NEW ORLEANS - An LSU Health professor has $390,000 to study whether exercise can help avert insulin resistance, pre-diabetes and other metabolic disorders in heavy drinkers with HIV.

  

Louisiana State University Health New Orleans says the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism awarded the two-year grant to Dr. Patricia Molina, head of physiology.

  

HIV infection once almost always became full-blown AIDS, which is usually fatal.

  

An LSU Health news release says anti-retroviral therapy has turned the infection into a chronic disease that increases the risk of metabolic conditions which also are more likely among heavy drinkers.

  

The new studies will see whether HIV-positive people who drink too much alcohol are also more likely to have impaired glucose tolerance and muscles - and whether exercise improves their glycemic control.