Professor & patients’ paper on the solvable biological challenge of ME/CFS: reader-friendly version

Simon McGrath provides a patient-friendly version of a peer-reviewed paper which highlights some of the most promising biomedical research on ME/CFS … Recently, Professor Jonathan Edwards, with patients and carers as co-authors (including me), published a peer-reviewed editorial in the medical journal Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior. The article became their most-viewed paper within a few days. The editorial highlights

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Fluge & Mella’s pre-trial study highlights life-changing potential of rituximab

Sasha gives the background and Simon gives the interpretation of the latest study from Haukeland, published today… It’s out! Dr Øystein Fluge and Professor Olav Mella have published their new study in PLoS ONE. And though the study was not a blinded, placebo-controlled trial, the results are further evidence that rituximab is beneficial in some ME/CFS patients, and potentially life-changing

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Surprisingly good outcomes for people who get ME/CFS after Mononucleosis (Glandular Fever)

Sometimes ME/CFS emerges after mononucleosis, or glandular fever. Simon McGrath shares results from a long-term follow-up study from Haukeland University Hospital in Norway … “When will this end?” It’s a question that most ME/CFS patients have probably asked themselves and their doctor many times. I certainly have. Yet there is astonishingly little hard data on recovery rates from this illness or

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ME/CFS and the Magic of the Canine Factor

Jody Smith has been taken by surprise by the value of having a dog when dealing with ME/CFS … There’s been plenty of research indicating that having pets is good for your health. I never really noticed any particular benefits to having cats, though that may have had more to do with my cats. They’ve been fairly indifferent to my presence and

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Dysautonomia and POTS: An Overview

Andrew Gladman considers the importance of dysautonomia and several of its component parts — neurally mediated hypotension, inappropriate sinus tachycardia and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — all recognised as problematic comorbidities by ME/CFS patients … Dysautonomia, most commonly experienced as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), is a recognised comorbidity of ME/CFS. There is little debate surrounding this and much research

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A Brief Tour Through Some Common Topics in M.E. Science

A concluding article for the ‘In Brief…’ Series, summing up the previous articles which attempted to explain the science behind fairly common topics and exploring how they relate to ME – by Andrew Gladman. Over the past few weeks and months I’ve been busily researching, evaluating and writing the series of articles under the subheading of ‘In Brief…’. The original idea

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In Brief: Autoimmunity and ME

The second in series of short articles attempting to explain the science behind fairly common topics and exploring how they relate to ME. This time the topic is Autoimmunity – by Andrew Gladman. In the last few years it’s fairly safe to say that the topic of autoimmunity has moved from a fairly unknown entity in the ME field to

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Rewarding the ME/CFS Brain

Jody Smith explains how growing virtual lettuce created a real sense of satisfaction and provided a subtle return to the land of the living… I knew I was coming back a bit to the land of the living after several years’ exile when I was able to go online again. Getting onto Facebook and learning my way around was quite a

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The Naive Patient

By Jody Smith About 10 years ago I began looking online for information and answers about my mystery illness. At that time, my sleeping and waking hours were upside down. I would sleep most of the day and be up throughout the night till dawn. I spent many disturbing hours online looking for answers. Back then, most of what I

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How does Rituximab relate to other ME research?

Andrew Gladman explores the current research climate of ME/CFS, discussing how existing research ties into the emerging autoimmune hypothesis.  Throughout the history of ME it is safe to say that understanding of the condition and the research itself has been somewhat fractured at best and lacking significance in many areas. In the last 30 years, following the Lake Tahoe outbreak which piqued the

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