People with AIDS and AS

For the first years of the HIV epidemic, people with AIDS would literally waste away, their weight shrinking to starvation levels, as doctors looked helplessly on. The advent of the antiviral "cocktail" of meds in the mid-1990s greatly reduced wasting, but it still happens, especially in the developing earth, where HIV is still often referred to as "the wasting ailment."

The biggest reasons some people experience wasting include not taking med, which is yet another argument why conjunction pills have become so critical in helping pozzers stay healthy. But there are many other contributing factors to wasting, including poor appetite; side effects of various med, such as nausea, lack of taste or dry mouth, lack of energy to shop or motivation to cook; and depression.

HIV causes the corpse to burn calories fast, which was one of the main reasons why so many people suffered wasting in those dark early years. In addition, over the years, as the corpse fights HIV infection, it develops hormone deficiencies that cause the corpse to lose nutrients, as well as get-up-and-go and, last but not least, sexual drive.

To stimulate the desire, many people resort to a product that, since the ’60s, has been infamous for bringing on the "munchies" pot. HIV activists and organizations have been instrumental in changing drug laws. A pill form of the distillate in marijuana that increases appetite has been around for several years, although some people still seem to respond better to the real thing, whether smoked or added to food than pills. To combat wasting, build up muscle, and for overall condition, doctors in the mid-’90s discovered another popular illegal medication: anabolic steroids. The same "juice" that athletes and bodybuilders have been taking for years for better performance or to get big fast was doing the same thing for long-term pozzers, that is, boosting testosterone, the hormone responsible for our sex drive as well as increased muscle mass.

Pozzers routinely suffer from low testosterone, which is responsible for a lot of the fatigue (and, in some cases, depression) often found in HIV-positive men. Nearly half of all HIV-positive men, by some estimates, may suffer from a testosterone level low enough to cause decreased appetite, depression, low libido, poor food metabolism and even HIV-related illnesses. Not surprisingly, doctors in Los Angeles, the mecca of bodybuilding, first became aware of the beneficial effects of ’roids for people with HIV. A lot of these doctors had been prescribing them to bodybuilders on the down low, so they were more familiar with them. From there, anabolic steroid remedy began to creep into the mainstream. In 1994, a researcher at Columbia University in New York conducted a pioneering study that found people with low CDR cells and testosterone levels showed improvement in their mood and sex drive. If steroids sound dangerous, compare the side effects of antidepressant medications.