In the World – President George Bush made news by suddenly falling violently ill and doing a face-plant into the lap of the Japanese prime minister. The European Union is formed (perhaps to break up 20 years later?) and a 12-year civil war ends in El Salvador. Yugoslavia breaks up and the Bosnian war begins… Pope John Paul finally lifts the edict of inquisition against Galileo and Princess Charles and Diana separate…
Meanwhile in CFS, a retrovirus finding by Dr. Elaine Defreitas of Wistar the year before had generated enormous interest and efforts were underway to validate it.
The Year 1992
In this article we look at what happened to those 1992 findings and what they tell us about ME/CFS research? We took each finding and then went 20 years in the future.… Read More
Who’s made the most difference in the chronic fatigue syndrome research field? A measure called the ‘H-index’ attempts to determine the impact a researcher has had on a field based on how often his/her work is cited by others. Researchers publishing ‘seminal’ papers in highly read journals will do the best. The index does not measure who’s right..it measures who’s work is read and cited the most by other researchers. The higher the score the bigger the impact.
The index is not perfect; flaws have been pointed out but it does give us a good sense of who’s had the most impact in the CFS research field.… Read More
by admin on April 16, 2012
In a year of intriguing studies this is one of the more intriguing. Stress has been something of a keynote in CFS research lately and researchers now regularly employ different kinds of stress tests to provoke abnormalities in patients. But does this unusual response to stress make its way all into the DNA of our cells? The National CFIDS Foundation in collaboration with the Nancy Taylor Foundation is betting $133,000 that it does…
It looks like it might be a good bet. Dr. Henry Heng has been evolving a uique theory of ‘genomic instability’ for over a decade. The theory proposes that random hits to the genome over time powered by cellular stress can derange chromosomes enough to cause complex disorders such as cancer.… Read More
Giardia outbreak causes CFS-like condition in Norway
(Outbreaks of ‘CFS’ do happen but they are rarely documented now. In this article, Oceanblue from the Phoenix Rising Forums, examines a Giardia outbreak in Norway which resulted, years later, with a significant number of people suffering from a chronic fatigue/pain condition- CJ.)
A new study reports at least 5% of patients with CFS nearly 3 years after an acute Giardia enteritis infection, providing evidence of yet another infectious agent that can trigger CFS along with Epstein-Barr Virus, Viral meningitis and the bacterium Coxiella burnetii, amongst others. Other studies on the same outbreak also show a strong link between the acute Giardia infection and both chronic fatigue and IBS.… Read More
by admin on February 21, 2012
Background
The biggest finding in CFS history (XMRV) didn’t work out and the most revered group in CFS history, the WPI, has troubles of its own, but ME/CFS research community emerged in better shape with more new projects and more new faces than ever before. Yes, ME/CFS is still a fringe topic receiving abysmal funding from the federal government and these efforts are small, but they often lead by prominent researchers and if they are successful they should be able to pull in much needed funds over time.
In Part II of “The Road Ahead in 2012″ we look forward to what we can expect from most of the ME/CFS research organizations in 2012.… Read More
by admin on February 19, 2012
The Best of Times/The Worst of Times – 2011 will no doubt go down as the craziest year in ME/ CFS history. Nothing could replace the excitement of the XMRV discovery or erase the letdown at its downfall but as the new initiatives popped up it was as if the medical gods sought some balance for a disheartened community. The XMRV problems overshadowed much but if we can put that aside and take a step back this has truly been a year to remember and even, if you can, to celebrate.
Private Efforts Step to the Fore– Although the federal government remained largely moored in its bury its head in the sand stance towards CFS private/academic sector initiatives focused on ME/CFS blossomed.… Read More
by admin on December 27, 2011
Just fours days after the editors of Science took it upon themselves to retract the 2008 Science paper, Lo/Alter, the authors of the FDA study at one time championed as proof that a family of XMRV-like viruses was present in ME/CFS, have retracted their PNAS findings as well.
In their conclusion to be published next week they stated
Although a more definitive, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)–sponsored, coded panel of samples from 150 well-characterized and geographically diverse CFS patients and controls is being assembled for further study, in consideration of the aggregate data from our own laboratory and that of others, it is our current view that the association of murine gamma retroviruses with CFS has not withstood the test of time or of independent verification and that this association is now tenuous.
… Read More
by admin on December 26, 2011
(Evidence for a heritable predisposition to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Albright F, Light K, Light A, Bateman L, Cannon-Albright LA. BMC Neurol. 2011 May 27;11:62. Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center, Department of Pharmacotherapy, College of Pharmacy, University of Utah, USA. frederick.albright@pharm.utah.edu)
The ‘wastebasket diagnosis’ hypothesis has bedeviled the chronic fatigue syndrome field for years. That hypothesis subscribes to the idea that ME/CFS is simply a dumping ground for physicians who don’t know what else to do with their ‘problem’ patients. To some degree that’s true – it’s clear that inexperienced and knowledgeable physicians do tend to dump patients into the CFS category.… Read More
by admin on December 23, 2011
(My apologies! (Another CFS moment…) The last blog contained a draft on the first story – not the completed version. Thanks for your patience….)
When it rains it pours. Events regarding XMRV, Dr. Mikovits and the WPI have come hot and heavy during the last week.
WPI’s Civil Lawsuit Against Dr. Mikovits - First some background. Dr. Mikovits was terminated from the WPI in late Sept for refusing to share a cell line with Dr. Lombardi. According to spokesperson from the WPI’s legal team Dr. Mikovits was terminated not because she refused to share her cell line with Dr. Lombardi, as has been reported, but because she took a cell line that had been addressed and sent to Dr.… Read More
