An American with ME had strong words for the National Institute of Health (NIH): You have stolen 40 years of my life. Johanna Kaiser gave a brave testimony about the neglect of people with ME during the February 1, 2017 phone meeting with the NIH in which institute leaders answered questions about the planned ME research
Bird-dog: (verb) search out or pursue with dogged determination. Contact with elected officials at town hall meetings cannot be overvalued. Handfuls of bird-doggers attend meetings around the country and change the course of history everyday. Never heard of bird-dogging? Bird-dogging is a strategy used by activists who seek out elected officials, pin them down with
Government funding for research centers and a data management center for ME/CFS has been made public, and the amount of funding allocated is infuriatingly small. The National Institute of Health (NIH) plans to issue two Requests for Application (RFAs) in January to fund 2-3 collaborative research centers and a data management center for ME/CFS. The
Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM) have a long, long way to go before they get the attention and resources they deserve. It would take a heroic leap to quickly achieve what people with these diseases deserve and what the diseases themselves – given their economic costs / burdens they impose – should receive. So much needs to be done (funding, doctor education, drugs, other treatments) – and we’re coming from such a low place – that it seems almost impossible that it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, people do the impossible – make what seems at first to be inconceivable differences in one area or another – all the time. This blog is about a man who did that, and did so in a way that may directly help those with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia.
We’re excited to announce the winners of the #MillionsMissing Art competition. 1st prize went to CJ Janzen from Cambridge, Ontario who made two amazing songs about ME. Listen here: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Song – Rough by CJ Janzen | Free Listening on SoundCloud A Song For M.E. by CJ Janzen | Free Listening on SoundCloud 2nd
Friday Letters to Francis Collins
The Solve ME/CFS Initiative (SMCI) hosted a webinar December 15 in which Zaher Nahle, PhD, MPA, summarized research in which they are participating or supporting. Nahle is the Vice President for Research and Scientific Programs at SMCI. Nahle began by listing the problems associated with ME’s perception, funding, and research. “The mother lode of our
Note: This is the final part of our series on education in ME/CFS. To start reading at the first article in this series, Top Medical Schools Teach Little About ME/CFS, click here. Finding a physician with knowledge of ME can be challenging, but practitioners of three branches of alternative medicine may have learned about this
The NIH announced that it would fund ME research by publishing two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) by Dec. 2016, but it is about to miss its first deadline. On Oct. 21st, the NIH released two Notices of Intent to publish two FOAs for ME/CFS by Dec. 2016. As of today, they have not been released.
#MEAction Network UK’s statement denouncing CBT as a form of treatment for ME has been published in the January edition of Positive Health Online today. The letter was sent in response to FITNET, a controversial study that purported children and young people with ME could be successfully treated through CBT conducted over the internet. Esther
