It has been a devastating twelve months for Andrew Gladman after he took well meant advice to ensure his vaccinations were up-to-date. He was ready to begin study at university, but the vaccines seem to have led to some very obvious and bad reactions that did not immediately resolve. It appears that this trigger, not uncommon among a significant minority
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Bugs are not all bad, in fact many in our gut are essential to good health, but problems with these could help explain some diseases, possibly even ME/CFS. Simon McGrath takes an introductory look at the Microbiome – an area that is fast becoming a focus for several research teams looking at our own illness… The microbiome – the bugs
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Mark Berry, Acting CEO of Phoenix Rising, presents our Annual Report for 2013 Phoenix Rising’s board of directors and volunteers were faced with a daunting set of challenges at the start of 2013, following the departure of our founder Cort Johnson. With only a skeleton staff of volunteers, the tasks that lay ahead of us were to stabilize the organization’s
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By Penny Clare “I stayed alone in the darkness and the impossible became possible” – anon I was mostly confined to bed in a dark room – for years, and years, and years. At some point, in this isolated sea, I started taking photos. From my bed, in the dark. And my relationship to my illness and circumstances took on
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Ahead of the December 23rd deadline for public comment on the proposed IOM panel to create clinical diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS, Gabby Klein reviews the continuing opposition to the HHS/IOM Contract and the more favorable response from some ME/CFS organizations, and offers her personal take on the controversy. While the mounting questions regarding the HHS/IOM contract have continued to grow
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Ryan Prior recalls why he and Nicole Castillo decided to make a movie about ME/CFS, and explains why they’ve now decided to form the Blue Ribbon Foundation as a new non-profit organization A year ago, I wrote a story for USA Today about my experience with ME/CFS that changed the trajectory of my life. The response to my story taught
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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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By Jody Smith Hope is essential — especially when things look darkest. And yet, when you’re living with ME/CFS, stirring up hope can be the hardest thing to do. Hope can be a double-edged sword that can loosen your bonds, or savage you when you wield it. Having hope is no guarantee of success. Daring to hope can feel like
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Action for M.E. – the UK’s largest CFS/ME charity – launched a new research strategy in November based on the priorities identified by patients. We asked the Charity’s Chief Executive, Sonya Chowdhury, about the new strategy and also about the commitment to greater patient involvement. By Russell Fleming and Simon McGrath. Charities have always connected with patients – many were
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Your help ensured the National ME/FM Action Network of Canada romped through to the Semi-Finals of the Aviva Community Fund competition. Now we need to vote again and see them through to the Finals and a chance at that all important $100,000! Vote online, each and every day from 02 – 11 December 2013! You did it! Your online votes
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Mark Berry introduces the new Phoenix Rising Store and explains how you can donate to Phoenix Rising for free while doing your holiday shopping online. At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, the annual festive season is now well and truly upon us. In the United States, today is Thanksgiving Day, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish all
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By Jody Smith In North America, the end of November traditionally kicks off the holiday season which runs till the beginning of January. “Holiday season” may seem to be at best an ironic term, at worst a bad joke, for describing this most taxing of time periods, especially for people who are chronically ill, and often poor and isolated as
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