Doctor Speedy and ME in search of medical honesty
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Medical breakthrough puts Reno in spotlight
By Lenita Powers • lpowers@rgj.com • November 1, 2009
Judy Mikovits remembers that "eureka" moment when she realized that she and her team of researchers at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute in Reno had discovered a new retrovirus that could lead to a possible treatment, even a vaccine, to combat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
"It was January 22, and we were in a San Diego restaurant called the Yard House," said Mikovits, who had gone there with fellow scientist Vincent Lombardi to present the results of their research to Frank Ruscetti and Robert Silverman, two of the world's leading virologists.
"We kept waiting for them to say something," Mikovits said. "I was nauseous. Bob (Silverman) waited a long a time, and then he looked up and said, 'Well, this is going to change their world.'"
The institute's finding also ...
Judy Mikovits remembers that "eureka" moment when she realized that she and her team of researchers at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute in Reno had discovered a new retrovirus that could lead to a possible treatment, even a vaccine, to combat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
"It was January 22, and we were in a San Diego restaurant called the Yard House," said Mikovits, who had gone there with fellow scientist Vincent Lombardi to present the results of their research to Frank Ruscetti and Robert Silverman, two of the world's leading virologists.
"We kept waiting for them to say something," Mikovits said. "I was nauseous. Bob (Silverman) waited a long a time, and then he looked up and said, 'Well, this is going to change their world.'"
And it has.
The research resulted in a paper that was published last month in a prestigious scientific journal, which set off a flurry of media coverage that put the Whittemore-Peterson Institute and Reno's name in reports from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.The institute's finding also ...
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Rheumatoid Arthritis linked to insecticides
By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
PHILADELPHIA -- Women who frequently sprayed their homes with insecticides over a period of years may have put themselves at risk for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, a researcher said here.
Among women who sprayed at least six times a year, the risk of autoimmune disease was more than twice that of women who didn't use insecticides (HR 2.47, 95% CI 1.51 to 4.03, P=0.0036).
The results were similar among women who used insecticides for 20 years or more (HR 2.07, 95% CI 1.31 to 3.25), according to Christine G. Parks, PhD, an epidemiologist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
"We also saw that long-term application of insecticides by others in the home or in the lawn or garden about doubled disease risk," she told attendees at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting.
She found almost the same risk of autoimmune disease among women from environments with long-term insecticide spraying by commercial companies (HR 1.85, 95% CI 1.13 to 3.04).
The researchers examined records of 76,861 postmenopausal and predominantly white women ages 50-79 enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. Parks and colleagues focused on questions relating to farm history and insecticide use.
Of those whose records were reviewed, 178 later were eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and 28 with lupus. An additional seven women were diagnosed with both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Parks said investigators found that a history of just working or living on a farm -- although relatively frequent among the women in the survey -- did not appear to increase risk of rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
But compared to people who had never used insecticides, women who had personally mixed or applied insecticides regularly had double the risk of a rheumatic disease
PHILADELPHIA -- Women who frequently sprayed their homes with insecticides over a period of years may have put themselves at risk for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, a researcher said here.
Among women who sprayed at least six times a year, the risk of autoimmune disease was more than twice that of women who didn't use insecticides (HR 2.47, 95% CI 1.51 to 4.03, P=0.0036).
The results were similar among women who used insecticides for 20 years or more (HR 2.07, 95% CI 1.31 to 3.25), according to Christine G. Parks, PhD, an epidemiologist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
"We also saw that long-term application of insecticides by others in the home or in the lawn or garden about doubled disease risk," she told attendees at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting.
She found almost the same risk of autoimmune disease among women from environments with long-term insecticide spraying by commercial companies (HR 1.85, 95% CI 1.13 to 3.04).
The researchers examined records of 76,861 postmenopausal and predominantly white women ages 50-79 enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. Parks and colleagues focused on questions relating to farm history and insecticide use.
Of those whose records were reviewed, 178 later were eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and 28 with lupus. An additional seven women were diagnosed with both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Parks said investigators found that a history of just working or living on a farm -- although relatively frequent among the women in the survey -- did not appear to increase risk of rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
But compared to people who had never used insecticides, women who had personally mixed or applied insecticides regularly had double the risk of a rheumatic disease
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CBT/GET is not only ineffective and not evidence-based, but also potentially harmful for many patients with ME/CFS
Frank N.M. Twisk 1 and Michael Maes 2:
Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a highly incapacitating illness classified by the WHO as a neurological disease (G93.3) since 1969 (WHO ICD-8, 1967).
The CFS Fukuda case definition (Fukuda et al. 1994), which has been has been criticized by several researchers, states that a CFS patient needs to experience chronic fatigue of new or definite onset, that is not substantially alleviated by rest, is not the result of ongoing exertion,
and results in substantial reductions in occupational, social, and personal activities. The Fukuda
case definition also requires the concurrent occurrence of at least four to eight other CFS symptoms, i.e. impaired memory or concentration, sore throat, tender lymph nodes, muscle pain, multiple joint pain, new headaches, unrefreshing sleep, and post-exertional malaise.
ME/CFS is considered to be a rather harmless condition by most physicians, but patients with ME/CFS are often more functionally impaired than those suffering from type 2 diabetes, congestive heart failure, multiple sclerosis, and end-stage renal disease (Anderson
& Ferrans, 1997; Buchwald et al. 1996).
Jason et al. (2006) analyzed a group of 166 individuals who had died with ME/CFS (listed at a US ME/CFS memorial register). The mean ages of the ME/CFS patients dying from heart failure (20,1%), cancer (19.4%), and suicide (20,1%) were 58.7, 47.8, and 39.3 years, respectively.
These ages are considerably lower than of those dying from heart failure (83.1 years), cancer (72.0 years), and suicide (48.0 years) in the general US population.
In spite of its chronicity and severity, ME/CFS remains highly controversial in the medical en political society. Despite several hundred studies demonstrating biological abnormalities in large subgroups, ME/CFS is still considered by many professionals to be a “medically unexplained syndrome” or a mental condition with a psychogenic/social origin. The psychosocial
explanatory model for “medically unexplained disorders”, disseminated by proponents of the (bio)psychosocial school, is the rationale for the combination of cognitive behavioral
therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET), which are supposed to eliminate the psychogenic “maintaining factors” and “deconditioning”, respectively.
This review will show that:
a) the evidence-based success claim for CBT/GET is unjust, since the evidence base is lacking and CBT/ GET is not significantly more effective than usual care; and
b) the exertion, and thus GET, can have numerous potential damaging physical effects on ME/CFS patients.
PubMed
Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a highly incapacitating illness classified by the WHO as a neurological disease (G93.3) since 1969 (WHO ICD-8, 1967).
The CFS Fukuda case definition (Fukuda et al. 1994), which has been has been criticized by several researchers, states that a CFS patient needs to experience chronic fatigue of new or definite onset, that is not substantially alleviated by rest, is not the result of ongoing exertion,
and results in substantial reductions in occupational, social, and personal activities. The Fukuda
case definition also requires the concurrent occurrence of at least four to eight other CFS symptoms, i.e. impaired memory or concentration, sore throat, tender lymph nodes, muscle pain, multiple joint pain, new headaches, unrefreshing sleep, and post-exertional malaise.
ME/CFS is considered to be a rather harmless condition by most physicians, but patients with ME/CFS are often more functionally impaired than those suffering from type 2 diabetes, congestive heart failure, multiple sclerosis, and end-stage renal disease (Anderson
& Ferrans, 1997; Buchwald et al. 1996).
Jason et al. (2006) analyzed a group of 166 individuals who had died with ME/CFS (listed at a US ME/CFS memorial register). The mean ages of the ME/CFS patients dying from heart failure (20,1%), cancer (19.4%), and suicide (20,1%) were 58.7, 47.8, and 39.3 years, respectively.
These ages are considerably lower than of those dying from heart failure (83.1 years), cancer (72.0 years), and suicide (48.0 years) in the general US population.
In spite of its chronicity and severity, ME/CFS remains highly controversial in the medical en political society. Despite several hundred studies demonstrating biological abnormalities in large subgroups, ME/CFS is still considered by many professionals to be a “medically unexplained syndrome” or a mental condition with a psychogenic/social origin. The psychosocial
explanatory model for “medically unexplained disorders”, disseminated by proponents of the (bio)psychosocial school, is the rationale for the combination of cognitive behavioral
therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET), which are supposed to eliminate the psychogenic “maintaining factors” and “deconditioning”, respectively.
This review will show that:
a) the evidence-based success claim for CBT/GET is unjust, since the evidence base is lacking and CBT/ GET is not significantly more effective than usual care; and
b) the exertion, and thus GET, can have numerous potential damaging physical effects on ME/CFS patients.
PubMed
'NHS must not treat ME as mental illness'
thisiskent.co.uk/tonbridge Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 11:25
"A PENSIONER from Tonbridge with chronic fatigue syndrome has slammed her treatment which included a stay in the psychiatric ward of a major London hospital.
Mill Crescent resident Jeannie Carson suffers from ME, and has criticised the NHS's view of the illness which looks at it as a psychiatric condition, with treatment including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
The former Pembury Hospital midwife feels the healthcare system is wrong for labelling it in this way, and says it should be treated as a neurological illness.
The 67-year-old spends most of the day bed-bound and as well as the overwhelming tiredness, she suffers muscular pain, difficulty walking, and feelings of isolation and loneliness.
She has shunned her treatment through psychiatric methods and now gets by with the help of a carer."
"A PENSIONER from Tonbridge with chronic fatigue syndrome has slammed her treatment which included a stay in the psychiatric ward of a major London hospital.
Mill Crescent resident Jeannie Carson suffers from ME, and has criticised the NHS's view of the illness which looks at it as a psychiatric condition, with treatment including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
The former Pembury Hospital midwife feels the healthcare system is wrong for labelling it in this way, and says it should be treated as a neurological illness.
The 67-year-old spends most of the day bed-bound and as well as the overwhelming tiredness, she suffers muscular pain, difficulty walking, and feelings of isolation and loneliness.
She has shunned her treatment through psychiatric methods and now gets by with the help of a carer."
Bending the rules
"Critics of new medical tests aimed at getting claimants off benefits and into work say they are target-driven measures that penalise genuinely ill people."
By Melissa Viney
The Guardian, Wednesday 28 October 2009
"Had Anna Wood realised that by bending down to pick up an object off the floor she would be deemed fit to work, perhaps the 33-year-old former academic would have thought twice. Wood, who had been forced to give up a prestigious fellowship position at Strathclyde University last year after developing severe ME, was made to perform the exercise as part of a medical test that all claimants of the new sickness benefit for ill and disabled people have to undertake.
"The doctor came and asked me lots of questions and filled in a form," she recalls. "I then got a letter saying, 'You've only got 12 points. We need 15. You don't qualify.' He had asked me to bend down and pick something off the floor and I did it. The point is I can't do it repeatedly, and I don't see how that can mean I can work. There was nothing in the test that related to my stamina and energy.
"How any normal person could read my medical report and think, 'Oh yes, she can work', is absolutely beyond me."
Wood points out a section in the report that states: "The healthcare professional opined that Dr Wood is likely to have significant instability regarding walking, standing and using stairs. She cannot hoover, wash dishes, make a bed and struggles to stand in the kitchen and needs to hold onto the rail using stairs ... due to fatigue and pain."
This tough medical test, called the work capability assessment (WCA), is at the heart of controversial changes to sickness benefit that were introduced last October when employment support allowance (ESA) replaced incapacity benefit (IB) for new claimants.
The test contains a series of questions, called "descriptors", that relate to physical and mental functions, and from which claimants score points. The test fails ..."
By Melissa Viney
The Guardian, Wednesday 28 October 2009
"Had Anna Wood realised that by bending down to pick up an object off the floor she would be deemed fit to work, perhaps the 33-year-old former academic would have thought twice. Wood, who had been forced to give up a prestigious fellowship position at Strathclyde University last year after developing severe ME, was made to perform the exercise as part of a medical test that all claimants of the new sickness benefit for ill and disabled people have to undertake.
"The doctor came and asked me lots of questions and filled in a form," she recalls. "I then got a letter saying, 'You've only got 12 points. We need 15. You don't qualify.' He had asked me to bend down and pick something off the floor and I did it. The point is I can't do it repeatedly, and I don't see how that can mean I can work. There was nothing in the test that related to my stamina and energy.
"How any normal person could read my medical report and think, 'Oh yes, she can work', is absolutely beyond me."
Wood points out a section in the report that states: "The healthcare professional opined that Dr Wood is likely to have significant instability regarding walking, standing and using stairs. She cannot hoover, wash dishes, make a bed and struggles to stand in the kitchen and needs to hold onto the rail using stairs ... due to fatigue and pain."
This tough medical test, called the work capability assessment (WCA), is at the heart of controversial changes to sickness benefit that were introduced last October when employment support allowance (ESA) replaced incapacity benefit (IB) for new claimants.
The test contains a series of questions, called "descriptors", that relate to physical and mental functions, and from which claimants score points. The test fails ..."
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Mind and body
Source: The Scotsman: Published Date: 27 October 2009
"Thanks for your excellent, informative article on the possibility that the newly discovered retrovirus xmrv causes myalgic encephalomyelitis (Living, 10 October).
The UK's quarter of a million sufferers finally have some hope of effective treatment.
ME has been classified as a physical, neurological illness by the World Health Organisation since 1969. Despite this, for 25 years all UK taxpayer research and treatment funding has gone to psychiatrists, who insist it is an "abnormal illness belief".
The time is overdue for research funding into ME to be placed in the hands of immunologists. Research into psychological treatments should be cancelled to fund this.
HILARY PATTEN
Beaconsfield Way
Frome, Somerset"
"Thanks for your excellent, informative article on the possibility that the newly discovered retrovirus xmrv causes myalgic encephalomyelitis (Living, 10 October).
The UK's quarter of a million sufferers finally have some hope of effective treatment.
ME has been classified as a physical, neurological illness by the World Health Organisation since 1969. Despite this, for 25 years all UK taxpayer research and treatment funding has gone to psychiatrists, who insist it is an "abnormal illness belief".
The time is overdue for research funding into ME to be placed in the hands of immunologists. Research into psychological treatments should be cancelled to fund this.
HILARY PATTEN
Beaconsfield Way
Frome, Somerset"
FIFTH "SWINE FLU" VACCINE DEATH IN SWEDEN
theflucase.com - Tuesday, 27 October 2009
"Media in Sweden is having a tough time maintaining the propaganda as more and more people question the reasons for the mass vaccination. Now, authorities say that if not "80% of the population takes the shot, we risk 100 deaths from the swine flu".
Most Swedes know that a normal fly season see several thousand dead from complications from the seasonal flu so the proportions of the propaganda coming from media and the government has caused a growing revolt against the massive attempts to scare people to take the poisonous injection.
We have earlier reported on the first death, the second death (also here), the third death and the fourth death in Sweden from the poisonous Pandemrix vaccin shot.
Today, Svenska Dagbladet reports that over 350 cases of side effects from the Pandemrix "swine flu" shot, has been recorded so far. It has also become clear that this shot contains the most deadly mix of substances of all the known vaccines manufactured against the so called "swine flu" H1N1 influenza. The official number of deaths from the "swine flu" vaccine is now five.
And that is only those who have strong immediate reactons, the long term effects are usually never even investigated. If you would die from the shot two weeks after you took it, your death would not be considered to have anything to do with the vaccination. Severe health problems years after will of course be very hard to link to the poisonous injection.
Even if these five official cases died within days, the official story is of course as expected: "none of these deaths has been confirmed to be linked to the vaccine"."
"Media in Sweden is having a tough time maintaining the propaganda as more and more people question the reasons for the mass vaccination. Now, authorities say that if not "80% of the population takes the shot, we risk 100 deaths from the swine flu".
Most Swedes know that a normal fly season see several thousand dead from complications from the seasonal flu so the proportions of the propaganda coming from media and the government has caused a growing revolt against the massive attempts to scare people to take the poisonous injection.
We have earlier reported on the first death, the second death (also here), the third death and the fourth death in Sweden from the poisonous Pandemrix vaccin shot.
Today, Svenska Dagbladet reports that over 350 cases of side effects from the Pandemrix "swine flu" shot, has been recorded so far. It has also become clear that this shot contains the most deadly mix of substances of all the known vaccines manufactured against the so called "swine flu" H1N1 influenza. The official number of deaths from the "swine flu" vaccine is now five.
And that is only those who have strong immediate reactons, the long term effects are usually never even investigated. If you would die from the shot two weeks after you took it, your death would not be considered to have anything to do with the vaccination. Severe health problems years after will of course be very hard to link to the poisonous injection.
Even if these five official cases died within days, the official story is of course as expected: "none of these deaths has been confirmed to be linked to the vaccine"."
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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