DONALD KOTLER, MD: There are two types of appetite stimulants that are used, one that's related to the female sex hormone progesterone, which has a side effect of stimulating appetite. It's called Megace. The other major form of appetite stimulant is one that's related to marijuana. It's a cannabinoid. It's called Marinol.
ANNOUNCER: Sometimes a person who is ill primarily experiences the loss of lean body mass, a condition known as "wasting" or cachexia.
DONALD KOTLER, MD: It is a response to injury, not to lack of food. And a similar process occurs whether you have cancer, or bad trauma. Even a heart attack. Anything that has caused tissue damage in the body. The body's job under those circumstances is to clear the damage and repair it. In order to get the energy, in order to get the amino acids, the building blocks for this response. You get muscle wasting.
BRUCE POLSKY, MD: In many cases, the patients will have low amounts of testosterone, lower than they should have, which is a part of HIV disease as well. Those are patients that we will try to replace their testosterone to make them at normal levels.
ANNOUNCER: Testosterone, and anabolic steroids, which can have similar properties, can build up lost muscle.
DONALD KOTLER, MD: The use of testosterone or anabolic agents makes a lot of sense. And whether they are testosterone or its various compounds that are either injected, taken as pills or as a cream or as a patch, or the anabolic steroids, like nandrolone or oxandrolone. Or things like DHEA, which are the precursor chemicals that you could buy at a nutrition store. They all tend to lead to an increase in muscle mass.
