99 Quotes About Myalgic-encephalomyelitis

Individuals are often stigmatized and told their illness isn’t real… People with [ME] CFS face an incredible burden just getting doctors to take their symptoms seriously

In summary, patients with CFS are not “deconditioned”. Neither their muscle strength nor their exercise capacity is different from that of other sedentary members of the community (>70%). We remain unaware of any incontrovertible evidence that the various “exercise training” programs suggested in previous articles improve either the physiological or clinical status of people with CFS.

I take no pleasure in, and set no store by, the suggestion that Professor Wessely effectively hijacked the WHO logo to give credence to his own view of ME as a mental illness. Nevertheless, I am uncomfortable that the professor does not appear to be doing his utmost to clear the air on this issue.

M.E. affects children, families and adults in so many different ways and you cannot make assumptions or judgements based just on a single experience.

I have no problem with not understanding the exact mechanism of the symptoms of CFS…I do have a problem with the lack of respect given patients with poorly understood neurological disease.

The evidence of inflammation in people with ME/CFS is important because the incremental aerobic exercise recommended by the Wessely School and encapsulated in NICE’s Clinical Guideline 53 is contra-indicated in cases of inflamed and damaged tissue and inevitably results in post-exertional relapse with malaise, which is the cardinal symptom of ME/CFS.

The pathophysiological consequences of ME/CFS are multi-systemic and may include: immune and neuroendocrine abnormalities; brain dysfunction and neurocognitive defects; cardiovascular and autonomic disturbances; abnormalities in energy production including mitochondrial dysfunction, and changes in the expression of certain genes.

Though Graded Exercise helps some, the ME Association reports 74 per cent of ME patients are harmed by the therapy, with some made permanently disabled. Dr Julia Newton ran electrical pulses through muscle biopsies; Dr Van Ness tested anaerobic thresholds of ME patients – both studies demonstrated ME patients are damaged by exercise.

The whole idea that you can take a disease like this and exercise your way to health is foolishness. It is insane.