WELLINGTON REGION ME/CFS SUPPORT GROUP INCORPORATED

Coping with Phone Issues When Illness Limits Energy

James — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:29:02 +0000

Do you feel you have to answer the phone even when you would prefer not to? Do you have trouble limiting the length of phone calls or feel guilty if you don’t talk to people?

If you experience any of these things, you’re not alone. We recently had a discussion of phone etiquette and strategies, and were surprised at how many people had conflicts about the use of their phone, or who experience phone use as something that intensifies their symptoms.

But the discussion also identified strategies people use to overcome these problems.

More @ ProHealth

Chronic Pain Control Basics for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia

James — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:27:49 +0000

Of the difficult but treatable symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM), chronic pain is rarely treated adequately. Headaches, lymph node tenderness, muscle pain and joint pain cause considerable long term discomfort – sometimes mild, sometimes severe. There may be fluctuations in the severity of pain.

More @ ProHealth

Physical Activity, Sustained Sedentary Behavior, and Pain Modulation in Women with Fibromyalgia

James — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:26:34 +0000

Fibromyalgia (FM) has been conceptualized as a disorder of the central nervous system, characterized by augmented sensory processing and an inability to effectively modulate pain.

We previously reported that physical activity is related to brain processing of pain, providing evidence for a potential mechanism of pain management.

The purpose of this study was to extend our work by manipulating pain modulation and determining relationships to both physical activity and sustained sedentary behavior.

Eleven women with FM completed accelerometer measures of physical activity and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging of painful heat, administered alone and during distracting cognitive tasks.

More @ ProHealth

A Tale of Two Viruses: Why AIDS Was Pinned to HIV, but Chronic Fatigue Remains a Mystery

James — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:35:22 +0000

The detection of a new virus called XMRV in the blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in 2009 raised hope that a long-sought cause of the disease, whose central characteristic is extreme tiredness that lasts for at least six months, had been finally found. But that hypothesis has dramatically fallen apart in recent months. Its public demise brings to mind an instance when a virus *was* successfully determined to be behind a mysterious scourge: the case of HIV and AIDS. How are these two diseases different—how was it that stringent lab tests and epidemiology ruled one of these viruses out, and one of them in?

More @ Discover

A Message from CII Director W. Ian Lipkin Regarding the XMRV/MLV CFS/ME Study

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:58:19 +0000

Virologist Ian Lipkin, MD, heads Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity. And currently he is directing a project involving 11 investigators who will conduct state-of-the-art analysis to search for evidence of viruses in blood samples from a well-characterized, geographically distributed US cohort of ME/CFS patients – what he calls “the XMRV/MLV CFS/ME study.”

Thanks to ProHealth

The ME/CFS – Probiotic Connection

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:55:41 +0000

A highlight of the American College of Gastroenterology’s 2011 Scientific Meeting was a report on the significant benefits of the probiotic strain Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 “as an anti-inflammatory agent” in a trial including patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), psoriasis, and ulcerative colitis.

B infantis, a primary inhabitant of the digestive tract of newborn infants, is considered essential for good health in both infants and adults.

More @ ProHealth

Inflammation and depression are linked, but how?

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:53:10 +0000

Prolonged inflammation is common to many chronic conditions, including high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, diabetes – and major depression. Depression has been linked specifically to a marker of inflammation in the blood called C-reactive protein (CRP).

But does this inflammation contribute to – or result from – depression?

More @ProHealth

New Mitochondrial Function Analysis Technique to Be Used in ME/CFS Research at U of Liverpool

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:51:48 +0000

Researchers at the University of Liverpool will be the first to implement a newly developed lab technique that is more sensitive to identifying mitochondrial function within the muscle’s fibers – a technique they believe could reveal the causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

More @ProHealth

How to Help Your Doctor Understand ME/CFS Disability

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:50:36 +0000

The central aspect causing the disability of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is elusive. Patients say that they have fatigue, but physicians do not understand what is so bad about that. Nearly everyone has fatigue. Certainly physicians have fatigue.

Whatever it is that patients with CFS have is different; what is entirely unique is not the fatigue but the activity limitation.

More @ProHealth

Exciting Research Connects Epstein-Barr to MS Brain Lesions & Potentially Other Disorders Involving the CNS

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:48:44 +0000

A new study by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London shows how the Epstein-Barr virus tricks the immune system into triggering an acute inflammatory process and nerve cell damage in the brain.

More @ ProHealth