Hep C Discussion Forum

You should be fine drinking lemon water, it’s hard on tooth enamel however. Dentists recommend rinsing or brushing afterwards to avoid the acid exposure to your teeth. One citrus drink or fruit to avoid is grapefruit. That can negatively affect some drug absorption.

We have some very good dietary information here. Our search function is located at the top of the page. A keyword or two will deliver the discussions we’ve had on the topic. Here are some threads that you should find helpful. There are a lot more!

Green Smoothie Ranch

Mediterranean Diet

Time to remind all of you Warriors on these new DAA's, how important it is to hydrate adequately during treatment! Shoot for a gallon per day, everyday. If you're new or visiting, please read through this thread and get educated on hydration needs. You'll feel so much better for it!

You won't die from drinking too much water under these circumstances. You're not drinking it all at once, the gallon is over the course of 24 hours! People that OD on water drink gallons at a single sitting. That's not wise for anyone to do, even me at 220 lbs can't safely drink that much water. You'll be fine.

Yep, it seems a lot of us have been doing it - recommending large hydration, but for good reason, it DOES seem to help (greatly), there IS something to this water thing we find. How many times now have I said "A gal a day keeps the sides away"! It is something I have learned here, and from my reading, and from personal experience. But it is wise, to approach anything to do with an important drug treatment, with caution, reason and common sense. So, it is good to compare notes and express what we have learned. I like these exchanges. Learning that coffee and other drinks are OK, but different in quality, when it comes to how hydrating the fluid is to a body, thus why water is so important. How dehydration needs to be avoided on these meds. How important a good diet is, including electrolytes and fluids and water when you are on HCV treatment. How important rest and sleep are to a body getting fixed. Dang, so many, important things we are required to be aware of! I guess some of the most important things i have learned on this journey has to be how potent these new daa's are and how not being hydrated is so easy to do! We also had lots of good tips about what exactly to concoct to drink, JK's cranberry recipe and many other really good ideas. C.

It's good you brought this topic up. There are many articles out there expressing exactly what you have said/read. There is much info and talk about hydration on this site, and elsewhere. That is wise advice to default to always asking your doc when there is ever a doubt about anything in treatment.

Here is another source talking about water consumption (even though this article's info is getting kind of "old" now, comparatively, at 2015), but the thinking and experience has been changing these last few years for those of us on these new potent antiviral medications. This article is just one, of many, that backs the thinking that water consumption is more than often, NOT meeting the extra demands the HCV drugs place on us. There are many articles out there that speak to the life/half life of the HCV drugs and the mechanisms by which we metabolize and excrete them, and which organs are burdened with the lions share of this work. This particular article is just offers a general good review on the thinking of the incredible importance of adequate hydration when on HCV drugs.

http://hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/SEM_water.pdf

We will find many varying opinions/studies on how much (exactly) water to drink, when on HCV drugs.

If a gal per day is suggested, not many people ever really truly succeed in meeting that volume every day, although they may try and be better hydrated than had they not strove for a goal of a gal. Weight-based formulas do not always work, as there are so many variables that can increase the need for more than a weight-based amount. Just being on HCV drugs may make the volume of water intake by weight-based formula inadequate.

A gal per day may be a lot for a small person like me (let us say I am 120 lbs) - on a weight-based formula, I would only be getting 60 ounces of water per day, less than 1/2 gal! I was having side effects from my HCV drugs when I was only consuming that much, my sides only improved when I was up to a gal per day. Even this old article above mentions about 91 oz. per day for women, about 3/4 of a gal.

It is actually quite hard for a person to slip into water intoxication, sodium depletion reactions/electrolyte imbalances that would ever cause symptoms or death, by simply increasing their water intake from a ½ gal to ¾ of a gal or to 1 gal per day.

Patients are assessed for their other medical conditions and prescriptions prior to HCV treatment - renal function, diuretic use, etc., it most often comes out if they professional athletes or are regular marathon runners or something like that, these things will be taken into account. We had one lady here who had to be on restricted fluids, another gentleman who had some of this meds unusually doled out in half strength, all to take into consideration their pre-existing renal inadequacies.

I think it would actually be very hard for a regular person to "overdose" on water (when we are talking about a volume such as a gal per day), on the other hand, I think it is very easy and far more likely that people under-dose water when on HCV drugs. When they under-dose water while on HCV drugs, they will know it, with sides.