Experts’ Blog
Author: Hanae Armitage The technique is based on an existing method called a proximity ligation assay, which converts the biomarker into a DNA sequence. A team of School of Medicine researchers has developed a technique that they hope could more precisely detect diseases or disorders such as cancer or a heart attack. The technique is an improved method to detect some...
What are the roles of hormones, proteins, and antibodies in ME/CFS? To answer these questions, OMF is currently funding the research of Jonas Bergquist, MD, PhD, a Professor at Uppsala University and a member of our Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Bergquist is measuring proteins in cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma from a small cohort of Swedish...
By Richard N. Podell, M.D., MPH www.DrPodell.org Patients with ME/CFS or Fibromyalgia (FM) struggle with mental “fog”. We don’t understand why and there’s been little research on why it happens or what to do. The Mild Cognitive Impairment or MCI of aging is a different kind of cognitive “fog”. MCI confronts 5-20% of Americans, aged...
Ron Davis: There is a great deal of evidence that a variety of viruses can initiate ME/CFS, but it is less clear that a virus is involved in sustaining the disease. However, some patients may have a continuous problem with viruses, especially those viruses we always carry like EBV and HHV6. These viruses are usually...
Dr. Naviaux has published a ground-breaking study “Metabolic Features of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” Below are answers regarding his results. Link to published paper Q1. Some people still argue that CFS is not a real illness but all in the mind. Does your discovery of a chemical signature help shatter this myth? Yes. The chemical signature that we...
Comment by Ronald W. Davis, PhD The publication, “Metabolic Features of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” by Naviaux RK, et al. is a landmark in ME/CFS research. It is the most important and groundbreaking study of ME/CFS to date. Extending recent indications of metabolic alterations in ME/CFS, this study provides the first comprehensive, quantitative demonstration of the...
Of the many mysteries that have surrounded ME/CFS is the difficulty with predicting the long term outcome; what is the difference between a relapse, a temporary worsening, and true deterioration where there is a downward spiral of the illness over longer periods of time? There is no known biologic marker for disease severity at present,...
We are grateful for the opportunity to provide input to the Trans-National Institutes of Health (NIH) ME/CFS Working Group as they develop strategies to guide NIH’s research efforts and priority setting for research on ME/CFS. Our mission at the Stanford Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Center is to discover causes, a molecular diagnosis, and treatment options...
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a chronic illness with a long and complex history. Estimates of its frequency range from 0.1% to 2% of the population in the United States1. Severity of the illness can range from trivial, where it is impossible to make the diagnosis to fatal, but this latter is, fortunately,...