Heads up, all you HIVers coinfected with hep C! Docs are increasingly noting that the anti-C drug ribavirin ups the risk of pancreas and lactate woes already linked to the HIV nuke Videx (ddI). Poppin’ both pills? Make sure your physician probes you and your labs more often. (And after you read “Liver and Let Live,” probe how much Doc knows about the tricky art of treating HIV and hep C together. Seems shaky? Maybe it’s time to window-shop for a coinfection-savvy MD—or add a liver specialist to the team.)

And prick up your ears if you take the 400 mg Videx EC on an empty stomach—and then sit down to a meal and a Viread (tenofovir). That drug duo could be pumping your Videx blood-levels into the danger zone for those pancreatic and lactate side effects, so collar your doc and fess up. A switch to the 250 mg Videx might even things out.