Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig respond to the #ChilliMEchallenge

Researchers at Columbia CII have taken on the #chilliMEchallenge – and they just made it a whole lot spicier!

The #chilliMEchallenge hit ME/CFS social media by storm. Four young women with ME/CFS got together and issued a fun challenge — to eat a hot chilli or donate to ME/CFS research at Columbiathroughout our community. Many have taken up the Challenge and people with ME/CFS, their families, friends and even workplaces have gotten involved. It didn’t stop there, it’s pulled people in and promoted awareness outside of our own ME/CFS circles. It was wonderful to see specialist clinician Dr Lucinda Bateman doing the Challenge – and she donated!
Now the great CII team have taken it on and spiced it up with their own variation!
CII said: “On July 1, renowned researchers Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig at the Center for Infection & Immunity (CII) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health will take the Chilli ME Challenge via live webcast. CII challenges you to support this research to help unlock the mysteries of ME/CFS. Every dollar you give directly supports research.”
Not only are they doing this but they also made a brilliantly fun promotional video for their upcoming live #ChilliMEchallenge. It really is a must-see. That is not all: they have also made a creatively neat Spice-O-Meter donations monitor.

As CII say, “With every gift, the Spice-O-Meter will climb. The more you give, the hotter it gets. Challenge your friends and family to join in on Facebook and Twitter. Simply include the tag ‪#‎ChillliMEchallenge and link to this page.”
That’s right, people! The more we donate, the hotter the Spice-O-Meter gets and the HOTTER the chillies get that Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig will have to consume on live webcast on July 1st!
This is amazing! Talk about getting behind a community effort. This team love tackling a challenge and they are turning up the heat for ME/CFS. They may have an antidote for the chilli heat up their sleeves.
If you’re not up to date in the ME/CFS research world, Drs. Hornig and Lipkin’s recent landmark study showed that the cytokine profile of ME/CFS patients is abnormal and changes markedly after three years. This study provides robust evidence of the biological basis of ME/CFS, and made international headlines.
The funds raised from the #ChilliMEchallenge will support comprehensive studies into the role of the bacteria, fungi and viruses in CFS, including in the microbiome. CII have a current program of research into ME/CFS underway and exciting plans. They are keen to start working on biomarker validation studies and they continue to leave no stone unturned for funding. They are determined to uncover the pathophysiology in ME/CFS and they are making headway!
Don’t miss this live webcast! RSVP to the #MEAction event to get reminders and all the details for how to join the webcast. The webcast will be hosted by Columbia and is starting at 1:00PM Eastern time (EST) on July 1st.
Help them put the heat on ME/CFS for us!
[button_color url=”http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/chiliME” content=”Donate and turn up the heat on the Spice-O-Meter!” target=””] – The Microbe Discovery Project team

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1 thought on “Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig respond to the #ChilliMEchallenge”

  1. Thanks Pete, yes I have found that it is possible to heal yreusolf of CFS/ME and there are many others with stories to match. Of course there are also many people who have not had that same experience and I don’t wish to advocate that for everyone you can cure yreusolf. But, well, I just encourage giving it a go and seeing what happens. What have you got to lose? And you are right, I do think that for some it just gets too overwhelming and depressing and they in some way give up by hoping that someday there will be a cure developed. I just couldn’t stay in that place. It was too dark for me and I couldn’t survive there for long ..so thus I had to keep pushing forward hoping, attempting, falling, crying, nurturing, hoping, and doing it all over again. Now I can truly say it has paid off and I now hope never to take my body for granted again!

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