This is the worst from The Times yet: Prof Simon Wessely finally showing evidence of the death threats against him

See also: Cerebrospinal fluid profiles can differentiate between Lyme disease, ME/CFS and healthy controls
See also: CFS Patients Try to Help Researchers Despite The Fact that Researchers try To Kill Them with CBT and GET
See also: ME/CFS Researchers Face Threats from Militant Islamic Extremist Terrorists
See also: Lynn did not need to receive death threats. CBT psychiatrists have made sure that no medical research has been done in the last 20 years or so to find treatment and a cure for ME, an infectious disease
See also: The first picture of the death threats against Prof Simon Wessely has now been released See also: The following cartoon in The Times shows how desperate the Times and Prof Wessely are to make sure that no one finds out that ME/CFS is a serious and very disabling Infectious disease See also: Premorbid risk markers for growing nose syndrome in a large cohort of CBT psychiatrists

The Times Rod Liddle's Narrow vision on ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)

by Tony Britton on August 6, 2011:

Rod Liddle was as immoderate as the outrageous behaviour he was criticising (“Shoot the medical messenger — see if that’ll cure you”, Comment, last week). There are around 193,00...0 myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/ chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients in Britain, and most have never threatened scientific researchers. So why paint a picture — “malingering mentals”, “foaming paranoia” — tarring thousands with the actions of a few?

There is a legitimate debate about which model — biomedical or biopsychosocial — best fits the illness, but it’s not true that evidence for the former is “non-existent”.

More than 90% of official grant spend on ME/CFS in the past decade has gone on research into cognitive-behavioural approaches. These are the “palliative treatments” Liddle refers to, but even their advocates recognise that they benefit only a small minority over and above standard medical care, and are not the answer to the biomedical enigma at the heart of ME/CFS. Its sufferers deserve better.

Dr Neil Abbot, ME Research UK


See also: Harvard Medical School: EEG spectral coherence data distinguish chronic fatigue syndrome patients from healthy controls and depressed patients

See also: More psycho crap from the Times, this time from David Aaronovitch who can't be bothered to read the biomedical evidence that ME is a severely disabling infectious, neurological disease

See also: More psychiatric masturbation in The Times

See also: M C S A NEWS: The only apparent benefit of continued research into psychiatric causes for ME/CFS lies in the pocketbooks of CBT psychiatrists

See also: Cerebrospinal fluid profiles can differentiate between Lyme disease, ME/CFS and healthy controls

See also: Post-exercise acid exposure 50 times higher in ME/CFS patients vs healthy controls, with no reduction with repeat exercise

See also: Dr. Hilary Jones, When you say, "ME is controversial", did you check that with Alison, Annabel and Sophia? Now, I'm sure you didn't, because all three died of ME. Yes you read that right, …

Meet the Wessely's

By HR: Meet the Wessely's.pdf


See also: Harvard Medical School: EEG spectral coherence data distinguish chronic fatigue syndrome patients from healthy controls and depressed patients

See also: More psycho crap from the Times, this time from David Aaronovitch who can't be bothered to read the biomedical evidence that ME is a severely disabling infectious, neurological disease

See also: Psychiatric masturbation in The Times

See also: M C S A NEWS: The only apparent benefit of continued research into psychiatric causes for ME/CFS lies in the pocketbooks of CBT psychiatrists

See also: Cerebrospinal fluid profiles can differentiate between Lyme disease, ME/CFS and healthy controls

See also: Post-exercise acid exposure 50 times higher in ME/CFS patients vs healthy controls, with no reduction with repeat exercise

See also: Dr. Hilary Jones, When you say, "ME is controversial", did you check that with Alison, Annabel and Sophia? Now, I'm sure you didn't, because all three died of ME. Yes you read that right, …

Mrs Simon Wessely: Simon Wessely has had a difficult week in The Times

SamListerTimes Sam Lister Times
@clarercgp worth buying the paper tomoro (from a family perspective)... SW shd be in glorious technicolour!

clarercgp Clare Gerada
@fentonaw @SamListerTimes Dear Sam. I gather . Hope it is friendly fire - he has had a difficult week.

SamListerTimes Sam Lister Times
@clarercgp i cast an eye over it to make sure wasnt going down a stupid route. all looked sensible and sympathetic. Plus a nice pic!

@clarercgp Clare Gerada
@SamListerTimes Thanks Sam. I wonder how many copies of the TImes this household will buy tomorrow.

Thx to Jac for this exchange on Twitter between Claire Gerada and the Health Editor of the Times on Thursday.

http://twitter.com/#!/clarercgp
http://twitter.com/#!/SamListerTimes

See also: Harvard Medical School: EEG spectral coherence data distinguish chronic fatigue syndrome patients from healthy controls and depressed patients

See also: More psycho crap from the Times, this time from David Aaronovitch who can't be bothered to read the biomedical evidence that ME is a severely disabling infectious, neurological disease

See also: More psychiatric masturbation in The Times

See also: M C S A NEWS: The only apparent benefit of continued research into psychiatric causes for ME/CFS lies in the pocketbooks of CBT psychiatrists

See also: Cerebrospinal fluid profiles can differentiate between Lyme disease, ME/CFS and healthy controls

See also: Post-exercise acid exposure 50 times higher in ME/CFS patients vs healthy controls, with no reduction with repeat exercise

See also: Dr. Hilary Jones, When you say, "ME is controversial", did you check that with Alison, Annabel and Sophia? Now, I'm sure you didn't, because all three died of ME. Yes you read that right, …

PACE trial: vague criteria and poor assessment

othersideofvenus, 18 February 2011 11:27AM:

I took part in this study, and was randomised to the GET group, and I'd be very sceptical about its results.

My initial blood tests showed some signs of infection and inflammation so I was sent for another set which apparently didn't, so I could be accepted into the trial. The assessment/criteria forms which had to be filled out at the before and during the trial, did not mention symptoms after exertion or delayed onset fatigue, there was very little attention paid to pain and cognitive/mental issues were very blurred.

At the start of the trial, I had to wear an accelerometor thing for a week, presumably to measure activity levels. But at the end of the trial, this wasn't repeated. The fitness tests measured the number of steps I could do in a set amount of time, but paid no attention to the fact that I usually couldn't walk for 2 days after these assessments.

The 'handbook' I was given contained an incredibly flawed model, which GET is based on, which basically goes 'felt a bit ill - led to resting too much - led to deconditioning - led to the ME/CFS symptoms'. This completely ignores the fact that the vast majority of people don't rest early on and carry on pushing themselves despite severe pain and fatigue.

I would suggest that the criteria were so vague and the assessment so poor that a majority of the people who recovered using GET never had ME/CFS in the first place.

A dark side to your cellphone?

By Christopher Ketchum, Los Angeles Times, Opinion,
2/23/10

We love our digital gadgets -- "magic" devices that define cool and promise to remake our lives for the better. But there is growing evidence of a dark side to the techno-magic. Your cellphone, and any other wireless device that depends on electromagnetic (EM) microwave radiation to function, may be hazardous to your health.

Most of the bad news comes from major labs and research institutions in Europe . What they're reporting is that using cellphones and Wi-Fi transmitters -- which operate using similar frequencies -- can have biological effects on the brain and body.

The scientific debate remains heated and far from resolved, as the Health section in The Times reported last week. But the research to date suggests a number of chilling possibilities as to what EM radiation may be doing to us.

For example, in 2008, neuroscientists at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia strapped Nokia phones to subjects' heads, then turned the phones on and off. On -- the brain's alpha waves spiked. Off -- the brain settled. The researchers speculated that the effect was the result of the brain "concentrating to overcome the electrical interference in brain circuits caused by the pulsed microwave radiation."

Swedish neuro-oncologist Leif Salford, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at Lund University, has found that cellphone radiation kills brain cells in rats, especially those cells associated with memory and learning. The damage occurred after an exposure of just two hours. In duplicating earlier research, Salford also found that cellphone microwaves produce holes in the barrier between the circulatory system and the brain in rats. One potential outcome, according to Salford , is dementia.

Meanwhile, Austrian researchers reported in 2004 that cellphone radiation can induce double-strand breaks in DNA , one of the undisputed causes of cancer.

So why isn't this a bigger issue in the U.S. ? Partly because there are countervailing studies and other scientists telling us not to be worried, that the risks are low or that we just don't know enough to say that the risks are real.

Consider the biggest study being done on the question of whether cellphones cause cancers of the brain, mouth and ear -- the 13-country Interphone study conducted under the auspices of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France. The study's epidemiologists have looked at cancer patients and worked backward to establish cellphone habits.

The study, alas, has been fraught with controversy. The multinational researchers -- U.S. scientists conspicuously not among them -- have fallen into warring camps, and the full study has not been released.

However, pieces of the study have been made public. One Interphone study, for example, found that after a decade of cellphone use, the chance of getting a brain tumor goes up as much as 40% for adults. Another Interphone study reported a nearly 300% increased risk of acoustic neuroma, a tumor of the acoustic nerve. But still other Interphone researchers say their data show no increase in brain tumors -- or any tumor -- caused by cellphone use.

The cellphone industry lobby, CTIA -- the Wireless Assn., recently said in a statement that "peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk." Meanwhile, watchdog groups keep it vague. "The available science," says the Food and Drug Administration, "does not allow us to conclude that mobile phones are absolutely safe, or that they are unsafe."

So whom to believe, and what to do?

First, consider research done by Henry Lai, a biologist at the University of Washington : Only 25% of studies funded by the wireless industry show some type of biological effect from microwave radiation. Independently funded studies, however, are far more damning: 75% of those studies -- free of industry influence -- show a bioeffect. Some 30% of funding for the Interphone research was provided by industry, which critics say has resulted in a favorable skewing of some Interphone data.

Obviously, we need to demand more independent research into microwave radiation. In the meantime, we should also treat cellphones and other wireless gadgets with less adoration and more suspicion, and as individuals we may want to follow the lead of many nations and regulate the way we use them for ourselves.

For example, Belgium , France , Finland , Germany , Russia and Israel have publicly discouraged use of cellphones by children. (Independent research in Sweden last year concluded there was an astonishing 420% increased chance of getting brain cancer for cellphone users who were teenagers or younger when they first started using their phones.) France has gone so far as to issue a generalized national cellphone health warning, banned cellphones in elementary schools and considered outlawing marketing the phones to children.

The personal equivalent? For starters, don't get rid of your land line. Buy a hands-free device; keep your cellphone away from your head, face and neck. Don't carry it in your pocket for hours on end(there's some evidence cellphones aren't good for your sperm count).

Salford , the neuro-oncologist, has called the unregulated use of cellphones by 4.5 billion people worldwide "the largest human biological experiment ever." It's only common sense to do what you can to take yourself out of the guinea pig pool.

Christopher Ketcham is the author of "Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health" in February's GQ.

Lynn Gilderdale’s moving account of why she decided to end her life

From The Times
January 26, 2010

OK guys, I have something really important to say. I want to talk about something extremely private and personal to share with you, my closest friends. After many years of serious deliberation, I have pretty much come to a huge decision. I hope you will try to understand my reasons for this decision and even if you don’t personally agree with it I hope you won’t judge me too harshly.

I don’t know how to begin. I am just going to come out with it. Here goes, deep breaths. Basically I think some of you have known for a while I have had enough of this miserable excuse for a life, of merely semi-existing for the last 16½ years. I have had enough and I want to die. This is no whim and certainly not just because of the reactive depression diagnosed a few months ago. I am no longer on antidepressants because they weren’t doing anything for me.

I really, really, really want to die and have had enough of being so sick and in so much pain every second of everyday and, basically, one serious health crisis after another. I am tired, so very, very tired and I just don’t think I can keep hanging on for that elusive illness-free existence.

SAD, BAD and ME WARNINGS

We’re told that NICE might be under attack from more than one source.

Apparently, it’s got something to do with the psychologists, who have, in a complex way, affected ME patients in a big way as set out by their friends from the CBT MAGIC KINGDOM.

But suddenly they have started to think again and even though millions of pounds are flowing in their direction, they have now started to dispute the usefullness of CBT and GET in ME and want to use it at their own discretion, meaning only if you would need it as a patient.

So it is not only the One Click Pressure group, as that sick, sad and mad columnist in the paper called them, is seeing some sense.

Good. Because this will give NICE something to do.

And maybe it will get them back at the drawing boards, instead of sitting around all day or being out playing golf with lovely dovely good old chappies who like Cute Bikinis and Topless ladies to have a NICE day out for peer group binding instead of peer reviewing.

Already, in this period of NICE-ness, they’ve come up with utterly useless guidelines on many other subjects and so many GP’s have started to put the guidelines under their desks if one leg is shorter than the other.

Now most of the all knowing doctors won’t admit this but it is true. No doctor reads those guidelines so it doesn’t matter how much crap they write.

You see, the ME guidelines came in EIGHT different flavours or so. A summary and a summary of the summary and then a summary for patients of the summary and then a summary of the patients one for healthcare professionals and then blah blah blah.

No wonder the good old Daily Mail went on strike a few weeks ago as they did not want to deliver a tree to every doctor in the country who would then not read it, let alone touch it.

Now, the first time I came to the UK to do a locum I thought that it was very NICE and cool to call your postal services the Daily Mail.

It was only when they said I had to buy them that I started te realise that this daily business was a tabloid without a girl in her full glory so to speak on page 93.3

I was a bit annoyed when they said it was actually the Royal Mail, but in their kindness, so before I could say everything is better down here in Oz, they said they will deliver your mail as well as you are such a NICE bloke.

And then there was this silly billy woman GP in the paper who actually liked the ME guideline, well, if you read her report you quickly realise that she was a typical doctor, you know the sort, no knowledge of ME at all.

Reminded me a bit about NICE and their friends who are not home, 001/7, you know our master of espionage with ME, has assured ME that they are out in a town up North in England, having a party on the beach to see if their CBT is succesful and they will catch b..bs and topless ladies.

The trouble is, just look at the picture, they can’t diagnose ME, and they certainly can’t find a beach either.

I mean, anybody in the UK who is out in his swimming costume right now, let alone without parts of it and is on the beach, must be ripe for emergency CBT and GET.

The last to get a bit of heat in the system.

But soon, after this One Click Trial, this form of CBT, together with the other one from the guys from the magical wands, will be illegal.

The latest wheeze comes from the CBT blokeys who are concerned that they haven’t released a new article in the last few days yet. Top of the POPS is on red alert and even MTV has put their program on hold till a new and exiting one will be released so we can all go to court and sing with our beloved friends the latest tune that we love so much that some people at the GOBSART Institute want to turn that into the new National British Anthem.

And over half of the doctors interviewed in a recent survey still said they have no clue what ME is , let alone that they could make any sense out of the GOBSART ME guidelines, and these were docs that got a week off to study the report, but they got so bored with looking at a report that ignored all medical evidence and other state of the art stuff, that many were saying it was like going to war as a Knight in shining armour, because you didn’t look around you to see that we actually have tanks, guns and other modern stuff.

So instead of reading the guidelines these docs were off to CBT Wonderland for a week of GET and other fun stuff they have to offer anybody who is daft enough to wlan through the door.

But this isn’t to bad if you are healthy and don’t mention ME, because then all hell breaks loose.

Because, and I want to make this absolutely clear, your idea of a good time and a nice run or so, is very far removed from any CBT blokey who are afraid that exercise might ruin their CBT plans, so they invented the exercise phobia theory.

You see, if they project their own problems on us, and use a bit of CBT gravy all doctors will thinks that we are lazy buggers who thought, uhum nice this ME, lets have a double dose before it is sold out.

You may have noticed these days that every single CBT article the BLOKEYS publish is exactly the same.

Two years ago they said ME and ME and ME equals nothing. Weeks later they changed that into Malingering, and even if you scrabble like there is no tomorrow, ME and Me and Me will never make malingering, but if you have failed your literacy and your maths tests in school there is no way you will notice this minute detail.

And for months they said the same and he same and the same and this goes on till we all believe it.

Even people who were fit and well and so before ME took over started to think, I didn’t like running, I didn’t like the game of Federer or Nadal, I didn’t like Christiano Ronaldo if he puts his turbo on, I didn’t like going out for a meal or a night out with friends or so.

That lying in bed thing is so much better that well, who would want something else.

And then that Lightning thing struck again, together with Mr Nickel and Dime and his Magic wand friends who sell the same thing under a different name, and a doc with a sad and mad brain started to talk as if she never learned anything in med school.

No really, even if you can’t read better than a six xear old you will know that using GOOGLE and searching the internet is a requirement these days.

In the past I would spend a whole afternoon looking for an article in the library and I was lucky if I found it and the librarian would be able to get hold of the magazine with the article in a week or three, four maybe.

Now you click, click and click, even my arms and my brain can now do it, and hoopla there you have the canadian, the south australian and psychiatric guideline all in one click.

You see, just go to SACFS, Australian obviously, sorry folks, and the whole wide ME world is at your feet.

I will put all these brilliant guidelines on ME BLOG another time.

Power is zapping out of my arms and my brains is going into Chernobyl mode.

Oh, and thanks again Mr Clarkson for your help on a drooling, sorry drooly Sunday.

Oh, and I almost forgot, if you want to have a bit of fun at the end of this Sunday then just click on JEREMY'S PICTURE

and you will be AMAZED........

CASTLE BUILDING TODDLERS

Oh deary me. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth last month, when the most horrible report ever compiled about ME, by NICE, found that evidence based medicine was replaced by a diet of CBT, GET and other fluffy nonsense.

The figures were terribly gloomy. Just four years ago, the Canadians made a terrific piece about ME.

Now, we just have to do it with a version from prehistoric times. And as a result, fewer than one in two doctors actually belief this disease is for real.

The notion, that belief is something you do in church, has been completely lost on these boys.

This produced a torrent of angry missives to the nation BMJ editorial, and the other nonsense article about ME in the same blog.

Angry people from all over England raged furiously, saying that NICE should be made to use the internet, and learn how to read evidence from others than their CBT friends.

And that they must shred these so called peer reviewed, and non-evidence based stupidity from the CBT KINGDOM, and turn their speakers to mute, and subtitle their nonsense in Hippocrite, as maybe people who can still read that language, can make any sense out of these so called guidelines.

Oh for heaven’s sake. Yes, the Top Dog from the CBT Kingdom thought he was tremendous, when he was a 4 year old, particularly when he was building sand castles.

And yes, I understand that he is still a Castle Building Toddler. But times change. And we have moved on.

The trouble is, the CBT KINGDOM and their buddies at the GOBSART Institute of Excellence, haven’t.

Even children change and pass the time using the internet, but apparently they haven’t got TV yet in the KINGDOM, let alone a cordless phone or the internet.

And why should they?? They have just pocketed ELEVEN million POUNDS.

So they have proven to themselves, and the world, that you don’t need the internet to get rich and only think about yourself and your Castle Building Toddler friends.

Every week they rewrite the same article and change the font size or a dot here and there, and then tell their friends they have done more research to back up their Toddler training.

But they have never watched anybody with ME, let alone see what life with ME is like.

Why? Because that is depressing. The Castle Building Toddlers only really perk up when someone agrees with whatever rubbish they write or say.

Whenever someone else talks, and has a different point of view, they start to unpick the stitching in the sofa.

It isn’t that they have a limited attention span. They haven’t got one at all.

There is no solution to this. Forcing these Castle Building Toddlers and their GOBSART BUDDIES, to make proper guidelines, is a complete waste of time. Because that isn’t in their own interests at all.

The best thing I can suggest is not to worry too much.

The vast majority of doctors don’t read stupid guidelines anyway. And this is true.

But they all have an opinion anyway, one they won’t change unless they get ME themselves. And until then, no one is taking any notice of us.

My biggest problem is that the general public will react to the NICE report, and articles in the adorable TIMES, by redoubling their efforts to call us liars, lazy and other niceness, until they get tired of it all.

This will mean there’ll be even less money going to proper research, but no one cares, why should they want to cure us, or get us our lives back, and get us back at work??

They are called adults, but I’m afraid they are still just Castle Building Toddlers.

The message then is simple. Forget about NICE, and just tell them to go back to their beach, and other sand pitches.

Thanks for your help and inspiration Mr Clarkson. Much appreciated.

CBT WORKS FOR EVERYTHING

BMJ RAPID RESPONSES

I'm very proud, that after weeks of trying, my so called rapid response has finally been published on the BMJ site. Please remember though that so far all my very POLITE RESPONSES with regards to the recent four very misinformed articles in the TIMES have NOT been published at ALL. Nor have I received a response from my EMAIL to the EDITOR, that is, NOT the Science Editor as you can Imagine. Really strange if you think about it as they invite you to send them an email but then don't respond at all. I can imagine that they are busy so that they might not respond the same day or so. However, an automated response, saying we have received your mail and are dealing with it, or a similar text, would then be a possibility in this area of technology. But NOT for Mr TIMES I'm afraid. But I won't give up hope, maybe he is just like ME and he just needs a lot more TIME to do simple tasks.

So back to the BMJ. Click on:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/335/7617/411#top for responses to the editorial where you can find my response or http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/335/7617/446#176151 for responses to the article in that same number of the BMJ.

Re: WHO is relieved by NICE?
22 September 2007

Dr Speedy, GP ME Place of work: MY BED.

Many things have already been said, but I would like to take this opportunity to add a few things: The recently finished Gibson Enquiry states that: “In Britain, there has been a clear historical bias towards research into the psychosocial explanations of CFS/ME. This is despite Parliament recognising ME as a physical illness in a Private Members Bill, the ME Sufferers Bill, in 1988.” Furthermore it mentions that “The WHO (World Health Organisation) in Geneva holds an internationally recognised classification that ME is a neurological disease." And in February 2004, the then Health Minister (Lord Warner) made it very clear, in a formal written acceptance, "that the UK ACCEPTS the World Health Organisation classification of ME as a neurological disorder.”
And now if you keep that in mind and just read the NICE guidelines on ME again DEAR MR EDITOR. More than a hundred pages and NOWHERE do they mention that ME is a NEUROLOGICAL illness. NOWHERE AT ALL.

Now I also have a question for all the people who have written excellent responses on this page. I have started a BLOG: http://niceguidelines.blogspot.com/

Is it alright if I would use some of your comments on my BLOG?? If not or if you have any suggestions, please let me know. My email address is on the right hand side of my Blog. All the patients and carers for patients with ME, all the best. Can I take this opportunity to thank all the doctors who are working hard and trying to help us. And for Mr NICE, maybe go and visit a few patients with Severe ME, I'm sure you will get a totally different view and you will understand why the Canadian and Australian guidelines are so much better and also so much more helpful to get the diagnosis right. Because remember, people with ME we can't cure, but the many people who haven't got ME, see also professor Mirza's response on
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/335/7617/446#top , who wrote that 90% of the patients he sees with a diagnosis of ME have something else with fatigue, we can ACTUALLY TREAT. And that sounds a lot better I can assure you.

Competing interests: Bedbound GP with ME.

PS: rectification: Australian Guidelines should read: SOUTH Australian guidelines. Thanks for correcting ME.

COPING with ME

Mr Clarkson promised me that he would come up with a solution to the recent bunch of misinformed and crappy articles in the Times about ME. And he has just send ME what we should do. Or better, what he is doing about it. Many thanks on behalf of Dr Speedy and everybody with ME. He also mentioned that this is the best way of coping with problems. No need for psycho nonsense. He also has an idea what to do about the CBT KINGDOM, but it is a bit more drastic he has assured ME.

More ME Nonsense from the TIMES

Please keep in mind, when you read this next BLOG, that this is what HEALTHY children look like, they sing in a choir, like doing sports and like going to school. This might sound very obvious, but if you read on, you will soon find out it isn't for a medical consultant and a nurse consultant, both working with CHILDREN, in the MAGICAL CBT KINGDOM for KIDDO's who write their own colum in the TIMES. Yes, the TIMES again. This time, on 14.9.07.

It is Saturday morning, and Mrs Young picks up yesterday’s Times, and with a cup of tea she sets herself down to have a NICE and quiet hour while Anna, het twelve year old is playing tennis, and Jane, her nine year old, is still in bed.
To her surprise there is an article by a doctor from London in the paper about ME. The article is called:
“What is chronic fatigue syndrome or ME?
Child health experts at Great Ormond Street Hospital talk about chronic fatigue syndrome, probably the most common medical reason for absence from school.”

It starts of all right by saying:
“The condition is typically triggered by a viral infection from which the young person does not recover in the usual way.”
But then things start to get a bit tricky. “only a few seem to be helped by allergy treatments.” Mrs Young, who is not a health care professional, but has two kids and common sense, starts to wonder, so is ME something like hayfever then? Mrs Young is particularly interested in this article, as her daughter Jane has not been her usual self lately. She takes a sip of her coffee and reads on.
“Those affected may be unable to go to school, lose contact with peers, and become generally less able to be involved in their usual activities.” And suddenly she has to think about her own daughter again. She had the flu or something and has been in bed ever since.

“When should I seek medical attention? It's a good idea to see your GP if the symptoms continue for more than three months.” But not to worry, even though Jane, who is almost ten, hasn’t been running around like a normal nine or ten year old, she has only been in bed for two months. So Mrs Young decides to wait another month, as that is what the doctor, a consultant by the way, says. And that she has missed school for two months, no problem, absence of less then three months, or any illness, less than three months, can’t be anything serious. At least, that is what this doctor says.

“What we do know is that looking for a cause is not useful.” At this moment her husband walks in, he is an engineer, and has just solved the problem with the washing machine. He sees the comment, and says, GOOD doctor, looking for a cause is not useful. Why do you read that CRAP, as Jeremy Clarkson recently said in the same paper? Well look, answers his wife, it is about our Jane.
“There isn't a cure for CFS/ME.” And Mrs Young thinks, yeah, I read that somewhere before when my auntie’s friend had ME.
“How successful is treatment? Most young people on a rehabilitation programme recover within 12 to 24 months.” Now Mr Young bursts out laughing. So are these doctors magicians or so??? First they say there is no cure, and then they say they cure them with a rehab programm. Who in his right frame of mind would believe these storytellers? What did you say dear, it is NICE? Oh, you mean, NICE, that so called independent Institute of Excellence, believes this?? And what is the medical word they use, something to do with evidence?? Yes, thank you dear, so this is what doctors call evidence based. So there is no cure but there is a cure. Can I read that article as well and show it to my boss, he needs to have a laugh, you know how difficult his life has been lately.
“What's the outlook? Most young sufferers who take active steps towards recovery in a planned and gradual way do return to a normal life.”
You see, says Mrs Young, there is NO cure, but in the MAGIC CBT KINGDOM for KIDDO’s they have a magic wand. But it will only work, and get you better, if you are not a lazy git. Sorry dear, I wasn’t talking about you.
So what do you think dear, shall we take Jane to the doctor and be sensible, or should we wait till she has been ill, and in bed for more than three months as this children's doctor says we should do? Isn't it so that, the sooner you do something about a problem, the easier it is to solve it?? Didn't that NICEY thingy say something like that, you know, the sooner you recognise ME the better the outcome???

Don't think and all will be fine

I mailed Mr Clarkson a few days ago and he replied by saying that “In a list of the five most rubbish things in the world, I'd have America's foreign policy at five. Aids at four. Iran's nuclear programme at three. Gordon Brown at two and" the Science Section of the TIMES "at number one. It is that bad.” He also informed me that he used to have a VIRGIN account when he was single but he changed over to HOTMAIL, as he thought it would spice up his life. According to him, it is a lot of mail but nothing HOT at all. But he now has discovered that they also employ BELINDA MESSENGER and he invited me last night to use her help. We started sending her backwards and forwards between the Clarkson Ranch and my bedroom, and he mailed me a short, but interesting story.
A few years ago he was out drinking with the guys from the Times Science Section. He was feeling miserable because he had just finished testdriving a car that he described as “you don’t want to think what would happen if it bumped into a lamppost. Also its name sounds like a disease." And at that stage the people from the Science Section started saying things like, just copy what the manufacturer says, and you be out drinking and clubbing with your mates before you know it, instead of having to read, think and spend ages on the internet before you can finally write up a report that no one will like. So just copy and all will be fine.
Mr Clarkson then told them that he was taught that a proper journalist was curious by nature, didn’t believe things at face value and wanted to form his own opinion to inform the readers well instead of selling them a lot of hot air. The Science Editor and his mates all burst out laughing and Mr Clarkson was starting to feel really miserable. At least at Top Gear the audience would listen to him.
But he was saved by his mobile. FIAT called and was sending a private plane to pick him, and a few other journalists, up for the presentation of their new car in Italy. He thought Italy, Fiat and Ferrari, NICE wine, beautiful cars and so the petrol in his veins was starting to flow really fast and he got all excited. A bit like you, he said, or is it ME people, when that Institute of Excellence was starting to tell the world they would do a report of some sort about ME.
He had Champagne and caviar on his flight, a wonderful meal in one of the best restaurants in Italy, and the girls were just breathtakingly beautiful. After lunch, all journalists were gathered in these large majestic gardens, and all they saw was this group of the most beautiful women in the world. But there was no car to be seen in miles. Suddenly all these girls started to disappear in the ground and out came a car. To increase the suspense a bit, it was covered in an enormous Italian flag. Vivaldi was playing his four seasons and when he changed from winter to spring, two girls appeared out of nowhere and removed the cover. At that moment, he had to think about the information leaflet Fiat had been handing out to all the journalists, and he had to think about the advise that The Times Science people had given him. Just copy the brochure and all will be fine. But as soon as he saw the car, his journalistic mind took over.

"This is a very ugly car. So ugly in fact that you’ll want to get inside it and shut the door as quickly as possible. But sadly when you are inside it’s even worse. If it were a creature, it wouldn’t be a lion or a praying mantis or even a chimp. No, I think it would be a wasp — useless and hateful in equal measure. I’d love to meet the man who styled the exterior, to find out if he’d done it as some sort of a joke. But mostly I’d like to meet the man who simply didn’t bother at all with the interior. Because looking at that dashboard gives you some idea of what it might be like to be dead." And he said, I get the impression from what I have read and so about the NICE guidelines and ME, that NICE have done a similar job as Fiat. Just look and see for yourself. But he assured me that he would get back to me in the next day or so to let me know what we could do about this.

Have a NICE day,

Dr Speedy.

Coping with ME according to the TIMES

This apparently is a lady trying to cope with ME, according to the Sunday TIMES from 2/9/07. I will comment further on the article in the next few days. Adorable, wouldn't you say?

And what would Mr Clarkson say, in the same newspaper: "I’m choosing the words for my conclusion with even more care than usual. So here goes. This article is crap."

CBT: Junk Medicine at the festival of Science

“Talking your way out of chronic conditions, Festival of Science,” was written on 11/9/07 in the Times and today the same paper had another NICE CBT article called:

“Cognitive behavioural therapy: Junk medicine: I think this might work.”

Now I always thought that there were a few things journalists had to do before writing an article. For example:
1. Read about the subject before you interview or quote someone, so that people can’t sell their baloney with the journalist just writing it down.
2. Ask critical questions.

Apparently this is NOT the function of journalism anymore. They are just a medium to print whatever the CBT KINGDOM wants. I used to love reading Jeremy Clarkson’s stuff in the Sunday Times and it might be an idea for you, Mr Science Editor, to speak to him, as he seems to have a more critical mind about things than you. At the moment you just seem to be nothing more than a photocopier for the CBT KINGDOM. Apparently the title of Science Editor of The Times doesn’t mean anything anymore, just as we have seen with the BMJ editor. It doesn’t mean that you can spell the word critical reading, or have a clue what it is.

Just have a look at a few things the Science Editor wrote, might help to have a wonderful day and cheer you up.
“Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which seeks to improve the symptoms of illness by changing patients' attitudes, thoughts and feelings, often strikes people as flaky.”

“Few psychiatrists, however, dispute that CBT can be helpful to patients with depression, anxiety and even schizophrenia.” Yeah, surprising, a psycho therapy that helps people with a mental health issue, isn’t that what it is all about? Funnily enough, few orthopaedic surgeons dispute the fact that my RATT (Ruptured Achilles Tendon Therapy, see my previous BLOGs) therapy works for ruptured Achilles tendons. I have phoned a few to suggest to treat these patients with CBT in the future. All I got as an answer was so much laughter that I might become a stand up comedian. All I have to do is use texts from the CBT KINGDOM and The Times and we all have a jolly good night.

I must say that I like the remark that “Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is flaky”. Maybe an anti-dandruff shampoo might be of help?? Might even try it for depression, anxiety or schizophrenia and see if it works. What do you think, good therapy for these problems or will patients dispute the use of anti-dandruff shampoo for depression etc??

Professor Trudie Chalder, of King's College London, announced that it (=CBT) can help people with type 1 diabetes.” These are people who NEED INSULIN. No insulin means they are going to die. But from now on I will prescribe CBT instead of insulin. How quickly will this bring me before the GMC (General Medical Council) do you think??? But I will state there that I was just following Professor’s Chalder’s advise. And what will you say if it was your son, daughter or partner who died because I used CBT and not insulin?? Thank you very much, I’m sure.

“Though her study has not yet been peer reviewed or published.” Doesn’t make a difference, no study from the CBT KINGDOM will ever be peer reviewed, it will just be published. Much quicker and easier. And if someone will make critical noises, they will just ignore those. Let me explain, peer reviewed means that others, NOT from the same institute, will read the article CRITICALLY and point out mistakes etc. One mistake the CBT KINGDOM makes over and over again is that they call ME CFS but they are actually just talking about people with chronic fatigue, so tiredness ONLY. As the CBT KINGDOM has friends at different medical journals, their articles are NEVER peer reviewed. The principle is simple, I do something for you and you do something for me, and so that saves a lot of time for the editor. If you think that only applies to ME, just have a look at my BLOG called:
http://niceguidelines.blogspot.com/2007/09/nasty-processes-produce-nasty.html

It is about UTIs (Urinary Tract Infection) in children, and the enormous outcry, under paediatricians and kidney specialists, about the recent NICE guidelines and the editorial in the BMJ saying how lovely these guidelines were. Did the Editor have a critical look before he wrote his editorial? Just read my BLOG and you will not only know the answer but a whole lot more.

“The biology of cancer and diabetes is quite well understood, yet there is evidence that CBT can help and many patients are keen to have it. It is unfortunate that people with CFS do not think likewise. To embrace the one treatment that has been shown to be effective against their illness does not mean it is imaginary.” I really like this comment. The science editor has done his homework. He says here that CBT is an imaginary therapy, so just make believe, so even he thinks it doesn’t work, or does he mean something else??

So would you really think Mr Science Editor, that this hokus pokus therapy is as effective for cancer or diabetes as for example insulin or an operation to remove the cancer? I certainly agree. Just leave the cancer in place and revert to CBT; 12-16 sessions of talk therapy and if I would be the cancer I would run a mile as well. Now if you would be the cancer patient, would you see me for CBT, or go to a proper specialist? Oh yes, there will be people who need help coping with a horrible or even terminal illness, strange don’t you think??? But a good friend or partner and a good GP is usually all they need.

And “It is unfortunate that people with CFS do not think likewise,” you probably mean, it is unfortunate that the CBT KINGDOM, and you as a Science Editor, have no idea what ME is. But hey, we are all tired at times, just like people with ME right? Just like people with Alzheimer’s are all a bit forgetful. Or is that a misconception? We would obviously think likewise, if there would be a point in this CBT business for people with ME. Silly idea, I know.

I must say, you can write NICE sentences, unfortunately, that is all they are.

“To embrace the one treatment that has been shown to be effective against their illness.” If this was true Mr Science Editor, all people with ME would be RUNNING, if we could walk that is, to the CBT community to get this MIRACLE CURE. Unfortunately Mr Science Editor, it works as well for ME as it will help you grow your vegetables in your garden. If you would just read a few comments on the recent NICE guidelines either on my BLOG, or on the rapid responses on the BMJ site, you would have actually known something about ME. I know, just like with NICE itself, knowledge works counterproductive and would mean you would waste time on reading and especially critical reading etc, whereas just copying the remarks from the CBT KINGDOM is easier and saves you a lot of work and time. Does it make for good journalism? I’m afraid LOUSY is the word that springs to mind. Just ask yourself one little very simple question, even NICE acknowledges this fact. Why is it that we have people with severe ME who are bedbound, dependent on others for all sorts of things and NOT ONE CBT person has done a trial if CBT will cure or help these patients? Well let me help you out a bit. I’m one of those lucky people, and I have actually tried this hokus pokus therapy, because that’s all it is. It’s because it would show that CBT is just a lot of HOT AIR as you would probably call it.

Oh by the way, those BMJ comments are available at:http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/335/7617/446#176151
Or comments on the BMJ editorial about the NICE guideline at:http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/335/7617/411#176030

If you would just Google a bit, or even mail me the next time, before you write these so called editorials, you might be well informed for a change, and it would only take you a few minutes to be up to date. You might even be able to ask a critical question or so, as one would expect from a journalist or Editor.
But apparently, you prefer the same principles as the CBT KINGDOM. The less you know about the subject the easier it is to have an opinion and write about it. But you have more interesting things up your sleeve.

“Even when diseases have a clear physical cause – a virus, as in HIV, or an auto-immune reaction, as in diabetes or arthritis – psychological factors can have a major effect on outcomes. Compliance with treatment regimens, diet and exercise, and background mental health are often critical to a good prognosis, and CBT can improve all of these.” Dear Mr Science Editor, all you need with these conditions is common sense. Yes, if you have a positive outlook on life that will help, but do you really need CBT for that? A NICE talk with a friend, a NICE game of football, a NICE meal, a romantic evening etc are more beneficial than these psycho people. But they want to earn a living and have their name in the spotlight. And thanks to people like you, who believe everything at face value, they do succeed.

Let me ask you a question, does the Times want to be a proper and serious newspaper or is nonsense enough?? Isn’t REAL journalism about trying to find the answer behind the answer. To get to the bottom of a problem, or was that only a principle applied by journalists who unveiled Nixon and his Water problem?? I know, that took them a lot of time and effort. Much easier to copy and write everything down, so you can be in the PUB to have a drink and watch your favourite football or rugby team on time. All that digging and reading and so, it is a bit like medicine, I like medicine and so, but it is a shame that you have to see patients as a GP. Now would you copy such a comment, or would you start thinking, and maybe have the urge to ask me a critical question? But be careful, the CBT KINGDOM is known for it’s severe shock like reactions to critical questions. And I might adopt a similar approach.

“It is decidedly not a treatment that can help only when illness is all in the mind. That misleading impression, however, still inspires hostility towards CBT among people who might benefit greatly. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a case in point. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has recently recommended CBT and a related strategy, graded exercise, for the condition, on the back of good randomised clinical trials that indicate a benefit. There are no other therapies for CFS with such good evidence in their support, yet some patient groups have reacted with anger.”
I’m afraid Mr Science Editor, GOOD randomised clinical trials for CBT do NOT exist. Like I said, for starters they DO NOT even get the diagnosis right. But have a look at a recent so called randomised CBT trial published in April 2007, in the journal for psychotherapy and psychosomatics. Yes I know, the place to be for a NEUROLOGICAL illness, my article about surgery for ruptured Achilles tendons will appear in their next issue. But what did they say? They informed us that they CURE 69% of patients with ME. Now, even if you believe the NICE guidelines Mr Science Editor, you will see that they will advocate CBT to COPE with ME. So even NICE says, without using those words, that CBT is rubbish. But I agree with you, you would have to read their report, instead of just looking at the conclusion. TOO MUCH EFFORT FOR BUSY EDITORS. I fully agree. Your counterpart at the BMJ (British Medical Journal) shared your view. Just copy and you could be on the golf course or so after lunch, instead of doing a proper job.

“For these critics, CBT is part of a medical crusade to write off their condition.” As I said before you have a NICE way with words, shame that you don’t know what you actually talk about. Do you actually know what the CBT KINGDOM says about people with ME?? No, I thought NOT. We are all malingerers, hypochondriacs, people with personality disorders and more NICENESS. I wanted to write a few of these quotes in a BLOG but then someone mentioned your glorious articles so I had to divert. For starters, CBT is a way by the CBT KINGDOM to write ME off as a psycho illness, their TOP man has been trying for years to get it marked as a mental illness, and he is still trying, even though the WHO has classified it as a neurological illness for decades. Secondly, like I said before, many people with ME have tried CBT, just as we have tried homeopathy, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, orthomolecular medicine etc and you know what? They are all NICE ways to pass the time, NICE ways of hoping for a remedy, and all might work for other problems, but they do NOT work for ME. Full stop, unfortunately.

I also like your following comment, top notch.
“It is unfortunate that people with CFS do not think likewise. To embrace the one treatment that has been shown to be effective against their illness does not mean it is imaginary.”

If you would just have a look at the BMJ link I placed earlier, and then READ the comment about the Belgium CBT clinics, then you know it all Mr Science Editor. 18% of patients with ME, no patients with severe ME are seen there either, because you have to get there and even if you would be able to get there, they would exclude you, because you can’t walk. But anyway, before CBT 18% of patients worked, after CBT only 14% was still at work. Would you call that effective treatment??? And keep in mind that another CBT KINGDOM says we CURE 69% of ME patients with CBT. So that would mean that if 18% works before treatment that 18 plus 69 = 87% should work after treatment. Simple, a seven year old child could do the maths. But NICE couldn’t, the BMJ editor couldn’t, and you apparently can’t either. Now 87% sounds different than 14% doesn’t it? So how effective is your CBT treatment really?? And why are you NOT writing about these major inconsistencies??? Yes I know, you think that if the CBT KINGDOM says something, that you believe them at face value. Modern journalism, what a delight.

But your title was spot on: Cognitive behavioural therapy: Junk medicine at the festival of Science.

Have a NICE day,

Dr Speedy.