Your body

2007

Code: 136
Category: Living with HIV General

People with HIV often used to say that we would die of HIV anyway, so it wouldn’t matter how much we smoked, ate or drank.

Thankfully, that isn’t true anymore.

With good care and treatment, people with HIV can now expect to live to a normal age. We are less likely to get sick from HIV or AIDS than in the past. But as we live longer and grow older, common health problems like cancer and heart disease are increasingly likely to affect us too. This means that taking care of your health is more than a question of popping pills and having blood tests.

This booklet describes how you can reduce the risk of these health problems by eating a healthy diet, stopping smoking, and getting more exercise. It also highlights the importance of getting enough sleep, and suggests some basic precautions to help avoid opportunistic infections.