This check-in is a conversation aid, not a medical assessment. For persistent sleep problems, see the evidence on treatment [9].
Wellness pocket guide — free print-ready PDF
Trilingual (English · Español · Kreyòl Ayisyen) fold-out with the essentials: heart, mind, sleep, ART interactions, labs to track, and national help lines. Six pages, letter size, ready to print or share on your phone.
Wellness: Where to Start
Wellness should make life more livable. On days shaped by pain, depression, a tight budget, or low energy, a manageable meal and one supportive conversation can be meaningful steps. Rest and asking for help belong here too. You do not need to do everything on this page.
Use these groups at your own pace, or try the Wellness Check-In to prepare for a conversation. For immediate support, go to Talk Now.
↑ Back to navigationFood, Nutrition & Practical Support
Food and nutrition involve both what works for your body and what is reachable in everyday life. These guides connect flexible meals, medication and supplement questions, grocery assistance, and regional meal programs. You can start with nutrition information or go directly to help finding food.
Nutrition, Meals & Medicines
Nutrition, movement, and sleep support everyday health. Vitamin D is important for bones, but routine supplementation has not been shown to improve HIV outcomes. Discuss testing or supplements when there is a clinical reason, rather than assuming everyone with HIV needs them.[5]
Food support is part of care
Ask your ASO, CBO, or Ryan White case manager about a registered dietitian, nutrition counseling, food pantry, meal delivery, and help applying for food benefits. A pantry and medical nutrition therapy are different services; local availability, referrals, and eligibility vary. See what Ryan White can support.
Find Groceries & Delivered Meals
You do not have to be living with HIV to use every food resource. General pantries can help many households; HIV-focused and medically tailored programs have their own eligibility rules.
Regional Meal & Nutrition Programs
These are regional examples, not national delivery promises. Follow each program’s official link for current enrollment. A medically tailored meal program is different from a general food pantry or paid meal subscription.
Ask before applying: Do you serve my ZIP code? Can you deliver, or is pickup required? Is a clinician referral needed? Are meals free or is there a fee? Can you accommodate my diet, household, storage, and accessibility needs? Is there a waiting list?
Your ASO, CBO, or HIV case manager may know other local options. Read the nutrition guide’s food-support section for Ryan White services and the difference between meal support and nutrition therapy.
Movement, Comfort & Pain
A manageable routine can support strength, balance, comfort, and well-being. Start where you are; movement does not have to mean a gym or an intense class. These resources bring together adaptable activity, complementary-care questions, and support for persistent pain.
Movement & Complementary Care
Gentle or chair-based yoga, walking, stretching, and strength work can be adapted to your abilities. Yoga may help stress, sleep, and balance, but it is not HIV treatment. Choose a qualified instructor, explain pain or balance limits, and ask your clinician or physical therapist about modifications after surgery or with significant health conditions. [11]
Will insurance cover massage or acupuncture?
Coverage varies by plan, diagnosis, provider, and service. There is no universal number of covered sessions. Ask about medical-necessity rules, referrals, prior authorization, in-network providers, visit limits, and your out-of-pocket cost before booking.
A specific example: Medicare Part B covers up to 12 acupuncture visits in 90 days for qualifying chronic low-back pain, and up to 8 more if you improve, with a maximum of 20 in 12 months and provider requirements. [12] Original Medicare does not cover massage therapy. Check your Medicare Advantage or other plan’s actual benefits rather than assuming “wellness” coverage applies. [13]
Massage or acupuncture may be considered for particular symptoms alongside medical care. They do not replace ART, psychotherapy, or evaluation of a new health problem. Discuss herbs and supplements with your pharmacist because they can interact with medicines.
Neuropathy & Persistent Pain
Peripheral neuropathy can cause burning, tingling, numbness, or shooting pain. Possible causes include HIV, diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, and medications, especially older drugs such as stavudine and didanosine. Symptoms can persist after a trigger is removed. Review your full medication list and other causes with a clinician.[8]
Mental Health, Connection & Rest
Emotional health, relationships, loneliness, sleep, and energy can affect one another. These groups connect information about mental health with practical ways to find counseling and community support, then explore sleep and fatigue. Start with the concern that feels most useful to address today.
Mental Health, Stigma & Relationships
Depression and other mental health conditions are more common among people with HIV, but prevalence varies by population and how it is measured. Stigma, trauma, disclosure stress, and grief can contribute. Effective care is available.[3]
HIV & Love Stories
Mixed-status relationships, fictional illustrations of disclosure, and what U=U can mean for love and intimacy. Includes links to documented personal histories.
Read →Find Counseling & Practical Support
Your HIV clinic or a local service organization can be a starting point for asking about counseling. The resources below connect that route with wider directories; ask about cost, eligibility, language access, and availability.
Start with an ASO, CBO, or your HIV clinic
AIDS service organizations (ASOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and Ryan White clinics may offer counseling at no charge or reduced cost, or help arrange a referral. Ask about individual or group therapy, eligibility, waiting lists, language access, and telehealth. HRSA includes mental health services among allowable Ryan White services; that does not mean every agency offers every service. [10]
Try asking: “Do you offer HIV-informed counseling or a sliding fee? If not, who can help locally?” Peer support can complement licensed therapy; the two serve different purposes.
These are external directories, not endorsements of every listed provider. For a crisis or immediate danger, use the urgent support options below.
Isolation, Loneliness & Community
Loneliness and HIV-related stigma were associated with depressive symptoms in the ROAH study of 914 New Yorkers aged over 50 living with HIV. This observational finding does not show that isolation directly causes viral rebound or accelerated aging. Peer support and mental health care can help address these concerns.[4]
Sleep, Fatigue & Brain Fog
Poor sleep and fatigue are among the most common daily challenges for people living with HIV — and they are almost never just one thing. Insomnia, sleep apnea, ART timing, depression, and inflammation all overlap. It's rarely laziness. It's worth investigating.
Fatigue and low mood are so often paired that untangling them takes care. Screening, treatment, and how modern antidepressants interact with ART. See the mental-health guide above for depression-related questions.
Heart Health, Other Conditions & Aging
Health needs can change over time, and several questions may belong in the same visit. These guides bring together heart and metabolic health, other conditions, aging, and medication-related monitoring. Use them to prepare questions and review your care with your provider.
Heart & Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of illness and death among people with HIV. Risk depends on age, smoking, blood pressure, lipids, and other factors as well as HIV. Current guidance recommends statins for adults with HIV aged 40–75; discuss the appropriate drug and ART interactions with your provider.[1]
GLP-1s, Weight & Metabolic Health
Millions of people are now taking GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy. For PLHIV, the questions around ART interactions, metabolic risk, and monitoring are still evolving — here’s what we know.
Other Conditions & Whole-Body Health
People with HIV may have higher risks of several conditions even with viral suppression. Inflammation, other infections, age, medication exposure, and traditional risk factors all contribute. Individualized preventive care helps identify and manage problems; organ damage is not inevitable.[2]
Inflammation: focus on what helps your health
Some immune activation can persist even with suppressed HIV. Keep taking ART, address smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol, stay connected to preventive care, and work toward regular movement, adequate sleep, and reliable nourishing meals. These steps support long-term health; no single food, supplement, or “detox” has been shown to eliminate HIV-related inflammation. [14]
NIH does not recommend switching ART solely to reduce inflammation or routinely measuring inflammatory markers to guide HIV care. [15] Ask about evidence-based cardiovascular prevention, including whether a statin fits your situation.
Understand whole-body health · Heart-health guide · Gut health: evidence and limits
Aging & Long-Term Survivorship
More than half of U.S. people living with diagnosed HIV are aged 50 or older. Multiple health conditions, medication interactions, and access to age-appropriate care deserve attention. Aging experiences vary; accelerated decline is not inevitable.[2]
Substance Use, Harm Reduction & Recovery
People’s experiences with alcohol and other drugs vary. Trauma, stigma, stress, and access to care can matter. Whether you want to reduce risks, change your use, or seek recovery support, you deserve care without judgment. These guides connect harm reduction, sexuality and substance use, cannabis questions, recovery, and ways to find support.
If someone might use substances alone
Having someone present who can respond is safer than relying on a later check-in. Keep naloxone available. If nobody can be there, Never Use Alone offers 24/7 phone support at 800-484-3731 or 877-696-1996; the operator takes your location and can alert EMS if you stop responding. It cannot eliminate overdose risk. [16]
Fireside Project provides non-clinical emotional support during or after a psychedelic experience: call or text 623-473-7433 (62-FIRESIDE). Check its current opening hours. It is not an overdose-monitoring line, medical service, or substitute for emergency care. [17]
For a suspected overdose or immediate danger, call 911. Give naloxone when opioid overdose is suspected and follow dispatcher and product instructions. For recovery and meeting resources, explore our recovery guide and Community.
Community Voices & Wellness Resources
Community experience and clinical expertise can inform each other. These resources offer different perspectives; confirm credentials, costs, and services before using a provider. Start with lived experience or explore professional and local services. The cards distinguish educational reading, coaching, and clinical support.
Lived Experience & Community Learning
These resources offer survivor experience and women-centered learning about everyday well-being. Bring what resonates with you into your own conversations about care and support.
Nutrition, Mental Health & Local Services
The resources below connect nutrition education, mental-health and recovery work, and a Florida service organization. Their locations, credentials, costs, and enrollment rules matter when you are choosing a service.
More Wellness Reading & Planning
Practical support and planning can make everyday wellness easier to manage. These guides cover services beyond medical treatment, ways to find testing and help lines, and travel questions. The Learning Hub offers longer reading when you want to explore a topic further.
Wellness Check-In
A private conversation aid, not a diagnostic or medical assessment. This check-in does not submit your answers to a form or create a saved health record. See our Privacy page for website analytics choices. Use the suggestions to decide what to discuss with your care team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Real wellness questions from the HIV community — answered honestly.
A note on this content: This hub covers wellness topics including cardiovascular health, mental health, substance use, GLP-1 medications, and aging with HIV. It is provided for educational purposes only and is not medical or mental health advice. Medication decisions — including starting GLP-1s, adjusting ART, or addressing substance use — should always involve your HIV provider and, where relevant, a mental health professional. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). Full disclaimer →
If You Need to Talk Right Now
You don't have to be in crisis to call. If something is weighing on you — loneliness, fear, exhaustion, grief — these lines are here. All free. All confidential.
🔗 More HIV-specific mental health resources, support groups, and peer support →
References & Sources
Sources supporting the clinical summaries and answers on this page. Reviewed September 28, 2026.
- NIH — 2026 update on statin therapy for people with HIV. Source. ↩
- NIH — HIV and the Older Person. Source. ↩
- NIH HIVinfo — HIV and Mental Health. Source. ↩
- ROAH study — Loneliness and HIV-related stigma explain depression among older HIV-positive adults (2010). Source. ↩
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Immune Function and Infectious Diseases. Source. ↩
- Systematic review — Progressive resistance exercise for adults living with HIV (2017). Source. ↩
- Eckard et al. — Semaglutide in HIV-associated lipohypertrophy: randomized phase 2b trial (2024). Source. ↩
- NINDS — Peripheral Neuropathy. Source. ↩
- NHLBI — Insomnia Treatment. Source. ↩
- HRSA: Available Care and Services. Medical nutrition therapy, mental health care, food services and other support categories; local eligibility and availability vary. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- NCCIH: Yoga—Effectiveness and Safety. Potential benefits and safety precautions; complementary care does not replace treatment. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- Medicare: Acupuncture coverage. Part B coverage is limited to qualifying chronic low-back pain and eligible practitioners. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- Medicare: Massage therapy. Original Medicare does not cover massage therapy; ask individual plans about any additional benefits. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- HIV.gov: Chronic Inflammation and HIV. Practical care, medication and lifestyle discussion; no claim that a specific food cures inflammation. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- NIH: Immune Activation and Inflammation. Do not add/switch ART solely for inflammation; routine inflammatory-marker monitoring is not recommended for HIV management. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- Never Use Alone: US National Overdose Prevention Line. 24/7 phone support; operator can alert EMS to the location you provide. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩
- Fireside Project: Psychedelic Support Line. Non-clinical peer support during or after a psychedelic experience; check current hours. Not an emergency service. Checked September 28, 2026. ↩