Obesity Meds

The chapter on HIV is like 70 pages long, but I made my way through the epidemiology section today. There are an esitmated 1.3 million ppl in North American who are HIV positive and like 22 million in Africa. Those are astounding numbers. They had this graph in the book that showed the life expectancy going from the 60s down to the 30-40s because in some countries the prevalence of HIV can reach up to 50%. I remember there was an episode of Oprah a long time ago where Lisa Ling did a story about how HIV meds are so cheap now and not readily available in Africa.

Some other interesting facts:
-For some reason there is a greater chance that a mom will pass on HIV in utero to the fetus is they are more HLA compatible. What is the reasoning behind this, I wonder?
-Also, vitamin A deficiency will lead to an increased risk of transmission via breastfeeding. Interesting, but somewhat not important since HIV infected moms shouldn't be breastfeeding anyways.

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The other piece of reading I did today (just so I could cross of a chapter on my list) was on the treatment of obesity. There was all the good stuff about the complications, (by the way, how did I not know that obesity can lead to gout?) but the more informative part talked about the meds for obesity.
-The first class was sympathomimetics and the one that Harrison's went into detail on was Meridia. Somewhat like amphethamine without the addictive quality. Can cause a small elevation in blood pressure so not good for anyone with heart problems or history of stroke.

- The next was orlistat. Seen and heard of it before and sounds gross since you get fatty poop and diarrhea. Pts will have lower levels of vit D (which is my fav vitamin), B, and beta carotene.

- The last class mentions antagonists to the cannaboid receptor - still waiting for FDA approval and not out on the market yet. But just as smoking pot can give you munchies, turning those receptors off can make you feel full.