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  1. Kitty

    Low resting heart rate / Brachycardia

    Me too. No symptoms unless it gets into the low 40s. I wonder if the "normal" resting heart rate range might be wider than conventionally thought, as until smart watches arrived on the scene, it would never occur to most people to monitor it. It would only be measured in medical settings, which...
  2. Kitty

    Vegetable prep - seeking suggestions

    I don't like dressings, but if it were me, I might try making a small quantity up and seeing if it freezes okay—or look up recipes for dressings that definitely do. You could then buy frozen veg and cook them in the microwave, reheat the dressing separately, and then pour it over to serve? It'd...
  3. Kitty

    Mike's EU Marathons

    Fantastic, Mike! It does look absolutely glorious there.
  4. Kitty

    Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

    But if there's nothing else available to heterosexuals, other than avoidance of sex? Birth control probably had that kind of effectiveness or less for millennia, but I doubt it put anyone off trying to reduce the odds of conceiving if they didn't want a pregnancy. Same with Covid, especially...
  5. Kitty

    Article: Everything you know about stress and high blood pressure is wrong

    I was hoping they meant he's a concept that doesn't exist yet in medicine.
  6. Kitty

    Antihistamines

    Or that manufacturers are obliged to make it—the med that was part of the trial, part of the Pepcid brand, was discontinued according to the pharmacist. At the time I didn't go into why as I knew my GP would prescribe it, but it might have been poor sales.
  7. Kitty

    The growing burden of long COVID in the United Kingdom: Insights from the UK Coronavirus Infection Survey 2022 Gokani et al

    I've been part of the survey since April 2020, and the questions have been thorough but simple throughout. As @CRG says, they have to be straightforward in order to make the survey accessible to as many people as possible. The power of surveys like this come from the number and range of people...
  8. Kitty

    Antihistamines

    A pharmacist told me about three years ago that you need a prescription to buy famotidine over the counter. I'd had it on prescription and had developed the same symptoms again, and wanted to check I couldn't just buy it before I saw the GP. She said an OTC trial was once done, but the med was...
  9. Kitty

    Chronic illness makes UK workforce the sickest in developed world

    Even if it didn't need more context, it's still a bit "So what?". I planned never to do all sorts of things when I was young, until I learned that things are more complicated than they look, and I can be a tit. And before I stopped giving whatever answer I thought was most likely to confirm the...
  10. Kitty

    Is There Anyone (UK) On The Forum who Is Prescribed Medical Marijuana?

    I agree—but a proper trial might be a useful exercise, as it's possible it does offer therapeutic benefit to some people suffering chronic pain. Doctors will quite rightly remain sceptical until they see some decent quality evidence. It's even possible the unique legal situation could be...
  11. Kitty

    Considerations in establishing a post-mortem brain and tissue bank for the study of ME/CFS: a proposed protocol, 2014, Nacul et al

    There are some existing brain banks in the UK. Given that the numbers of donors would be limited (many potential volunteers will live a normal or near-normal lifespan with their ME), might it make sense to share resources with another?
  12. Kitty

    Is There Anyone (UK) On The Forum who Is Prescribed Medical Marijuana?

    I haven't heard of anyone being prescribed it. Ideally, it needs a major trial made up of cohorts with different pain conditions to establish an evidence base, otherwise there's the risk that 30 years down the line it'll turn out that billions have been spent worldwide on something that doesn't...
  13. Kitty

    Tissue specific signature of HHV-6 infection in ME/CFS, 2022, Prusty et al

    It's possible to experience fairly profound effects without any lasting pathology, though. It depends what the mechanism is, and some of them would all-nigh impossible to detect directly. For instance, if I eat a heavily sugary meal, my arms and legs stop working; trying to walk involves...
  14. Kitty

    Lipomas, Dercums, Adiposa Dolorosa

    Oh, that's really interesting—thanks for posting, @Binkie4. Hopefully they'll get funding to study a bigger group too.
  15. Kitty

    Information card, or similar?

    Oh, this is infuriating, isn't it! One thing I have learned to do is never explain that I have ME, though. There's no point, they won't get it. One of my rules is that outside of a medical appointment, I never say I have fatigue. It's severe muscle weakness. It really is weakness a lot of the...
  16. Kitty

    New York Times article: Will Exercising With a Cold Make You Sicker?

    See also: being forced back to work prematurely, where you can't cut your session short and go home for a nice hot shower and a rest as soon as you realise it's making you feel awful.
  17. Kitty

    The Feasibility and Impact of Practising Online Forest Bathing to Improve Anxiety, Rumination, Social Connection and Long-COVID Symptoms: 2022 McEwan

    Either that, or they're trying to sell packages to "forest experiences", which is a great way to monetise public open spaces at no actual cost to yourself.
  18. Kitty

    The Feasibility and Impact of Practising Online Forest Bathing to Improve Anxiety, Rumination, Social Connection and Long-COVID Symptoms: 2022 McEwan

    This. It would rob you of almost everything that's life-affirming about being in a natural space. I can get out sometimes and I enjoy some wildlife TV programmes, especially those featuring species I might have the chance of encountering one day. Watching them isn't so much about the experience...
  19. Kitty

    The Feasibility and Impact of Practising Online Forest Bathing to Improve Anxiety, Rumination, Social Connection and Long-COVID Symptoms: 2022 McEwan

    Yes, or put some effort into enabling ill people to access to a real wood or natural space. So much easier to justify your salary by distracting them for a bit and calling it "adjunct therapy", though. Streaming a comedy gig would have done just as well, but doesn't sound quite sciencey enough.
  20. Kitty

    Vocal biomarker predicts fatigue in people with COVID-19: results from the prospective Predi-COVID cohort study 2022 Elbéji et al

    Indeed, it's always struck me that typing would be a decent entry-level type of test, as keystrokes are easily analysed. But vocal testing is an interesting one, as I imagine a lot of us do notice changes. I routinely lose my voice, tonsillitis-fashion, when I've run out of energy. I'm...
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