TOPIC:

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm grateful to be here with you all and to Dr Freeman of course!!

Im day 3 of Hepvir, feeling fine physically, no side effects to report, increased appitite which is interesting.

My QUESTION to you all; I understand that some herbs lower the potency of the medications.. I take a fabulous protien powder but was concered/inquisitive about some of the ingredients. Its plant based protiens (soy, hemp, pea, chickpea, rice) but also INCLUDES; spirulina, yucca, mushroom powder, enzyeme blend, thiamine, mononitrate.

My research has been fruitless so please if anyone has more info or resources on suppliments etc please let me know??

Happy healing everyone,
Lisa

Hi and welcome!
When you say "Hepvir" I hope you mean Hepcvir-L (sof/led) and not just Hepcvir which is plain Sofosbuvir and needs to be used with another drug.
As for your protein powder, I'd look further into what "enzyeme blend" means but probably safe. IMO, and supported by other reading on the web, you are much better getting protein from a good diet than by taking supplements.

Best wishes for a successful treatment.

Welcome Lisa,

I agree with sonix. Without knowing why you are taking the protein supplement I would advocate thinking about stopping it for the period (12 weeks?) of treatment and you can then start again if you want after finishing. Apart from the enzyme powder it also includes things like yucca which I'm inclined to think would not have been researched for any potential interactions. But noting that it could also be yuca (cassava) as the spelling sometimes gets interchanged which is part of the problem, just knowing exactly what is included. If absorbtion/digestion problems due to cirrhosis or similar are why you take it you may find that those are much improved on commencement of treatment, they certainly were in my case.

As noted it needs to be either Hepcvir-L (or plain Hepcvir in combination with a second drug)

Hi Lisa,
A friend had a high spike in their Alt reading and had to be hospitalised, they weren't 100% sure of the cause, but put it down to Spirulina. This friend is a medic in infectious diseases and works at a hospital, so I would agree with Gaj.

I believe VitB12 can help absorption and has been ok'd on treatment along with VitD, so I would be very cautious re anything else.

Wishing you all the best with your treatment .

LG

Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your replies, I couldn't sign back in how I originally got set up here so I had to create a new account....lol.
Ok, I have continued to take the protein powder for lack of anything that would suggest otherwise on the internet.
Having read your replies I will discontinue whilst on the medication. And YES the medication from FixHepC & Monk Med is Hepcvir-L...
I got quite nervous as I made a dash to the cupboard to check I had been sent the right one.
I was only taking the protein powder as extra supplement in my smoothies in the morning to make sure I was getting adequate protein. I'm making an aryuvedic dish called Kitchiri that turns into a complete protein as the rice and lentils are cooked together, so this will suffice.
It's day 14 today and yesterday was my hardest day. The first day I actually experienced side effects including Headache, body ache (including face and cheek bones especially) and upset stomach.
I think the problem was I left the house without water. I drank 2 gallons in the last 24 hrs and the symptoms have gone, just not much energy.
My Blood work results prior to beginning the meds have been normal for years (I believe due to excellent plant based diet and zero consumption of alcohol or even pharmaceuticals).
Thanks for all of the support and advice... glad I found my way back in.
Regards, Lisa

Hi Lisa and welcome back.

Sorry you had problems logging back in but good to see you found a way around it. I guess the following advice is now more for others who find themselves in the same situation but an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via the public Contact page area stating your old user name and the nature of the problem should allow someone to fix it or reset your password, whichever is required. :)

Keeping hydrated does seem to help to reduce any side effects that you experience. Here is a good post from Dr James (with link) about adequate levels.

fixhepc.com/forum/helpful-hints-during-t...l?limitstart=0#12519

In the link you will also find this statement which I've also heard from other sources. "Generally, if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and your urine is colorless or light yellow..........your fluid intake is probably adequate."

Gaj wrote: "Generally, if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and your urine is colorless or light yellow..........your fluid intake is probably adequate."

Regardless if you have HVC or not, adequate water intake should be a daily regiment.
One needs to rid the body of toxins and stay hydrated. After 40 years, I can vouch for
no yellow snow.

With your diet and optimistic mindset, you should be on the way to SVR.

Good luck.

I take 40 grams of protein powder every morning. I took it all the way through treatment, and was undetected at 6 & 12 weeks. Waiting now on 16 weeks post treatment results.