Article and documentary about ME from Finland - Yle Arenan

Article (in Swedish):
Yle: Mystiska trötthetssyndromet ME/CFS knäckte Anton, 28, efter en vanlig influensa - psykiater tror att sjukdomen sprids via sociala medier
google translation: Mystical fatigue syndrome ME/CFS cracked Anton, 28, after a regular flu - psychiatrist believes the disease is spread through social media

Anton is one of the lung specialist Olli Polos 800 patients. Polo's private sleep clinic Unesta in Tampere was closed in September 2017 by the health services department Valvira. He had written medical certificates and given medical treatment to patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

"Many people want to make it a mental illness. Also we were threatened with Anton being involuntarily committed before Christmas. Which we absolutely opposed, says mom Inger Hassel.

...

"The patients came to me because they had not benefited from the CBT therapy and exercise, which is still the official health recommendation," Polo says.

He was also forbidden to research the disease. But he has circumvented that decision.

- I continue my research outside Finland's borders.

But through its drastic decision, the health authorities - with FPA as a driver - have shown that they are not yet prepared to see ME / CFS as a biological, physical disease.

- There is a lot suggesting that it is a biological disease. Olli Polo was a pioneer who experimented. And the patients appreciated him. I think his treatments were both logical and reasonable, says Professor Ville Valtonen, retired senior physician at HUCS Infection Clinic.

( @Jonathan Edwards - is Olli Polo the same doctor you heard at Invest in ME last year and thought had come to a wrong conference?)

There is also a TV documentary in Finnish with Swedish voice over and text. Haven't seen it yet myself.
Duration: 28 minutes
Yle Arenan: Den gåtfulla tröttheten

 

Am watching the documentary now. Anton's mum says: To conquer this disease seems to be as difficult as learning how to fly.

 

Dr Polo talked at IiME. He suggested using connective tissue laxity as away to diagnoses ME. That seemed to me wrong. The problem is ME (PEM etc) not any laxity that might or might not come with it. It indicated very muddled thinking to me. Being anti-BPS is not necessarily a sign of being scientifically competent.

 

People with laxity of the EDS kind do seem to get a lot of symptoms that have some overlap with ME though.

 

In this documentary Olli Polo was very general. Together with excellent descriptions from patients and carers this documentary turned out very well. I wish it had English subtitles as well. The psychiatrist who believes ME is something you can get by learning about it looked like a fool. He is soon to open a ward at his psychiatric hospital for patients with ME, neuroborreliosis and fibromyalgia. They'll be regarded as belonging to the same patient group and will receive the same approach.

In the documentary the psychiatrist said among other: Humans are a social animal with built in stress mechanisms. We get scared and influenced by each other, and in some circumstances we can develop similar symptoms that we observe in our surroundings.
This seemed to be his explanation also for the Royal Free Hospital epidemic in the 1950's.

 

Oh boi... This sounds exactly like the Danish approach to ME/CFS with 'funktionelle lidelser'.....

It's so infuriating not being able to do something about it... The entire BPS idea is so obviously stupid. If only I had had my health of 6-10 years ago... but alas.. Didn't even know I had ME/CFS there back then because the Danish Health Council actively fought the ME/CFS diagnosis.

 

It is popular in Norway as well

 

Since Finland has been of great interest to me (lots of relatives, lots of visits, etc.), I have of course been interested in dr Polo's case. I've never understood him as specifically scientifically competent. He is a clinician. A typical clinician, I believe.

 

Question.
If Dr Davis ( or assigned person) makes a 2min video and do healthy the cell on Cfs serum. And demonstrate this is a physical disease and publish it or present it to all the equivalents CDCs and NIH world wide (not sure what they are called).
Couldn’t we demonstrate biological cause all and for all?

 

Risto Vataja primarily publishes in Finnish, but has been involved in some odd studies:

https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/portal/en...c17-4c43-b491-61c334c38875)/publications.html
"Better long-term outcome for hypnotherapy than for CBT in adults with ADHD: results of a six-month follow-up"

 

Yes The draft version of STM's (the Ministry of Social Affairs and health) report on the planned new guidelines seem to be based on Fink's model

http://stm.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_pub...hairioiden-hoidon-jarjestamisesta-lausunnolle

Short summary available here through Google Translate, English:
https://translate.google.se/transla...hoidon-jarjestamisesta-lausunnolle&edit-text=

Edited to fix the link and add link to Google Translate version of the article.

 

Definition of fink - an unpleasant or contemptible person. Aptly named.

 

That doesn't sound good - not that I could read any of the two pages there though.

 

The draft report is only available in Finnish, unfortunately. It probably deserves its own thread, so I made one here: https://www.s4me.info/threads/finla...nes-based-on-finks-functional-disorders.3949/

@Esther12, I had accidentally linked to the wrong document -- thanks for letting me know.