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I seem to recall a couple studies suggesting low VEGF in pwME.

I've had over 20 years of clinicians and researchers investigating with blood tests and MRIs and PET scans and urine tests and cardio exams and neuropych exams etc etc. Some were done in earnest. Some were just going through the motions. I can say unequivocally that none of them were adequate...

Our keys aren't necessarily under that light. Rarely, and even then, any number of theories could explain them away. Clearly that is not relevant to our damage. Maybe. We do have epic diagnostic issues. But if recovery does happen, it seems to have been vanishingly rare. But not necessarily...

I don't know. Maybe it doesn't just stop. Maybe the decline continues but at what amounts to an almost imperceptible crawl. I think I'm at my worst now. Not sure, though. Admittedly, my primary template is me. And what I've been reading about and from fellow patients in many forums over the...

Personally, I absolutely believe ME/CFS can be neurodegenerative, but I don't think it needs be an endless spiral downward. It's like we drop so far, and then plateau; the distance we fall varies. This is true for all aspects of ME/CFS. Degrees of ME/CFS symptom impairment never stop surprising me.

Intelligence Quotient? How would you gage intelligence? I've also taken the MOCA and did poorly on that, too. Listen: After a certain undefinable threshold, you know when your intelligence has taken a hit. You know. I think you are misunderstanding me. I'm suggesting these are all cognitive...

"Damage" is in your own definition. I'm not sure I agree. Besides, change in function likely doesn't happen in a vacuum. At the very least, damage of some sort has caused the change in functioning. Sickness behaviour is a spectator concept. It's for animals that cannot communicate with...

Certainly. Logic. Judgement. Recall. There are others. My IQ tests would challenge that: They've dropped by almost 20 pts since I first started getting sick a quarter century ago. I frequently don't understand instructions. Each time I've traveled to the NIH to participate in a study, I've had...

A bruise is damage and it isn't typically permanent. Sure, but cognitive impairment is downstream to brain damage. Besides, both brain damage and cognitive impairment are reflective of a range, a spectrum. Some of us suffer them to a greater degree than others within our own ME/CFS community -...

I am unclear that there is a more accurate word than "damage". Most alternatives that I can think of (e.g. impairment, dysfunction, impediment, etc.), can connote external influences. "Damage" is specific to the victim. Moreover it spares the patient community from unfortunate and minimizing...

If I had my way, SPECT scans would be SOP in ME/CFS cases. As it is, it is virtually impossible to get one anymore.

But most people wouldn't be thinking of signaling or biochemical or viral persistence or immune abnormality issues. Wouldn't any of these constitute "damage"? Damage is just harm of some sort; it can be reversible or not.

I would suggest that something like this or aberrant signaling would qualify as damage. It implies a change in a patient's normal brain make-up/functioning characterized by negative consequences. An additional question might be what is causing it.

White matter lesions (perhaps due to hypoperfusion/hypoxia?) come to mind. And these have been known to resolve in some cases which could explain the uncommon incidences of recovery. ETA: I think things like this can boil down to can you have brain damage without apparent structural damage, and...

I wonder what the difference is between neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric ones (not including things like brain cancer.) Would ME/CFS potentially qualify as neurodegenerative? I realize there's little data in that regard, And It would have to be a very very slow progression... I...

The generally accepted view is that climate change is behind the spread of the Lone Star tick - not to mention the AGS and and at least five other TBDs that can accompany it. There is evidence that nature may have been nudged just a little. Reportedly, in the late '60's, tens of thousands of...

Lone Star ticks are bad-ass. They don't merely wait to clasp onto animals wandering by. They hunt. ETA: They aren't native to New Jersey.

I'm in no mood for silliness, and I'm not inclined to play games. If I recall correctly, some part of the brain's immune system has been engaged so long or so intensely that it no longer functions correctly. I cannot remember why this results in symptoms, but there are similar theories in...

Sorry, it was poorly expressed as I'm struggling. So? I think so. Maybe you should check the internet. I can appreciate how a patient's perspective may seem abstract, but trust me when I say for any of us who have been embroiled in this debacle for more than a few years, we usually can...

Generally speaking, it is my experience that although medics are well-educated, they are close-minded. They are governed by their own cultural biases just as everyone else is, but because of the arrogance that seems to be part of their ticket, and because of their direct and immediate impact on...