How common are "buffalo humps"?

[CaughtInTheMoment]

Does anyone know of anyone or might themselves have had this side-effect? It's something that scares me further away from HIV.

[rawTOP]

I'm almost certain current meds don't have side effects like that.

[bearbandit]

It's an effect from the original protease inhibitors and as such very unlikely today. Even thought I lost over a quarter of my body weight last year (accidentally), when the weight came back so did the hump and the "who ate all the pies?" belly. My hump isn't pronounced and is generally copable with: in fact I'm going to take advantage of it by using the back of my neck as the site of my biohazard tattoo. Much less painful to have a fatty area tattooed than a boney area.

The hump and the belly are the product of lipodystrophy, which is mal-distribution of fat around the body. Some of it you disguise with the right exercise to build up distracting muscle tissue. Elsewhere (such as the feet, there''s very little that can be done other than finding good supportive sock s and boots.

A very few people might find themselves with lipodystrophy, even on modern formulations and dosages of the drugs, but they're not going to be the extreme examples we've seen in the past. Good diet (nineties dietary advice: "you know all those things we keep telling you not to eat. Well, eat them!") and exercise stands a chance of minimising the very rare occurence of lipodystrophy caused by ARVs. There are sufficient drugs now that if you do find yourself with the beginnings of lipo, it's a valid reason for changing drugs.

Hope this helps

Steve

[bearbandit]

And just to brag: the tat is healing beautifully. Within five days of its being done was much admired at the PositivelyUK conference. My first time under the needle in twenty years (each and every tat while I knew I was poz) and this one is healing better than any of the others.

What I didn't say in my previous post is that the way to hide the effects of lipodystrophy is to use an exercise regime that emphasises the upper body: the muscle you build distracts from the extra fat. (Women have a built in advantage as the fat tends to go to the bust.) Before I got sick last year I was following an exercise programme written for me by an expert and had bloody brilliant results from it - you know you're doing well when a straight woman asks what have you been doing and can you show my husband...

Even though I lost so much weight when I was ill, some of it has remembered it was muscle and has re-built accordingly, so I don't anticipate many problems re-gaining lost ground. A change of routine, yes, because the lipo now means I walk on bone, which is where the exercise bike comes in as a warm up.

Nothing's predictable: all I can do is with you luck...