Sticking to It: An HIV Patien... Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

The less pills you have to take during any kind of therapy, the more apt a patient is to maintain that therapy.

In my pharmacy practice, I do get a lot of questions from my clients regarding whether they should take their HIV medications with food or without food, and that's a very good question. A lot of the medications do have dietary restrictions. Some need to be taken on a completely empty stomach. Some need to be taken on a full stomach. Some need to be taken with a high-fat meal.

I try to empower my patients and try to get them to realize that they do have the power within them to beat this thing, and if they can take their medications, which is of utmost importance, if they can take their medications at the prescribed times every single day and try to miss as little of the doses as they possibly can, then they're definitely going to ensure the success of their drug therapies and be around a lot longer. That's the basic rule that I live by in my own living. I do what I need to do, and I tell them that they need to do what they need to do, just to make sure that they'll be around for lots of years to come.

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