Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => The Knowledge => Health & Fitness => Topic started by: David Martin on 09 October, 2009, 01:01:52 pm

Title: A cause for ME found?
Post by: David Martin on 09 October, 2009, 01:01:52 pm

Apparently there is a really strong correlation between a retrovirus and ME..


         Has science found the cause of ME? -
            Science, News - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-science-found-the-cause-of-me-1799944.html)

Very exciting - maybe ME can be treated with retrovirals or even vaccinated against?

..d

Title: Re: A cause for ME found?
Post by: andygates on 09 October, 2009, 02:13:02 pm

If nothing else, lots of ME diagnosis is hazy - a physical test will really help with that.

Title: Re: A cause for ME found?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 09 October, 2009, 04:13:42 pm

That doesn't surprise me - a retrovirus, or post-viral effects have always seemed the most likely cause to me. I expect that it will be discovered in the near future that are many other conditions that derive from similar origins.

Title: Re: A cause for ME found?
Post by: her_welshness on 09 October, 2009, 04:39:56 pm

My gosh, some of the comments underneath the article are terrible. For people to deny that ME exists is wholly wrong. One of my friends had it for 7 years. Therefore, his thirties was a write-off. Another friend at Uni got it at the end of term one and never came back. It's a terrible disease - I hope to God that medical research is getting somewhere.

Title: Re: A cause for ME found?
Post by: Flying_Monkey on 10 October, 2009, 01:30:51 pm

I know. I have had two good friends who have suffered very badly from it. The apparently proud and deliberate ignorance and casual cruelty of people never ceases to disappoint me.

Title: Re: A cause for ME found?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 11 October, 2009, 03:29:58 pm

In the course of my work, I've seen people who I believe had it, and I've seen people who clearly had something wrong with them but I don't believe it was ME. I've seen people desperate to get better, and people who seemed to have no interest in getting better because they liked having things done for them. And I've seen people who seemed to find it easier to believe they had ME than that they had psychological problems.

I've no doubt that some people really do have it and I hope this discovery is helpful.

Title: Re: A cause for ME found?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 October, 2009, 12:34:34 pm

I had a friend with ME. It was almost certainly a post viral thing as she got it after recovering from an illness caught on holiday. She went from a very independent woman with her own business (she was a driving instructor) who was full of energy and the life and soul of any social occasion to so low she couldn't get out of bed for weeks on end or out of the house for months. After fighting ME for several years she committed suicide and it wasn't a cry for help it was very deliberate and planned, she made sure she wouldn't be found until it was too late. Ten years on and I am still shocked but I understand that she simply felt that she couldn't continue in that state even though she had a loving partner that did all he could to help her. We all still miss her. ME is very real and very debilitating.