by Bronc I first fell ill with terrible fatigue-like symptoms in the summer of 2010. Besides the bone-crushing fatigue, I felt fearful, confused, perplexed and demoralised by this mysterious illness that had reduced me from feeling like Iron Man to feeling like a breeze could blow me over. Now it’s 12 years on and at times I still feel confused,
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By Bronc and Eric Pyrrhus For many decades now, people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) across the world have had to deal with medical establishments wedded to inaccurate scientific dogma regarding their illness. Alongside this, there has been a disastrous lack of funding for biomedical research into the illness. Thankfully, there is a growing body of open-minded scientists
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Versión en español • Versão em português By Eric Pyrrhus César Medina climbed mountains, lifted weights, and was an avid cyclist. He had a good job. He had a partner. But everything changed in November 2020, thanks to an infection with the novel coronavirus. Today he lives confined to his bed, abandoned by his partner, unemployed, and wearing special compression
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By Bronc In the world we live in people are suffering from all kinds of illnesses, which require a variety of different medications to treat them. Often, the road to finding a novel medication for a particular illness can take many years, as the money for medical trials usually comes from drug companies who have to spend large amounts of
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By Bronc People living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are definitely not “just a little tired.” But they are indeed tired of some things — such as dealing with medical ignorance, the very slow pace of research, and seemingly endless discussions over terminology and definitions. But in science, precise terminology and precise definitions are absolutely essential in order
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In the last of a three-part series, people with neuroimmune diseases in Mexico speak up about the wide-ranging consequences of the disease on their life. If you haven’t already read the first part of this series, click here. Versión en español • Versão em português By Eric Pyrrhus “There’s so many mysterious or surprising variables in chronic illness,” comments 35-year-old
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In the second of a three-part series, people describe the challenges of pursuing fundamental rights for patients with neuroimmune diseases in Mexico. If you haven’t already read the first part of this series, click here. Versión en español • Versão em português By Eric Pyrrhus “I hope that in the future there will be some doctor, organization or someone who
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In the first of a three-part series, people describe the challenges of living with neuroimmune diseases in Mexico. The science of these diseases is also discussed, and we try to understand why the latest science is not informing proper medical treatment. Versión en español • Versão em português By Eric Pyrrhus “On days when the symptoms are manageable, I walk
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by Jody Smith May 12th is a special day in the ME/CFS community. It was English army nurse Florence Nightingale’s birthday. In 1992 Thomas Hennessy, Jr. thought her birthday would be a fitting day for raising awareness for us. Why, you ask? Because Florence Nightingale was amazing. Not only did she help to create the Red Cross, and start the first
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By Bronc Dr. Amy Proal, of the PolyBio Research Foundation, is a microbiologist interested in the molecular mechanisms by which bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens dysregulate human gene expression, immunity and metabolism. She is especially interested in how dysfunction of the human microbiome and/or the human virome can contribute to chronic inflammatory disease processes. We sat down with Dr. Amy
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By Bronc It was a warm summer evening and I was looking forward to watching one of my favourite films, when I received a text from my best friend. I expected the text to be a question asking me what film I was going to watch. Instead, he informed me that the night before he had attempted to kill himself.
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By Bronc Late last year Dr. Dane Cook, along with Dr. Jacob Lindheimer and colleagues, published a systematic review of research looking at pain as a component of post-exertional malaise (PEM) — which is also known as post-exertional symptom exacerbation (PESE). As seen with other components of PEM/PESE, any pain seemed to be delayed by 8-72 hours after exertion. Interestingly,
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