Healthy Aging with HIV

People living with HIV are aging more and more these days. This is largely due to advances in HIV therapy that make a long, healthy life possible even with HIV.

Since the discovery of the HIV virus, there has been a lot of progress in developing medications: the early regimens came with strong side effects and required taking a multitude of different pills to keep the amount of virus in the body as low as possible. Today, HIV treatment can be delivered using increasingly effective and better tolerated drugs. This also offers the chance for people living with HIV to maintain their physical health for a long time, even with lifelong therapy.

While some manage well with a daily pill, for others a regimen of regular injections may be a better solution. Knowing the various treatment options is certainly important in order to make an informed decision together with the doctor.

With the right HIV therapy, maintain physical health

Thanks to modern therapies, people living with HIV can now lead healthy and long lives and typically reach an age similar to that of people without HIV.¹ Although the largely normal life expectancy is a highly positive development, it also increases the likelihood that, just like people without HIV, they will develop typical age-related diseases.

As in the general population, certain conditions—for example cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or changes in lipid metabolism—tend to become more common with age², and people living with HIV also face these so-called comorbidities as they get older.

To address this early and protect one’s health into older age, it can be helpful, in addition to regular exercise and a balanced diet, to take a look at the current HIV therapy. Because even the choice of HIV regimen can influence risk factors that contribute to the development of comorbidities, potentially helping to preserve long-term physical health.

Looking ahead to preserve quality of life

For people living with HIV, therapy is a lifelong companion because they rely on the medications to keep the virus suppressed below detectable levels and to lead a healthy, long life. To ensure not only a high quality of life now but also to set the course for physically healthy aging, it is important to minimize the potential long-term effects of HIV medications on the body: different drugs can affect the risk of comorbidities in different ways.

To keep the likelihood of long-term side effects from HIV medications as low as possible, it is important for a person living with HIV to be mindful of what they put into their body. A single medication can, for example, contain several active ingredients — and each of these ingredients carries the potential to cause a side effect. Therefore, it is advisable to have an open conversation with the clinician to discuss and explore possible solutions together.

There is an opportunity here to positively influence quality of life by switching HIV medications. Working with the primary treating clinician, it may be possible to find a regimen that reduces the long-term risk of health issues and thus helps ensure the preservation of long-term quality of life.

Modern HIV therapies can reduce the risk of drug interactions

Sometimes, unfortunately, aging brings other illnesses alongside HIV that also require additional medications. In a recent survey of more than 2,300 people living with HIV — the Positive Perspectives 2 study — almost half of participants in Germany were concerned about having to take even more medicines as they got older.³ These medications can also affect the effectiveness of HIV medications, for example by amplifying, diminishing, or even negating their effects.

In HIV therapy, a tablet usually contains two to four different active ingredients that block viral replication at different points in the virus’s life cycle. Thanks to their high efficacy in recent years, the number of substances needed in HIV therapy has been reduced, which can mainly lower the risk of interactions between HIV medications and other substances or medicines, as well as the risk of potential side effects.

If since the mid-1990s HIV regimens have combined at least three or four active substances, today’s German guidelines for HIV therapy — which physicians follow when selecting medications — also recommend modern two-drug combinations.

Starting to think about therapy early brings many benefits

As a person living with HIV, it is advisable to engage with your own therapy early, and not wait until aging sets in. Even in younger years, when concomitant conditions are less common, you can benefit from critically reviewing the composition of your medications and the number of substances you take, and discussing with your clinician whether each is really necessary. In the Positive Perspectives 2 study, for example, only 69% of surveyed people living with HIV in Germany said they knew how many substances their own HIV therapy contains.

Avoiding side effects and drug interactions to preserve your quality of life

To prevent side effects and interactions from HIV therapy, open communication with the doctor is especially important: together you select a therapy that keeps the risk of health problems from HIV medications as low as possible. It is equally useful for the doctor to know what else you are taking besides the HIV medications.

If you, as a person living with HIV, actively engage with your own therapy and proactively discuss it with your clinician, you can help avoid unnecessary burdens on your body and improve your long-term quality of life.

For more information about living with HIV and personal stories from people living with HIV, visit www.livlife.de

Supported by ViiV Healthcare
NP-DE-HVU-ADVR-230016