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The cause barely matters anyway at this stage. It's been clear for many years that there are multiple triggers, and there's little point in being obsessively protective of one or another of them. Even if a person becomes ill with ME soon after after a clearly-defined single event – be it EBV, a...

Probably not, then – I got an 8-page leaflet explaining what they're doing and why, and it's all marked ONS. I've taken part in their surveys a few times before, which is presumably why they asked me. I'm not hugely worried about the privacy aspect, but I am a bit disappointed that, whilst they...

Is this separate from the ONS survey? I've been part of that since the outset, but it started in early April. They were originally planning to extend the numbers taking part, and they may still be doing this, but as yours is a single sample it may be a different project. (I was swabbed every...

It's an interesting question, but I think there would be serious ethical issues – Covid survivors may still be experiencing their precipitating infection, they haven't been ill long enough to understand their own limits and symptom profiles, and they may still be capable of making a full...

:laugh::laugh:

I wonder if he wants to communicate findings less formally than in a publication? On one hand, this could reduce the time it takes for findings to percolate through to us, simply because there are fewer hoops to jump through than normal scientific publishing – this might be important in raising...

I wonder whether it's helpful to compare the pacing phenomenon to the lives of people who're not ill? Every now and again my friend goes out with work colleagues and makes a night of it, knowing she's likely to pay for it with a hangover. Another does charity marathons, knowing that he's going...

I've been advised that it's fairly unlikely I'd get shingles a second time, so it's one vaccine choice I don't have to make (unless the advice has changed by the time I get to 70). Mine only got diagnosed because I happened to have an appointment at the surgery to have stitches removed. There...

Oh, that sounds awful, @Graham – I'm sorry to hear you've been so ill, and very much hope it doesn't happen again!

It may not be accurate anyway. The manufacturer of the Abbott test has said that it's designed to be used with venous blood only, not a fingerprick. They seem pretty angry about it being sold to the public, as the work to determine whether it's reliable as a home test, and if so to what degree...

I'm sorry to hear that he's ill, but it's possible he's done other MPs and staff a favour by highlighting the risks of reconvening parliament and stopping remote attendance. It seems particularly obtuse to replace a functioning system of digital voting with time-consuming, risky queuing.

It would still be important to know that it works, though, as it could provide some hard evidence of a metabolic trap. If the trap is real, there may be other, better ways to treat it; at the very least, we would know that it's worth channelling resources into further research.

As so many people appear to be asymptomatic, it would be difficult to achieve without a massive testing effort – far beyond the capacity available at the moment. A home kit similar to a pregnancy test would make it a lot easier, though it would presumably be hugely expensive to offer mass...

Ironically I was prescribed this in 1976, as the GP believed I was mentally ill. I actually had ME, but wasn't diagnosed for another 20-odd years. It helped a lot with the relentless nausea I experienced at the start of the illness, which was later found to be due to gastroparesis. Obviously...

Sigh. I'd prefer them to investigate ME-specific issues – such as why the neck lymph nodes swell up after exertion in many patients – rather than start developing new theories about a very common and widespread problem, which could just as easily be connected to air pollution (or several dozen...

Yup – it even led to Prof Garner saying early on that he didn't have post-viral fatigue, because the name isn't in any way descriptive of the condition. Using a name like post-viral syndrome could potentially help. The lack of specificity might signpost people to the fact that there's a whole...

"We don't know how to treat these patients, so let's see if tripping out makes them forget about it. After all, we shut up lots of women in the 1970s and 80s by drugging them up with tranquillisers, and no-one criticised us for that – at least, no-one who matters."

I couldn't work any of that out on the best cognitive day of my life, before I even got ME! :rofl: One of the reasons cognitive dysfunction is difficult to measure is that it's about the subtle falling apart of very basic skills. It includes things many women who've had severe PMS will...

My 'last normal' photo is from school in 1975.

Looks really good. They missed out the 'What can the government do to help?' section, though... ;)