ME/CFS

Thu 9 Dec 2021, 18:10

OMEGA has been mentioned and is worth following up. 

Also worth checking out is Dr Sarah Myhill who has been interested in ME/CFS since the 90s where and when, as a GP for a rural Welsh hill-farming area she got invasions of strong and healthy young men and women collapsing through the door of her surgery…

This was shortly after the mandating of the MinOfAg the use of oregano-phosphate (nerve poison) pesticides in compulsory sheep dip treatment etc. Cue an experience of total denial and cover up by corporations, guvmint and vested interests and attempts to get Myhill struck off for pursuing cases, searches for cure and treatments and so forth. Literally stuff happened that would have stretched the credulity of the X-Files script writers or the 21st centuries biggest and most successful proponent of the Big Lie, one D.J.T. 

However, quite a bit of the amelioration supplements she has developed, mostly predicated upon what is beginning to become a bit of a consensus for focus of research, that of the cellular components called Mitochondria and Mitochondrial role in ATP production by the organelle (adenosine triphosphate being the essential carrier of “energy” for cellular biochemical and mechanical functioning) does seem to bring some improvement to a lot of people. 

In our area, of Oxford, the Universiy’s Dr Karl Morton (or Morten?) has published a lot in recent years of mitochondrial/ATP deficits and elsewhere things keep on being uncovered that also implicate this broad approach. 

So if you’re inclined to being “internet-ill” there is a lot of material showing up. But be warned- there is a lot- a lot- of pseudo-science around to!

It’s also worth considering, if you ever get far enough through the patronising disbelief and the empire building clutches of the psychiatrist conspiracy - of all miasma illnesses without simple reductionist “causes” and if lacking thus, it’s the victims fault and all in the mind. And so fort and so etc. 

Consider also or instead that what is amiss might be Fibromyalgia, not ME/CFS … the boundaries of distinction are unclear and on examination quite a large amount of the potential triggering factors like severe viral infection and post-viral syndrome, correlated exposure to chemicals like pesticides and organic solvents, correlations of these with situations of overwork and high stress situations over time, are commonly found. Yes, correlation doth not mean causality … but…

Hence when the syndrome first started becoming a little noticed in the 80s it was disproportionately seen in the growing economic sub-group of the “urban professional “ in tough high time commitment careers- mid to late 30s was the predominant age group that seemed to succumb and perhaps that wasn’t just coincidence.

Also. The proportion of the population involved in the areas of agriculture and- and it’s often overlooked, horticulture - have been small and decreased markedly since the 40s, with the 60s and onward also seeing a massive increase of the use of chemical nerve poisons and persistently repeated applications by the 1% of the population involved in the sectors.

From what little statistical data that has been found- and studies have been consistently blocked in turn by big vested interests. It has been alleged and wonder why that may be. A larger proportion of, say, hill sheep farmers have come down with “sheep dip ‘flu” than would be random. 

From personal experience of working in horticulture during the boom years of wave after wave of new super bug-buster chemicals  (almost all of which I can recall being now banned) I ’d say a LOT of the people I knew who worked in the area of rural Sussex I spent my adolescence and early adulthood in, employed in ag/hort, didn’t make it to retirement age working, but succumbed to a lot of vague but crippling chronic ill health. 

If that proportion had so dropped out of the normal workforce due to chronic health ailments, it would surely have triggered quite some visibility, but with 1% of the working population, just sank into invisibility in the stats.

Apart from one 2 or 3 page weekend section in the Independent (?), early 2000s or late 90s(?) I cannot recall any mainstream media coverage about sheep-dip.

And now it’s becoming suspected that the rate of infection with Lyme Disease in areas like Sussex have been much higher than ever thought, as tests become more sensitive and the range and ease of assays increase. Like that Cat-borne brain parasite whose name just escaped me- toxoplasmosis?? - a disturbing high incidence is being found.

If there are enough people with the… “myalgic” to create a broad label? “Poly”Myalgia’s?? to warrant inviting a speaker to, physically, or virtually with a camera, mike and a stable internet connection, then perhaps someone with some “disposable energy  budget “ could do so? I’d be up to corporeally  or media-ly attend. If its a good day. At least with the family grown and largely flown the nest the timetable is clear. 

Unless people would like a day meeting when energy quotas may be better.

I’m going to lie down now- haven’t been so active writing on a keyboard  for months and my spine is collapsing !