Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) Research
by Jody Smith Llewellyn King has been gaining quite a reputation for himself in ME/CFS circles of late. He has been a journalist, foreign correspondent, editor, creator of his own publishing group, and public speaker over his long career. And now King is an advocate for people with ME/CFS. He writes about us often on his White House Chronicle blog.
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Sasha asks you (and your friends and family) to VOTE EVERY DAY until Wednesday – this could prove to be a crucial weekend in the Aviva voting contest… Imagine how long you’d have to stand out on a winter street, rattling a bucket at strangers, until you raised $150,000 for ME, Fibromyalgia and Lyme research. At a generous $50 a
Continueby Cort Johnson “Other patients suffer a severe, long lasting illness, for which treatment is ineffectual, and even after the parasite has finally been eliminated, some sequelae persist, affecting quality of life and continuing to cause the patient discomfort or pain” (LJ Robertson et al, 2010) Giardia is an interesting bug. Perhaps the most common intestinal parasite in developing areas,
Continueby Cort Johnson Before XMRV was Kogelnik/Montoya…the 2006 unblinded Kogelnik/Montoya study, finding that 6 months of Valcyte use returned 75% of participants to full health, hit the community like a lightning bolt. Yes, the study was very small (12 people) and it was unblinded, but the stories of recovery were so dramatic that it was hard to imagine they hadn’t
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Posted by Cort Johnson PHANU is rising…. Lead by Dr.Sonya Marshall-Gradisnuk and Dr. Donald Staines, the PHANU ME/CFS Australian research team presented more studies at the 2011 Ottawa IACFS/ME conference than any other, scored a major grant from the Mason Foundation, established close ties with Dr. Peterson at the Simmaron Foundation and is moving to a larger laboratory at Griffith University.
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Posted by Cort Johnson Looking Up Down Under – the PHANU Story ME/CFS research around the world is pretty spotty. The US and the UK are long-time hubs, with Canada coming on in the last few years. Outside of the Nijs/DeMeirleir work in the Netherlands/Belgium, you can scratch out most of Europe. South of the equator, the picture is bleak
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Posted by Cort Johnson Impaired blood pressure variability in chronic fatigue syndrome–a potential biomarker. Frith J, Zalewski P, Klawe JJ, Pairman J, Bitner A, Tafil-Klawe M, Newton JL. QJM. 2012 Jun 4 “..We believe that our findings add further evidence to the case for CFS being a disorder of sympathetic overactivity” We know that heart rate variability (HRV) isn’t, well, very variable in chronic fatigue syndrome. The electric signals
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Posted by Cort Johnson ‘At the moment, we’re in a very optimistic place” Dr. Julia Newton One of our most active researchers, Dr Julia Newton of Newcastle University focuses mostly on autonomic nervous system and muscle issues. A recent talk she did with “the Naked Scientist” gave us some exciting news about her work. Dr. Newton came to chronic fatigue syndrome
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(Guest blogger Simon McGrath focuses on an important topic and stumbling block for ME/CFS – replication studies (or the lack thereof). The XMRV story presents a somewhat unusual theme; a subject receiving enough study that a consensus (at least to date) has been reached and in relative rapid fashion but a recent blog found a significant number of research efforts are
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Posted by Cort Johnson For the last article in the “20 Years Ago Today” Series celebrating the 20th anniversary of International Awareness Day, we asked ME/CFS researchers and professionals to have some fun and take a look in their crystal ball and hazard a guess as to where CFS will be on a variety of topics in five years. We
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Posted by Cort Johnson 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
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Posted by Cort Johnson 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
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