Doctor Speedy and ME in search of medical honesty
Monday, March 28, 2011
CDC's Dr Unger: CFS is defined by a post-exertional fatigue which can be measured via a blood test
Toni Whistler, James F Jones, Elizabeth R Unger and Suzanne D Vernon*:
Address: Viral Exanthems and Herpesvirus Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Email: Toni Whistler - taw6@cdc.gov; James F Jones - jaj9@cdc.gov; Elizabeth R Unger - eru0@cdc.gov; Suzanne D Vernon* - sdv2@cdc.gov
* Corresponding author
CFS is defined by a post-exertional fatigue that does not subside 24 hours following physical stress. In contrast, exercise in healthy, untrained people induces changes in cellular homeostasis in 1 to 4 hours and a return to basal levels within 24 hours, as measured in muscle [15].
Analysis of peripheral blood gene expression in the healthy control subjects confirmed this observation since the majority of gene expression levels were the same before and 24 hours following exercise challenge. This implied that expression either returned to basal levels or was unchanged as a result of the exercise challenge.
And indeed, many of the 21 exercise-induced, differentially expressed genes in control subjects were characterized by GOs that reflect a diverse set of molecular functions necessary for cell function and viability. (These ontologies overlapped with those identified in the GO comparison analysis given in Figure 2a).
Figure 1 clearly illustrates the reciprocal pattern of gene expression in the 21 genes formost of the control subjects. In contrast, 11 of the genes were unchanged in CFS subjects before and after exercise; with 5 being classified in a transport-related ontology.
Because this difference in gene expression is so dramatic, it implicates a fundamental perturbation in the biochemical activity of lymphocyte and monocyte peripheral blood fractions from CFS subjects compared with control subjects that does not affect classical immunologic markers (i.e, CD45) that have been shown to be unaffected in CFS patients [16,17]. Rather, low expression of these genes may have subtle effects on immune function. Read more>>
So at least in 2004 the CDC knew that ME/CFS is a physical disease, which also means they have known for a long time that all the Reeves nonsense about personality disorders is lying big time. Very sad this denial medicine. Time that one of these denial honchos gets ME themself.
See also: Metabolic dysfunction causes Post-Exertional malaise in ME/CFS or When CBT fanatico's get ME they run away from silly CBT as fast as possible !!
Address: Viral Exanthems and Herpesvirus Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Email: Toni Whistler - taw6@cdc.gov; James F Jones - jaj9@cdc.gov; Elizabeth R Unger - eru0@cdc.gov; Suzanne D Vernon* - sdv2@cdc.gov
* Corresponding author
CFS is defined by a post-exertional fatigue that does not subside 24 hours following physical stress. In contrast, exercise in healthy, untrained people induces changes in cellular homeostasis in 1 to 4 hours and a return to basal levels within 24 hours, as measured in muscle [15].
Analysis of peripheral blood gene expression in the healthy control subjects confirmed this observation since the majority of gene expression levels were the same before and 24 hours following exercise challenge. This implied that expression either returned to basal levels or was unchanged as a result of the exercise challenge.
And indeed, many of the 21 exercise-induced, differentially expressed genes in control subjects were characterized by GOs that reflect a diverse set of molecular functions necessary for cell function and viability. (These ontologies overlapped with those identified in the GO comparison analysis given in Figure 2a).
Figure 1 clearly illustrates the reciprocal pattern of gene expression in the 21 genes formost of the control subjects. In contrast, 11 of the genes were unchanged in CFS subjects before and after exercise; with 5 being classified in a transport-related ontology.
Because this difference in gene expression is so dramatic, it implicates a fundamental perturbation in the biochemical activity of lymphocyte and monocyte peripheral blood fractions from CFS subjects compared with control subjects that does not affect classical immunologic markers (i.e, CD45) that have been shown to be unaffected in CFS patients [16,17]. Rather, low expression of these genes may have subtle effects on immune function. Read more>>
So at least in 2004 the CDC knew that ME/CFS is a physical disease, which also means they have known for a long time that all the Reeves nonsense about personality disorders is lying big time. Very sad this denial medicine. Time that one of these denial honchos gets ME themself.
See also: Metabolic dysfunction causes Post-Exertional malaise in ME/CFS or When CBT fanatico's get ME they run away from silly CBT as fast as possible !!
CDC's Dr Unger: Complement activation is significantly different between CFS and control subjects after exercise
Toni Whistler, James F Jones, Elizabeth R Unger and Suzanne D Vernon*:
Address: Viral Exanthems and Herpesvirus Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Email: Toni Whistler - taw6@cdc.gov; James F Jones - jaj9@cdc.gov; Elizabeth R Unger - eru0@cdc.gov; Suzanne D Vernon* - sdv2@cdc.gov
* Corresponding author
One interesting correlate of this study was the finding that the complement pathway showed significant differences between CFS and control subjects after exercise. This has been reported previously in the analysis of these same exercise challenge-derived specimens.
Sorensen et al. [22] measured levels of complement split products in the sera
of these subjects and found differences between CFS and control subjects in C4a after exercise challenge.
Complement activation was identified as an ontology that was significantly different between CFS and control subjects after exercise. Read more>>
Address: Viral Exanthems and Herpesvirus Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
Email: Toni Whistler - taw6@cdc.gov; James F Jones - jaj9@cdc.gov; Elizabeth R Unger - eru0@cdc.gov; Suzanne D Vernon* - sdv2@cdc.gov
* Corresponding author
One interesting correlate of this study was the finding that the complement pathway showed significant differences between CFS and control subjects after exercise. This has been reported previously in the analysis of these same exercise challenge-derived specimens.
Sorensen et al. [22] measured levels of complement split products in the sera
of these subjects and found differences between CFS and control subjects in C4a after exercise challenge.
Complement activation was identified as an ontology that was significantly different between CFS and control subjects after exercise. Read more>>
Sex attack vet taken off register
BBC Kent, Friday, 10 September, 2004:
A Herne Bay man who admitted indecent assault on a girl in July has been found unfit to practise as a vet.
Laurence Swift who ran the St Francis Veterinary Clinic in Canterbury Road, was struck off the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) register.
The college's disciplinary committee ruled his crime against the 12-year-old girl rendered him unfit to practise.
The 57-year-old was also found guilty of "disgraceful conduct" in his treatment of a cat.
In a three-day case, the committee heard allegations that he used unlicensed medicine on a cat, called Blue, and mistreated a dog found to have teeth missing after an X-ray.
The committee heard the cat had to be put down the day after being given the drugs.
The committee ordered his name to be removed from the register because of the indecent assault, which Swift admitted at Canterbury Crown Court in July, and also because of his treatment of Blue. Read more>>
Are Alien abductions responsible for irresponsible journalism ?
Posted by nmj:
I'm always curious about lists of writers' favourite books but was peeved to see a recommendation for a recent book ('sympathetic, informed, canny') by Elaine Showalter. The book may well deserve such praise from Joyce Carol Oates, but I have not read - and will never read - anything by Showalter for I cannot see her name without feeling huge anger and disrespect.
(For those who don't know, in 1997, she wrote Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media in which she irresponsibly and shamefully argued that ME and Gulf War Syndrome - like claims of alien abduction - were manifestations of hysteria, 'psychogenic syndromes of the 1990s'. She was most certainly not sympathetic, informed or ... Read more>>
I'm always curious about lists of writers' favourite books but was peeved to see a recommendation for a recent book ('sympathetic, informed, canny') by Elaine Showalter. The book may well deserve such praise from Joyce Carol Oates, but I have not read - and will never read - anything by Showalter for I cannot see her name without feeling huge anger and disrespect.
(For those who don't know, in 1997, she wrote Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media in which she irresponsibly and shamefully argued that ME and Gulf War Syndrome - like claims of alien abduction - were manifestations of hysteria, 'psychogenic syndromes of the 1990s'. She was most certainly not sympathetic, informed or ... Read more>>
Love Warrior on a Tricycle
Posted by Madhusudan Agrawal on Mar 20, 2011:
After polio, Raghu lost his legs. He had to walk with his the support of his hands.
A long time back, a few friends took a walk on the street with the inspiration to do a small act of kindness. After some search, two of them saw Raghu arranging the shoes that people had left outside the temple. Given his condition, their first impulse was to do something for him, but when they conversed with him, they quickly realized that they were actually receiving a lot more than they could give him. Raghu's big-hearted devotion coupled with a sharp and street-smart intellect profoundly impressed them, so much so that they spoke about him to Jayeshbhai and ended up making him financially self-reliant.
Raghu's impluse of kindness is ever-present. One of his many kindness endeavors is the Tulsi project. Whenever he learns of a family (mostly in the slums) with some dispute or even violent abuse, Raghu courageously walks in to spread good cheer and gifts them a tulsi plant. Most of these are complete strangers. Sometimes he'll recite a prayer, sometimes he'll talk about wise saints, sometimes he'll share stories. Hearing hopeful messages from a young man without legs is quite transformative! When he leaves the holy Tulsi plant, people accept it as a blessing; and as they nurture the plant, and are reminded of its presence everyday, they sometimes grow in empathy. To date, he has given out more than 500 of these plants, one at a time. Read more>>
Acute myeloid leukaemia genes' role discovered
By James Gallagher, Health reporter, BBC News:
Three groups of mutations which cause acute myeloid leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, have been identified by scientists.
The researchers suggest their work on mice, published in Nature Genetics, could lead to new treatments.
Two thousand people in the UK are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia each year. Read more>>
There's a Light at the end of the tunnel for sick Gulf War Veterans
DIARY OF A DESERT STORM VETERAN, SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2011:
Today i attended a conference at the Miami VA hospital entitled:"GWI and CFS/ME Research Update". It was held to give an update on all the research completed and to inform the audience of future research plans.
The principal player for Miami is Drl. Nancy Klimas, Director of the Center for Multidisciplinary Research on Gulf War illness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A video was filmed and will later be presented at www.cfsknowledgecenter.com.
I did notice there were very few regular VA doctors there. I was disappointed because i feel the primary care doctors and other doctors on my team or anyone else's team should have been there to learn more about it.
In introductory remarks, Dr. Nancy Klimas said that anyone suffereing from Gulf War Illness or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome needs an immunologist on their team. Gulf war Illness involves many body mechanisms and affects the following areas or necessities: ... Read more>>
Today i attended a conference at the Miami VA hospital entitled:"GWI and CFS/ME Research Update". It was held to give an update on all the research completed and to inform the audience of future research plans.
The principal player for Miami is Drl. Nancy Klimas, Director of the Center for Multidisciplinary Research on Gulf War illness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A video was filmed and will later be presented at www.cfsknowledgecenter.com.
I did notice there were very few regular VA doctors there. I was disappointed because i feel the primary care doctors and other doctors on my team or anyone else's team should have been there to learn more about it.
In introductory remarks, Dr. Nancy Klimas said that anyone suffereing from Gulf War Illness or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome needs an immunologist on their team. Gulf war Illness involves many body mechanisms and affects the following areas or necessities: ... Read more>>
America's Biggest Cover-Up
by author Neenyah Ostrom:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not the only illness that is frustrating contemporary medical science. Gloom pervaded the Ninth International AIDS Meeting (held in Berlin in June 1993), as clinicians and researchers acknowledged that little progress was being made in fighting the illness.
The drug that has been touted for years by the U.S. government as stopping the progression of AIDS and extending patients' lives, AZT, does neither. In fact, researchers revealed, AZT is so toxic that it may actually hurt AIDS patients more than it helps. And the immune system marker used to evaluate AIDS patients' health (and AZT's action), T4 cell counts, it was admitted in Berlin, has essentially no correlation with patients' health.
Although uneasiness and distress permeated news reports during and following the Berlin meeting, no reporter asked the obvious question: Is it possible that so little progress has been made in combating AIDS because a mistake has been made in the definition of the epidemic?
This book will attempt to answer not only that question, but also other, potentially even more alarming, ones: Is CFS actually part of the AIDS epidemic? Are CFS and AIDS, in fact, the same illness?
Since the Berlin conference, for anyone interested in observing it, evidence linking these two refractory epidemics, AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, has continued to accumulate.
Anxiety about the direction of AIDS research had really begun at the previous international AIDS conference, held in Amsterdam in 1992.
The bombshell of 1992's AIDS conference was the announcement that some researchers had identified cases of AIDS without evidence of infection with the "AIDS virus," HIV.
These "non-HIV AIDS cases" had severely depleted T4 (or CD4) cells, like AIDS patients; they also developed life-threatening opportunistic infections.
What wasn't known to most observers was that one of the researchers who had first publicly identified some of the non-HIV AIDS cases, Dr. Sidhur Gupta of the University of California, Irvine, is a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome researcher.
And some of the non-HIV AIDS cases, it was soon revealed, were actually CFS patients. Read more>>
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not the only illness that is frustrating contemporary medical science. Gloom pervaded the Ninth International AIDS Meeting (held in Berlin in June 1993), as clinicians and researchers acknowledged that little progress was being made in fighting the illness.
The drug that has been touted for years by the U.S. government as stopping the progression of AIDS and extending patients' lives, AZT, does neither. In fact, researchers revealed, AZT is so toxic that it may actually hurt AIDS patients more than it helps. And the immune system marker used to evaluate AIDS patients' health (and AZT's action), T4 cell counts, it was admitted in Berlin, has essentially no correlation with patients' health.
Although uneasiness and distress permeated news reports during and following the Berlin meeting, no reporter asked the obvious question: Is it possible that so little progress has been made in combating AIDS because a mistake has been made in the definition of the epidemic?
This book will attempt to answer not only that question, but also other, potentially even more alarming, ones: Is CFS actually part of the AIDS epidemic? Are CFS and AIDS, in fact, the same illness?
Since the Berlin conference, for anyone interested in observing it, evidence linking these two refractory epidemics, AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, has continued to accumulate.
Anxiety about the direction of AIDS research had really begun at the previous international AIDS conference, held in Amsterdam in 1992.
The bombshell of 1992's AIDS conference was the announcement that some researchers had identified cases of AIDS without evidence of infection with the "AIDS virus," HIV.
These "non-HIV AIDS cases" had severely depleted T4 (or CD4) cells, like AIDS patients; they also developed life-threatening opportunistic infections.
What wasn't known to most observers was that one of the researchers who had first publicly identified some of the non-HIV AIDS cases, Dr. Sidhur Gupta of the University of California, Irvine, is a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome researcher.
And some of the non-HIV AIDS cases, it was soon revealed, were actually CFS patients. Read more>>
Myalgic Encephalopathy is incorrect and rude
Hi, some seem to think that stating that Myalgic Encephalopathy is incorrect and rude;
I think it is rude to use Myalgic Encephalopathy instead of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as Myalgic Encephalopathy does NOT exist and is just another CBT way of removing and denying the existense of ME as a severe and very disabling disease.
I think it is rude to use Myalgic Encephalopathy instead of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as Myalgic Encephalopathy does NOT exist and is just another CBT way of removing and denying the existense of ME as a severe and very disabling disease.
Professor Erich D. Ryll: Infectious venulitis, ME and CFS are all Communicable Diseases
Erich D. Ryll, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine:
INFECTIOUS VENULITIS CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS Erich D. Ryll, M.D. Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious & Immunologic Diseases University of California, Davis
HISTORY
In the spring and summer of 1975 there occurred a major, severe epidemic of a communicable, apparent viral disease at the Mercy San Juan Hospital in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento, California.
The first two cases became ill in February; the bulk of the cases fell ill between July and November of 1975. Several cases tailed out to 1978. The epidemic spread to all departments of the Hospital. It was equally severe in all departments. I was appointed chairman of a committee to investigate the outbreak. Fearing that some people might die, I asked that the CDC (Communicable Disease Center of Atlanta, Georgia) to become involved.
An epidemic intelligence officer of the CDC spent one week in residence, and an epidemiologist from the California State Department of Health, Berkeley, came for a day. Cultures were obtained for all known viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, and rickettsiae, and all were found to be negative.
The disease was apparently due to an unknown agent, presumably a virus.
At the time we did a literature search and found three reports of outbreaks that were called EPIDEMIC PHLEBODYNIA (EP), meaning painful veins. While the disease at the Mercy San Juan Hospital (MSJ) was somewhat similar, it included many more features than were described in EP and so at the time I did not believe it was the same disease.
Additional literature search showed that the disease was very similar to EPIDEMIC NEUROMYASTHENIA/MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS (ENM/ME). But troublingly, very few vascular features were mentioned. I have followed these patients on a daily basis since 1975. This is the longest continual study of this type of disease that has ever been made. Because of this, I have learned all the nuances, all the signs and symptoms of the disease.
Because the complaints of patients are so many and often seemingly bizarre, I often attempted to disclaim them as being real. But I learned that you patients were always right and I was always wrong. In studying this disease, one must always have an open mind. This disease teaches the physician to be humble.
One must remember what a famous French physician, Jean Martin Charcot, said many years ago; "DISEASE IS VERY OLD AND NOTHING ABOUT IT HAS CHANGED. IT IS WE WHO CHANGE AS WE LEARN TO RECOGNIZE WHAT FORMERLY HAS BEEN IMPERCEPTIBLE." Read more>>
INFECTIOUS VENULITIS CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS Erich D. Ryll, M.D. Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious & Immunologic Diseases University of California, Davis
HISTORY
In the spring and summer of 1975 there occurred a major, severe epidemic of a communicable, apparent viral disease at the Mercy San Juan Hospital in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento, California.
The first two cases became ill in February; the bulk of the cases fell ill between July and November of 1975. Several cases tailed out to 1978. The epidemic spread to all departments of the Hospital. It was equally severe in all departments. I was appointed chairman of a committee to investigate the outbreak. Fearing that some people might die, I asked that the CDC (Communicable Disease Center of Atlanta, Georgia) to become involved.
An epidemic intelligence officer of the CDC spent one week in residence, and an epidemiologist from the California State Department of Health, Berkeley, came for a day. Cultures were obtained for all known viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, and rickettsiae, and all were found to be negative.
The disease was apparently due to an unknown agent, presumably a virus.
At the time we did a literature search and found three reports of outbreaks that were called EPIDEMIC PHLEBODYNIA (EP), meaning painful veins. While the disease at the Mercy San Juan Hospital (MSJ) was somewhat similar, it included many more features than were described in EP and so at the time I did not believe it was the same disease.
Additional literature search showed that the disease was very similar to EPIDEMIC NEUROMYASTHENIA/MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS (ENM/ME). But troublingly, very few vascular features were mentioned. I have followed these patients on a daily basis since 1975. This is the longest continual study of this type of disease that has ever been made. Because of this, I have learned all the nuances, all the signs and symptoms of the disease.
Because the complaints of patients are so many and often seemingly bizarre, I often attempted to disclaim them as being real. But I learned that you patients were always right and I was always wrong. In studying this disease, one must always have an open mind. This disease teaches the physician to be humble.
One must remember what a famous French physician, Jean Martin Charcot, said many years ago; "DISEASE IS VERY OLD AND NOTHING ABOUT IT HAS CHANGED. IT IS WE WHO CHANGE AS WE LEARN TO RECOGNIZE WHAT FORMERLY HAS BEEN IMPERCEPTIBLE." Read more>>
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Bleach, Grandma Henrietta's weapon of mass destruction
By Denise Malloy, Chronicle Columnist, Saturday, March 26, 2011:
Grandma Henrietta declared a lifelong war on germs. Not only did she slap down a bout with polio like she would have a smart-mouthed teenager, she beat the 1918 influenza like Ali took down Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle.
Although Germ-Vendetta Henrietta wasn't even 5 feet tall in her special post-polio orthopedic shoes, she was the tough-as-nails Gen. Patton of microbe combat. And she would extrapolate his battle philosophy to home-front hygiene by saying that the war on germs is simple, direct and ruthless.
Her weapon of choice - bleach. As far as she was concerned there wasn't a microorganism that she couldn't bleach into submission.
Walking into her house was like walking into an indoor swimming pool where the humid smell of chlorine would sizzle the hair right out of your nostrils. There was no surface that was safe from being deodorized, sanitized or antibacterialized by her vigorous handiwork. Although you could rarely taste her ertwensoep or roggenbrood because the bleach fumes had vaporized the tastebuds right off your tongue, you could rest assured that it was served in a fashion that would earn an "A" from any health department in the country.
But Patton would remind you it takes more than one weapon to win a war. So it's no surprise that ... Read more>>
Grandma Henrietta declared a lifelong war on germs. Not only did she slap down a bout with polio like she would have a smart-mouthed teenager, she beat the 1918 influenza like Ali took down Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle.
Although Germ-Vendetta Henrietta wasn't even 5 feet tall in her special post-polio orthopedic shoes, she was the tough-as-nails Gen. Patton of microbe combat. And she would extrapolate his battle philosophy to home-front hygiene by saying that the war on germs is simple, direct and ruthless.
Her weapon of choice - bleach. As far as she was concerned there wasn't a microorganism that she couldn't bleach into submission.
Walking into her house was like walking into an indoor swimming pool where the humid smell of chlorine would sizzle the hair right out of your nostrils. There was no surface that was safe from being deodorized, sanitized or antibacterialized by her vigorous handiwork. Although you could rarely taste her ertwensoep or roggenbrood because the bleach fumes had vaporized the tastebuds right off your tongue, you could rest assured that it was served in a fashion that would earn an "A" from any health department in the country.
But Patton would remind you it takes more than one weapon to win a war. So it's no surprise that ... Read more>>
A brilliant idea to GET proper funding for a public health disaster
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) - request for assistance
by Marvin04, Published on 26th March 2011:
This may seem odd but let me explain. There is a huge group of people with a disease called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). For 30 years, the CDC and other Federal health organizations have done everything to damage research on our disease. The CDC gave the disease a most demeaning name FATIGUE so that it would NOT get any real attention or respect. Well, the CDC did a great job and the millions of very, very sick (bedbound/housebound) have gotten very little research money (under $4 million from CDC this year) and tiny amounts from HHS to NIH on any sort of research on us. Most of the valid research done on us comes from private researchers like the Whittemore-Peterson Institute (WPI) and others. The CDC has ensured that those of us with ME/CFS were made to look like lazy, crazy middle age women who were neurotic. Well, men and very young children are affected by ME/CFS and yes, we do die from this from heart disease, suicide, leukemia, lymphoma and die on average about 24 years earlier than the rest of the population.
There was a Retrovirus study done in the mid-late 1980's that showed there was another Retrovirus in addition to HIV - OUR Retrovirus. But the CDC destroyed replication and NIH stopped all further funding on this Retrovirus (Drs. Defrietas, Cheney, Bell) until just about three or so years ago when it was found that this Retrovirus (or part of its family) did in fact cause an aggressive form of Prostate cancer. The people at WPI picked the retrovirus study up and tested to see if people with ME/CFS might have the retrovirus --- and sure enough, the numbers came back very high. The FDA and NIH also did a replication study and found the numbers of ME/CFS sick that have the new Retrovirus to be even higher than the WPI/CC/NCI study! The CDC, as expected, did not find the retrovirus in our systems but they had forecasted that would be the case. Read more>>
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