What is the effect of HIV on lipids?
Before antiretrovirals (ARVs), people with Aids often had raised LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol and declining HDL ‘good’ cholesterol. Typically, after someone becomes HIV positive, their total cholesterol level declines and their triglyceride level increases. Studies show that when we begin HIV therapy, a lot of the cholesterol increase may be due to our cholesterol simply returning to its normal level for our age. Lifestyle changes you can make to improve cholesterol levels 1) Healthy eating It may be possible to reduce our total cholesterol by between five and 10 per cent simply by making changes to our diet. Reduce fat intake and replace saturated fats (such as butter) which increase LDL with monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil or avocado) which lower LDL but don’tlower HDL. Increase your intake of polyunsaturated fats, (like cornflower or sunflower oil) which lower LDL (but remember they also lower HDL cholesterol, which ideally we want to keep quite high). We can increase our intake of
