What are common side effects of protease inhibitors?
Main: Protease inhibitors cause lypodystrophy – a deformation of fat. Body fat moves out of the face, arms and legs, which become veiny sticks; the face becomes skeletal. The fat collects into a “buffalo hump” on your upper back. The belly becomes distended and bloated. And that’s just what’s visible. The drugs cause massive cholesterol increase, which frequently leads to heart attacks. Diabetes and blood-sugar imbalances are also common. Protease inhibitors do the most damage in the liver. As a result, liver failure is now the No. 1 killer of AIDS patients in this country, though it’s not an AIDS disease. I’ve observed that if you go on the drugs, your symptoms will start with an upset stomach and diarrhea. Within a year, it’ll begin to show in your face. The people I know who’ve been taking the drugs for a few years are visibly altered. There’s no way to know if quitting the drugs will reverse the damage. In LA, San Francisco and South Beach, there are plastic surgeons whose entire p
