Posted by Cort Johnson Spread the word! It is time to YANK (not tug) the nation’s heartstrings again. Young People with ME/CFS – JOIN US in Speak Up About ME, to be Invisible No More! Washington DC this spring (2012) How do we yank people’s heartstrings? With the participation of young people and their families at the Chronic Fatigue
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2012 – the Year Ahead Pt II: ME/CFS Efforts Expand
Posted by Cort Johnson Discuss this article on the forums Background The theme of this year is expansion, not contraction as one might expect after the biggest finding in CFS history (XMRV) didn’t pan out. With XMRV drawing more attention than ever to this disease the ME/CFS research community emerged in better shape with more new projects and more new
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2012 -The Road Ahead for ME/CFS Pt. II: Rise of the Research Efforts
Posted by Cort Johnson 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
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ME/CFS – The Road Ahead in 2012: Pt I – The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
Posted by Cort Johnson 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
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Corinne At Dr. Peterson #6 Including Picking Dr. Peterson’s Brain!
Posted by Cort Johnson (Corrine continues her blog recounting her visits to and charting her progress with, Dr. Peterson, one of our most experienced practitioners. As a bonus she includes her “Picking Dr. Peterson’s Brain” section where he answers her’s and others questions about CFS.) Summary to Date “Life can be likened to a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down
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Ending Neglect at the NIH: The ‘Campaign to End Chronic Pain in Women’ Get’s Its Chance
Posted by Cort Johnson The statistics the Campaign to End Chronic Pain in Women cites are startling…$50 million women in the US suffer from six chronic pain conditions (ME/CFS, FM, Interstitial Cystitus, TMD, Endometriosus, Vulvodynia), one of which is ME/CFS, which cost the US economy 80 billion dollars a year…..yet the NIH devotes only $1.36 per woman a year to
ContinueThe NIH on ME/CFS in 2012 Pt III: Neglect Imperils ME/CFS Research
Posted by Cort Johnson NIH neglect is on the verge of producing a downturn in ME/CFS research that may take years to recover from. Some background information is necessary. The Effective Grant Program (and the Ineffective One) The NIH produces two types of grants; Program Announcements (PA’s) and Requests for Applications (RFAs). Program Announcements ‘announce’ what kind of research the
ContinueThe Blame Game: A Way Forward?
Posted by Cort Johnson Discuss this article on the forums Written by alex3619 Thanks to Alex for allowing us to post a thought-provoking blog suggesting that focusing a bit less energy on righteous indignation and bit more energy on undertaking rigorous examinations of positions and studies might make ME/CFS advocacy a lot more effective. We spend of lot of energy
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The NIH on ME/CFS in 2012: Pt II – the Studies
Posted by Cort Johnson The funder of big, complex and expensive studies whose costs often run into the millions of dollars, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) presents a resource like no other. It’s never been easy to secure an NIH grant; for one thing, substantial data backing up one’s hypothesis is needed – which means researchers need to access
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The Biggest Research Funder in the World on ME/CFS: The NIH on ME/CFS in 2012 Pt. I:
Posted by Cort Johnson The NIH on ME/CFS Part I We just did an overview of what a governmental British medical agency is funding on ME/CFS. Now we turn to the biggest medical research funder in the world – the NIH. While NIH’s contribution to CFS research is paltry ($6 million/year) given their resources ($30 billion plus/yearly), their penchant for funding
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UK Govt Turns New Leaf (Why the UK Loves ME/CFS More (!))
Posted by Cort Johnson The Medical Research Council is a government agency responsible for coordinating and funding medical research in the UK. No slouch in the medical world, MRC funded research has lead to numerous breakthroughs including, way back in 1918, the discovery that influenza is caused by a virus, the discovery of the structure of DNA in the 1953
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Ottawa IACFS/ME CFS Conference IV: The Immune System!
Posted by Cort Johnson Montoya Calls for New Research Focus The Immune System! The ever-present, ever complex immune system – a place of so many hopes in CFS and such a tough nut to crack. In his opening address for the Infectious Pathogens section Dr. Montoya pointed out how inconsistent study results have made it difficult to get a handle
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