The CFS Advisory Committee (CFSAC) provides advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Assistant Secretary for Health on issues related to myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The committee meets twice-yearly, and recently met Jan. 12-13, 2017. #MEAction activist, Terri Wilder, spoke during the comment period at
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.
2016 was a big year for ME/CFS advocacy. As we turn over the page to the fresh new year, the #MEAction Network Australia group reflects on some of the highlights of its advocacy efforts in 2016.
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
Yesterday, Mary Dimmock, Arthur Mirin and Leonard Jason published a hallmark study in disease burden in myalgic encephalomyelitis. Why is funding so low? Funding for ME/CFS is arguably the lowest per patient for any major disease in the United States, averaging to about $5 per patient per year. Compare this to multiple sclerosis, an illness
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
One of the frequent complaints of patients, researchers, and policymakers about ME research is that the findings are scattered, and the studies, small. One group will discover X is elevated in 20 ME patients, only to find that when the test is done on another 13 patients two years down the line, they don’t show
Momentum continues from the #MillionsMissing campaign that was born last May. Activists took to the streets worldwide in 11 cities in May – and in 25 cities in September – to protest their government’s neglect of people with ME. While the posters are now stored away, activism has continued behind the scenes in follow-up
