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Yes, it is a problem that needs to be confronted. Most fringe things slip into the trashcan - 98% I would say. There may be. Corticosteroids remained fashionable in the US much longer than in the UK. In some countries GPs use a lot of low dose corticosteroids. In the UK they are used for...

It very much holds doctors back. When I left rheumatology I had stopped prescribing corticosteroid to almost everyone. For RA it was limited to the very old whose life expectancy was so limited that the benefit of better mobility was worthwhile. I remember when two nurses tried to lift an RA...

That does not follow. It is true that a lot of doctors are pretty irrational or evidence-free in their decisions about certain things but across the board most follow well-founded practices for most things. A minority of physicians practice on the basis of theories outside the consensus - what I...

Should it be required reading for someone who thinks exercise and positive thinking are no use?

Established professors are quite often fringe doctors, unfortunately. I think we know that corticosteroid does not produce dramatic benefit and since the adverse effects are so pervasive and long term I can see no justification for further studies.

I think anything above 15mg is toxic long term. Cataract is quite common. There are quite a few 'specialists' like that about in Belgium and Holland in particular. I doubt there is any basis to the claim that doses can be titrated. There is a substantial folklore in endocrine support groups...

It is an interesting report. It looks as if megakaryocytes (platelet precursor giant cells) are getting into brain without being filtered out in lung. I am not sure that I agree with the authors that the problem is likely to be endothelial signalling changes. I suspect that megakaryocytes are...

Except that a simple look at the graphs for all European countries suggests that opening schools in September, as expected, led to tens or hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and a brought domestic and economic life to a halt again.

There is nothing simple about treatment with hydrocortisone, as @Perrier suggests. The basic bind is that if you give a small dose the adrenals and hypothalamus just adjust to offset it. If you give more you produce osteoporosis, diabetes, mood disturbance, acne, fragile skin and muscle...

At least until the lockdown I would normally almost every day be talking to someone new and bring up the fact that I had an interest in ME/CFS. I quickly came to realise that it was no good saying I was interested in ME because most people were not sure that I was referring to myalgic...

An analysis of five clinical trials found that participants’ pain didn’t decrease on average Well that's a bit of a worry, surely? So it doesn't actually work. Or if it does it makes as many people worse as better. Yes, pain is all in the head, but we all knew that. (And I have just published...

I am not sure that one should be despondent about this. I think a huge amount has been achieved. I also think that just as habits tend to get fixed there are times when things suddenly collapse into a new mould. When I was taken to hospital with labyrinthitis recently I was very pleasantly...

With luck academic psychiatry departments will lose interest in ME research and services will move more towards medical clinics but it will take time. I really don't know how different things will be in practice for a while. GPs were always supposed to be empathetic and risk assess etc. ...

Nobody gets notified in such a way that they are likely to read it. There are far too many guidelines to read regularly. Over a period of time GPs and consultants get exposed to educational material that is supposed to update them but it is fairly optional. Some issues are contentious and...

I am happy to give an expert armchair professorial opinion in the abstract. My opinion is that the best advice comes from free debate amongst patients on S4ME. There are no physicians who are better equipped with the scientific information than Monsieur Tack or Señor Snowlepard or Dr Wooly and...

The problem as I see it is that as soon as any medically knowledgeable person sees the argument neurological condition therefore at risk therefore we should be on the list they will see it as ill-informed and not give it a second thought. If the petition said PWME are likely to be at risk...

Again, I doubt this. For some reason being overweight is a massive risk factor for dying with Covid-19, even moderately overweight. It is possible that diabetes is not a risk over and above the strong link to being overweight but the additional link to Asian and African ethnicity suggests to me...

This may not be very well thought through. I would certainly expert someone with moderate to severe MS to be very much more at risk of pulmonary complications because of immobility and postural effects on the lungs. You might argue something similar for ME but I don't think it quite the same...

Epilepsy will be included for the specific reason that high fever induces fits - most specifically in children but I think also in general. It is a direct physiological effect of fever.

You may be right. The trauma of a PWME getting Covid-19 may be severe, whatever the path. Perhaps the specific mistake in the petition is to argue that ME should be on the list because it is a chronic neurological condition. That puts everyone of the track of common sense. If there is a vlid...