50 years ago, still relevant today. Happening here.

Actually Berrinice, I am not sure that is quite so. The biggest issue with absorption of iron or the bodies use or it is the availabitliy of Vit B12 in most vegetarians. Also many millions of people in India live as vegetarians and, outside of the effect of pure poverty, do not suffer from low iron.

I will just have to keep reading scientific papers. Like I said a hell of a lot of iron. I cup of kale = about 15% dietary requirement. kindly

Wow, I’m so glad I found this section. I’m a new member and have been navigating around the site for the past month or so and still keep finding new areas
I’m 52 & have had HCV G3a for 34 yrs, F0-F1, about to go the GP2U route because sick of playing the ‘waiting’ game.
I’ve had a range of symptoms concerning me over the years. Chronic major Depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD but that aside…
Absolutely debilitating fatigue, sometimes can’t get from one end of the house to the other without holding onto walls/furniture, nausea, difficulty swallowing – like something stuck, bloating, GI problems – severe bouts of diarrhoea that can be bright orange and last for days on end, making me housebound. Low tolerance of fats, sugars, gluten, dairy. Chronic migraines, tinnitus comes and goes, joint pain and sometimes general feeling of being ‘hit by a truck’ aching all over. Insomnia and crazy lucid dreams, nightmares. Frequent night urination sometimes more the urgency but nothing happens.

A few years ago I suddenly developed swollen finger joints; then sharp shooting pain in right arm to fingers, waking through the night from pain, numbness in hands. These symptoms have escalated – tested and told I have Carpal tunnel, Osteoarthritis – neck is mostly bone on bone causing nerve impingement also crushing same nerve in right elbow. As well as sections on my spine especially lumbar, so that pinches the sciatic nerve. My hands can just freeze up which is very scary when driving.The on and off periods of hands and feet burning, numbness, pins & needles became permanent earlier this year.
Recently developed swelling and numbness in my left cheekbone/side of face.Felt like toothache pain went to dentist, all good. Dr says I have arthritis in my TMJ and it’s crushing the Trigeminal Nerve. Has started on the right now too. So bad even my glasses don’t fit properly because of the swelling.
Brain fog and memory problems also worse in past 2 years.

All in all I’m told nothing to do with the HCV and nothing I can do about any of it. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease and can’t stop progression. I take various supplements to help; also nerve pain medication and painkillers when I absolutely can’t take anymore.

Suddenly gained a lot of weight in past year, always been a slender woman so really frightening how quickly it happened when no obvious changes in diet etc. Told it’s just ‘age’. Cholesterol has been steadily increasing too despite my restrictive diet, but told the overall ratio of HDL/LDL is good so not to worry.
I literally feel like I’ve aged 10 years in the past 2 given how rapidly some of these extra conditions developed.

I’ve had a brainscan too because I had several sudden episodes of brief paralysis – I was aware of my surroundings and was trying to tell my body to move but couldn’t and tried to speak but couldn’t and my son said I don’t even blink when it happens. It comes over suddenly starts by a sudden weakness in legs, wobbly gait, dizziness and slurring of words like I’m drunk or a person having a diabetic hypo and then I can’t move. I’ve been rushed to hospital after one of these, where I was left in a wheelchair in the A&E with no-one, I couldn’t speak or move so I was left for hours until I finally could move the chair to the Triage. By the time I was seen I could talk, all tests were clear and they dismissed me at 1 am with no-one to pick me up and I couldn’t walk properly. I had to slide along the walls to the exit to call a taxi. I gave my son instructions if it happens again get the neighbour but no ambulance.
Brain is fine, so DR concluded it must be extreme stress and the body is shutting down to protect itself. Truly terrifying experience to have and that explanation gives no comfort.

Anyway, sorry about that long waffle! I don’t have anyone else who can relate to any of these symptoms although my brother has same HCV G3a but with cirrhosis and he has same arthritis, etc.
Certainly read here many having some of the same things I’m experiencing. It helps to know this because sometimes I feel so utterly isolated with no-one to relate to.

LondonGirl, a VL drop of 2.5M to 900K is only about 0.4 of a log and isn’t significant. VL can vary quite a lot day to day, and certainly over months.

If you”boost” your immune system somehow, ie make it work better, then you are more likely to have less liver damage. It’s correct that your immune response will take out infected liver cells however a decent immune response is more likely to act like a sniper whilst a response that isn’t so good like a shotgun.

Except in special circumstances with genotype 3 (steatosis), viral load has no correlation with liver damage, and thus no correlation with ALT.

edit: reply is to a post at beginning of thread.

More on topic: Extra-hepatic manifestations of HCV: https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwialtPxk87JAhWE56YKHXpUA7gQFggiMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcvadvocate.org%2Fhepatitis%2Ffactsheets_pdf%2Fextrahepatic.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEwpORbaAP0t0w42oruo-g0_wq2Jg&sig2=zcAyK4XnUEiXc3dEzsCJPg

Damn, you have a lot on your plate without the hep adding to it, Chej! Sorry to hear you seem to have been given almost equally as much runaround trying to get your other issues sorted as the hep has been. It could potentially have some kind of auto-immune component, looking into lupus could be worthwhile.

And the sooner you get started on tx, the sooner you will be able to rule out that as a contributing factor. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.