black pepper

[Guest guest]

At 12:08 PM 3/19/2007, M. wrote:

>There are eight FDA approved protease inhibitors so far, they are:

amprenavir (Agenerase), fosamprenavir (Lexiva), indinavir (Crixivan),

lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra), ritonavir (Norvir), saquinavir (Fortovase),

and nelfinavir (Viracept).

Oops... I got that from http://www.atdn.org/simple/protease.html

Need to update guys! Darunavir (Prezista) is also approved.

M.

[Guest guest]

Some people imagine that there is less compliance with twice daily drug dosing than once daily drug dosing, even though this is rarely true. But fear can help sell drugs.

The simple truth is that people who frequently miss their twice daily dose are just as likely to miss their once daily dose, but missing a once daily dose has more serious consequences. This is due in part because the twice daily Reyataz dose provides a higher trough drug level than once a day dosing, and because the period of time without optimal drug levels is shorter.

Some have even suggested time-release protease gels which are surgically implanted once every six months to accommodate people who are not responsible enough to manage their own life. Implants would probably be the best solution for those people who don't have the responsibility to take their medications as they are scheduled. Once a day dosing with Norvir would also be equally effective if combined with daily calls from a healthcare provider to be certain the daily dose is not missed.

Most of this "more convenient" "more reliable" nonsense is part of a marketing scheme. Another example is combination pills like Truvada, Combivir and Atripla. The purpose of these drugs is to assure sales of all the component drugs.

While a Doctor may wish to prescribe a different drug combination, drug salespeople say these combinations are "more convenient" and "more likely to be taken". Of course there are absolutely no studies which indicate that combination tablets are "more likely to be taken" or that anyone actually finds them more convenient. Yes, there are the obcessive complusive minority who appreciate how much neater one pill looks when compared to three, but how many people are there like that running around?

What drug companies really mean is that their products are less likely to be prescribed if not bundled together.

If I take my Viread, how stupid do I have to be to forget to also take my Emtriva. Yes, they're both made by Gilead so a combo pill, Truvada, exists - so what? In the event of drug toxicities, combination drugs make it impossible to quickly determine the cause of the problem. My partner experienced this with Viread toxicity and his "convenient" Truvada tablets made sorting out this problem very inconvenient indeed. Now he takes Emtriva with Ziagen, but there's no combo pill for this since they're made by different manufacturers. Yet our Doctor who prescribed Truvada for "convenience" doesn't seem to be even slightly concerned about my partner's drug compliance due to the lack of convenience of taking both Emtriva and Ziagen.

Some might tell you that "taking two pills instead of one" or "taking a pill twice a day instead of once" is "just letting the terrorists win", or "likely to drive you into the arms of insanity". I just ignore all of this fear based marketing and do what is right for my health.

> > It is not really known what the mechanism of action for piperine is, though it probably is CYP450 (in part).> > > Some data below.> M. > > > > > If you wish to take more CoenzymeQ or more Reyataz, you should take more CoenzymeQ or Reyataz rather than taking compounds which poison your liver function. I take 300 mg Reyataz twice a day rather than take 400 mg Reyataz with Norvir.> > Only if you have no alternative should you take Norvir, piper nigran, bioperine or other compound designed to prevent your liver from functioning properly.>

[Guest guest]

Is it a goog thing to take to help absorption or a bad thing for calcium? joyce