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Alcohol in diet
There is no evidence that a couple of alcoholic drinks a day does a person with HIV any harm. Indeed, you might find that a couple of classes of wine or a pint of beer helps reduce stress and anxiety and helps to stimulate your appetite. There’s also evidence that a glass or two of alcohol every day can help protect against heart disease.
This isn’t an excuse to go out and get roaring drunk every night of the week. Heavy drinking can affect the immune system and slow down recovery from illnesses. Heavy drinking can also cause liver inflammation (hepatitis), and if you have viral hepatitis infections (hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C), you need to talk to your doctor to see if it is safe to drink alcohol at all. The liver plays an important role in processing medicines, particularly drugs used to treat HIV, so it’s particularly important to keep your liver healthy if you are HIV-positive.
Alcohol can react badly with some medicines, so whenever you are given a medicine for the first time, ask the pharmacist if it’s okay to drink with it.