal eating regimen appropriate for every person living with HIV/AIDS. Instead, HIV positive people should adopt a sensible balanced diet and consult an experienced nutrition specialist for individualized recommendations.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed2006

A guide to clinical trials. Part II: interpreting medical research.

Part I of this two-part article, which appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of BETA, provided an overview of the clinical trial process. Part II covers features of clinical trials and interpretation of study results. Clinical trials provide the foundation for evidence-based medicine, or medical decision-making guided by data from formal research. Medical professionals keep up with the latest information by reading peer-reviewed medical journals and attending conferences. Likewise, HIV positive people can keep abreast of the state of the art by following the medical literature and community publications like BETA. Trials offer important information about a therapy's benefits and risks in a population, but they cannot predict how well a given treatment will work for a specific person. Healthcare providers, therefore, must still rely heavily on clinical experience, intuition, and a careful evaluation of the various factors unique to each individual case--the practice of medicine remains an art as well as a science.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2005

Mortality trends: toward a new definition of AIDS?

HIV disease today looks very different than it did two decades ago when the first cases were described--at least in developed countries where highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is widely available. Most HIV positive people receiving treatment no longer succumb to opportunistic illnesses (OIs) that take advantage of their ravaged immune systems. Instead, people with HIV now live longer and die from a wide variety of other causes. In other words, a growing number of positive people will die with HIV, but not of HIV. In the HAART era, HIV positive people and their health-care providers must now think about the cumulative impact of chronic HIV infection and the longterm side effects of treatment. In addition, as effective antiretroviral therapy extends the lives of people with HIV, they become prone to conditions that normally occur with greater frequency as people age (such as heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis) and progressive conditions that may take decades to cause significant illness or death (such as chronic viral hepatitis). Given the shifts in the types of conditions now seen in people with HIV, it may be time to rethink the definition of AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2004

Insulin resistance and diabetes.

Metabolic complications associated with HIV disease and its treatment--including insulin resistance and diabetes, abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels (dyslipidemia), and body fat gain or loss--remain a medical mystery and a topic of intense interest for AIDS researchers and people with HIV alike. While these complications sometimes have been collectively referred to as "lipodystrophy syndrome," it remains unclear whether or how they are related and what causes them. Scientists are urgently trying to better understand these conditions, which may have a negative impact on quality of life, interfere with adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and lead to long-term health problems. High blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) and dyslipidemia are a particular concern because in the population at large they have been linked with increased risk of heart disease. Much research is underway and new clues are steadily emerging, but Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital predicts, "We'll need several more years of follow-up to get a better perspective."

Anti-HIV Agents↗
PubMed2004

HIV and hormones.

The term "hormone" broadly refers to any type of chemical messenger, but is most often used to denote chemicals produced by the endocrine glands. Hormones play a key role in maintaining homeostasis (a steady state of equilibrium) and regulating many bodily processes--everything from growth and metabolism to sexual function and reproduction. Over- or underproduction of endocrine hormones can contribute to a wide variety of medical conditions. Diseases such as HIV that affect the whole body can interfere with proper endocrine function, and hormones, in turn, can affect HIV disease progression.

Endocrine System↗
PubMed2003

HIV and hepatitis C coinfection.

Coinfection with HIV and the hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a growing public health concern. Because the diseases are spread in similar ways--notably through shared use of needles to inject drugs and sexual activity--many people are coinfected with HIV and HCV, HIV and HBV, or even all three viruses. Hepatitis C and hepatitis B are viral infections of the liver; over time they can lead to serious consequences including liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Most studies show that HIV infection leads to more aggressive hepatitis C or hepatitis B and a higher risk of liver damage. Studies of how HCV and HBV affect HIV disease are less clear. Most research shows that HCV does not accelerate HIV disease progression, but HIV/HCV coinfection may impair immune system recovery after starting antiretroviral therapy. Coinfection can complicate treatment. People with liver damage due to chronic hepatitis are more likely to experience hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity) related to anti-HIV drugs. In addition, drugs used to treat HIV and hepatitis can interact and side effects may be exacerbated. Most experts recommend that HIV should be controlled first before a person begins HCV treatment. With careful management, most people with HIV/HCV or HIV/HBV coinfection can be successfully treated for both diseases. In fact, several recent studies suggest that HIV/HCV-coinfected people with well-controlled HIV disease and relatively high CD4 cell counts may do as well as those with HCV alone.

HIV Infections↗