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I don't get the relevance of that. I was talking about research experiments. I do not remember as a student in 1968 learning about any experiments just done on men and some of the stuff we were taught was indeed thirty or forty years old then. We used to get taught about Starling's experiments...

I'd like to see some facts on this. What sorts of 'studies performed on men' are people really talking about? Most medical research gathers data from ill people - anyone who is ill regardless of sex. Maybe in the 1920s only men were subject to experimental intervention, maybe like trying ut new...

Maybe but that seems to be a peculiarly US situation. If there had been something to go on ME would've been researched outside the US even if the NIH had strange practices. And it wasn't. I think that is because nobody could get a grip on it. That was certainly my feeling. I did not devote any...

I know Willy and Amolak very well. If they prescribe supplements then I guess what I have said still applies. It does not greatly surprise me.

Indeed, and although it is the brain that decides you are too hot, sensing the blood temperature, it makes you feel that your body is too hot, not your brain.

I agree with @arewenearlythereyet that the argument about sexism does not really add up. The fact that illnesses where there is nothing to find on tests and also there are no objective physical signs (like ME and chronic pain syndromes) are more common in women is just a fact, unless of course...

Is this actually the case, David (@dave30th). I have been in medicine for nearly fifty years and I have never come across any suggestion that. Studies have, as far as I know, always had a sex ration relevant to the condition in question, at least since the early seventies.

I don't know what these doctors actually test for but there is no evidence that any supplements are actually helpful for ME. I very much doubt that any tests relating to the supplements you mention (things like D-ribose and acetyl l-carnitine) tell us anything useful. There is a huge bogus...

What is relevant is if a part of the body is hotter than it normally is in relation to the rest of the body. But that does not have to indicate inflammation. It indicates either increased blood flow or increased local metabolism.

If something is published in Japanese it either means that the international journal industry is not even interested - which has to be pretty bad - or the authors do not think it is even worth trying. I think one can assume that something published in Japanese is not going to make a quantum leap...

Yes, you can afford not to try because all that stuff about targeted supplementation is almost certainly nonsense. There are no ME doctors who know which supplements to recommend for ME. Any doctor who does is a phoney. I personally think it is very unlikely that any supplements are relevant...

Bastian is still talking of limiting damage but to my mind no damage has been done. On the contrary, the civil war at Cochrane has reminded us not to take it as an authority. People might say that some sources have to be treated as more reliable than others, or we have no idea what to think. My...

The Japanese study shows an apparent shift in activation of some phagocytic cells. That may something that happens as part of inflammation but it may occur for other reasons - so it is not a direct indication of inflammation. Whether Younger's findings relate to the Japanese is I think so far...

I hope this proves to be a real lead. Unfortunately, Cort Johnson does not give us a clear story and certainly not enough actual facts to make much sense of. Lactate is not a marker of inflammation. It is a marker of a shift in metabolic pathway. And so far I thought it had only been found...

Dear @Tilly, I very much appreciate your situation but I think it is important not to overestimate what is known about either the illness or its treatment. Ron Davis certainly does not yet know anything of use to a doctor. And I doubt making a diagnosis of POTS tells us much because the POTS...

I agree that an OT report might be very helpful.

I think this needs care. A letter with a diagnosis from a private practitioner, especially if in the alternative medicine network is likely to raise the suspicion of FII rather than lower it. I realise this is a no win situation but it would be a pity to make things worse.

I am not sure that it need involve 'effort'. Using chemical energy does not necessarily equate to effort. The chemical reactions involved are all 'downhill'. In a sense it was the plants that made the effort to create the carbohydrates and fats that we pour down the drain. I see the point but I...

I actually think this analysis is wrong, or at least misleading. I am pretty sure the thermic effect of food is part of the basal metabolic rate, not an extra. And exercise can be a large proportion of calorie usage. When Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud tried to walk to the North Pole they had...

I think there is an important difference. Psychologists are to psychiatrists what physiologists are to physicians. The first is someone who has theories - abut how minds work or about how the body works. The second is someone who treats illnesses of the mind or of the body. In both cases that...