Smartphone app and specialised clinic for chronic fatigue patients |
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Australian news
Tuesday 29 July 2014
From Griffith University:
Professor Sonya
Marshall-Gradisnik
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Smartphone app and specialised clinic for chronic fatigue patients
Sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are set to benefit with the dual launch of a specialist Griffith University clinic and smartphone app, both aimed to manage their illness and improve health outcomes.
Otherwise known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), CFS is a highly debilitating disorder characterised by profound fatigue, muscle and joint pain, cerebral symptoms of impaired memory and concentration, impaired cardiovascular function, gut disorder and sensory dysfunction such as noise intolerance and balance disturbance. Many cases can continue for months or years. It is believed to affect around 460,000 Australians.
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Norwegian 'Woulds' (and 'Wouldn'ts'): The ME/CFS Survey |
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International news
Monday 28 July 2014
From Health Rising:
Norwegian ‘Woulds’ (and ‘Wouldn’ts’): The ME/CFS Survey
By Cort Johnson
We rarely get country-wide surveys and it’s definitely worthwhile taking a look at one when they occur. Norway, of course, is an interesting place these days with strong advocacy efforts getting significant media attention and pushing the Norwegian government to fund the Fluge/Mella Rituximab trials. Norway, as a country, appears to be a bit more Chronic Fatigue Syndrome aware than other countries – but is that awareness showing up in improved health?
1100 people answered the survey. Awareness may be higher than other countries but support is still very limited with just one (controversial) young person care facility and one hospital with a clinic for adults with ME/CFS.
Work at a clinic in Norway, however, sparked the B-12/MTHFR trial being carried out by the Open Medicine Institute and the 150 person, multi-center Fluge/Mella Rituximab trial is now getting underway. Norway, with its small resources and small population is definitely making a difference in the ME/CFS world.
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Study: Melatonin analgesia |
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International news
Sunday 27 July 2014
From BMC Pharmacology & Toxicology:
Melatonin analgesia is associated with improvement of the descending endogenous pain-modulating system in fibromyalgia: a phase II, randomized, double-dummy, controlled trial
Authors:
Simone Azevedo de Zanette
Rafael Vercelino
Gabriela Laste
Joanna Ripoll Rozisky
André Schwertner
Caroline Buzzatti Machado
Fernando Xavier
Izabel Cristina de Souza
Alicia Deitos
Iraci L Torres
Wolnei Caumo
Publication:
BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology 2014, 15:40 doi:10.1186/2050-6511-15-40
Published:
23 July 2014
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Central disinhibition is a mechanism involved in the physiopathology of fibromyalgia. Melatonin can improve sleep quality, pain and pain threshold. We hypothesized that treatment with melatonin alone or in combination with amitriptyline would be superior to amitriptyline alone in modifying the endogenous pain-modulating system (PMS) as quantified by conditional pain modulation (CPM), and this change in CPM could be associated with serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We also tested whether melatonin improves the clinical symptoms of pain, pain threshold and sleep quality.
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The human face of the Irish Coalition's disability funding cuts |
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International news
Saturday 26 July 2014
From Ireland's Sunday Independent:
Valerie Mullen
(Photo: Tony Gavin)
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The human face of Coalition's €1.2m disability funding cuts
Voluntary groups face an uphill battle to secure new funds within the next 12 months, writes Wayne O'Connor
PUBLISHED 20/07/2014|00:00
For years, Valerie Mullen was in so much pain that she attempted to take her own life on four separate occasions. Valerie suffers from fibromyalgia, a condition that causes her extreme physical and mental pain.
"I usually have awful pain in my back, my legs and my arms. It affects my sleep, it affects eating - it affects everything," she told the Sunday Independent.
"It is a motor neuron disease of the nervous system, where you have a constant, burning pain in every nerve you have."
The condition has taken a terrible toll on the 56-year-old from Rathgar, Dublin, and this was compounded when her basic mobility was impaired after she suffered a stroke five years ago.
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Student writer pursues passion, fights illness |
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International news
Friday 25 July 2014
From US news outlet The Courier (via SFGate):
Student writer pursues passion, fights illness
By KATE MABRY, The Courier
Published 8:02 am, Sunday, July 20, 2014
HOUMA, La. (AP) — A Nicholls State senior who has fibromyalgia and Lyme disease uses her passions for writing and art to prevail over her illnesses.
English major Sarah Hamilton, also known by her pseudonym Sarah Panic, crafts plaques and prints by typing prose onto photos from old magazines and books.
Since the 25-year-old Houma resident and Montegut native began her work, she has created several hundred prints and more than 15 plaques.
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ME woman Beth French swims 26 miles to the Isles of Scilly |
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International news
Thursday 24 July 2014
From the BBC:
Beth French could not use
flippers,
a
wetsuit or
drysuit
in the challenge
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ME woman Beth French swims 26 miles to Scilly
23 July 2014 Last updated at 16:50
A woman who was once forced to use a wheelchair because of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), or ME, has swum 26 miles from Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly.
Beth French, 36, who had the condition as a teenager, made the crossing in 17 hours, 28 minutes.
The massage therapist from Milverton, Somerset, is believed to be the first person to complete the swim in that direction.
Now she is planning a swim from Gibraltar to Morocco.
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Archibald Prize entry: "My Plague" by Julian Parker Welch |
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Australian news
Wednesday 23 July 2014
From artist Julian Parker Welch (via email):
A section of "My Plague"
by
Julian Parker Welch
(Click here for
the full painting)
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I am a Sydney painter that recently did a piece for the Archibald Prize. I was not picked, which doesn't shock me or undermine my real reason for this piece.
Hopefully my explanation will give you a clear idea of what and who the painting is of.
The painting depicts two figures – in a pool of light at the foreground sits Professor Andrew Lloyd, Head of Infectious Disease at the University of New South Wales, and in the shadows at the back looms a Black Plague doctor from the 1400s.
This work has particular significance to me. For the last four years I have suffered from ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), which is a severe functionally disabling neuro-immune illness.
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