not been posting/doing as much as I'd like for a while for bunch of reasons as I've mentioned before.
Basically my health's poorly, I've got what's named "M.E." (myalgic encephalomyelitis) or as a bunch of psychiatrists in the 1980's changed it to "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome".
It is not "fatigue", it's like having the Flu all the damn time, some folk are bed ridden with it, most start suffering problems with their Hypothalmus, Pituitary and Adrenal glands, nervous system and other issues, some die from it.

It affects approximately 1 million Americans, and 200,000 in the UK, you won't see us demonstrating like most other who are disabled and wanting fair treatment, or fund raising etc, because we CAN'T! hence, we have been easy victims for abuse and ignorance.

The scandal is that a bunch of psychiatrists decided that this disease was down to patients believing they were ill...a modern "neurasthenia": hysterical illness. This of course also meant victims could be denied medical insurance etc....same docs who claimed Gulf War Syndrome was "psychological"....which American researchers proved is probably caused by a mixture of exposure to pesticides and nerve gas and a nerve gas antidote (this is controversial since organophosphates, which incldue nerve gas, are used as crop pesticides, and the depleted uranium issue is one our governments freak out about).

Two GPs I saw initially didn't believe M.E. existed, it wasn't a "real" illness, and did nothing for me. When it got worse, a consultant left me to rot for three years, ignoring blood tests and MRI scans because to him, it was a "malingerers excuse not a disease". That is pretty typical of the bigotry and ignorance we suffer, much like AIDS victims did in the beginning.
For the record, with me, my pituitary gland no longer triggers testosterone prduction so I need testosterone shots, and MRI scan showed extensive "pinhead" lesions (scars on the brain) typical of M.E.

good video on this and the attitudes, I'm sure female viewers will "appreciate" the neurosurgeon's attitudes interviewed here, ahem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJmis85FM4s

Sophia Mirza died from ME, but the drug trial mentioned here,wasn't funded and petered out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvFwhW3FUY&feature=related

My mother had her back broken, that and a toxic dye used in X rays caused scarring on her spinal cord, which causes extreme pain, a doc dismissed it as "neurasthenia"...no, it's arachnoiditis, idiot!!

So, last year a research group discovered a link between M.E. and "XMRV" a retrovirus (retrovirus are sneaky nasty horrible things, AIDS is nother such, they become part of your own DNA, and so you have the damn things for life.)

Basically what has occured is that studies to detect this XMRV by groups associated with those who claimed ME/CFS was psyhcological, have not found XMRV at all, not one instance of it.
yet, the virus damn well does exist, as many other studies have shown (mostly to deal with prostate cancer from which all this interest first emerged).

Another such negative study, from the CDC, was published, while one supporting the XMRV link, by the NIH and FDA, was held back, apparently because the government/bureacracy is nervous over all this. they wanted a "consensus" (science as Micheal Crichton pointed out, doesn't do "consensus", facts speak for themselves, not bureacrats)

if ME is proven to be caused by this retrovrius, there will be HELL to pay. Look at the mess bigotry and stupidity caused with AIDS in the early years, but this has been going on for thirty years.

Many countries are only now telling folk with ME/CFS they shouldn't donate blood: Canada, Australia, New Zeland and now the USA
http://www.aabb.org/pressroom/Pages/cfsrecommendation.aspx

Wall Street Journal article on this mess
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/07/01/cdc-teams-xmrv-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-paper-is-out/

What's interesting is how the CDC, which has been vehemently pro-pyshological cause, gathered it's samples: instead of getting people with a diagnosis of ME/CFS, they used a PHONE SURVEY to ask for folk with long lasting fatigue...seriously.
the "fatigue" ME/CFS causes is like someone shoving a vacuum cleaner in your navel and sucking your insides out, it's NOTHING like any normal "fatigue". It also causes a great deal of pain, memory loss and a whole host of not nice stuff.

Response to the CDC paper by Dr Susan Vernon
http://www.cfids.org/xmrv/070110study.asp

It's almost unheard of for papers to be held back from publishing like this.

Nature magazine
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100702/full/news.2010.332.html
Science magazine
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/06/conflicting-papers-on-hold-as-xm.html

this is an ENORMOUS scandal. The "Deniers" are determined ot keep this all shut up, claim it's still unexplained/psychosomatic disease, so isn't it odd they can't find XMRV?

meanwhile, millions suffer and die and a disease has not been brought in check when it could have been.
HUBRIS

sorry I don't usually like political etc stuff here, but, OMFG I am so *SOOOOOOOOOOOO *angry about this.

If anybody wants a delightful example of coverup, just check the battle that is taking place here in Italy between the armed forces and (ex)personnel affected/dying/died of depleted uranium related cancers.

There are no exact numbers but we are surely in the region of several tens of deaths and several hundreds of casualties.

The reason for the cover up? very simple: if the army admited that there is this relationship, it would have to pay the expenses for the victims, it might have to drop the usage of DU in anti tank ammunitions and, if proved that top brass knew about the toxic effects of DU, they would be guilty of having broken the international conventions against chemical warfare and might even be in danger of being accused of war crimes.

Bye...

P.S.: ...and we are not even talking about the effects on the people living in the countries we, as NATO henchmen, contibuted to "liberate" from "dictatorship".

Good rant, Silver. You didn't use even one 'self-reference'.

And if anyone wants to know just how bad this situation is, it has been documented that a child was thrown into a swimming pool but so-called clinicians in an attempt to prove that the child was faking his symptoms. He nearly drowned.

We also have a certain 'Professor' Simon Wessly, a 'phyciatrist', who wants to round up all the CFS/ME sufferers, herd them into his hospital wards and experiment on them with his drugs. Failure to comply with his 'treatment' requirements would immediately trigger loss of social security benefits. He's one of those 'all-in-the-mind' theorists.

 I have a cousin with CFS.  It is hell for her.  I hope the sun shines more for you, Silverblade. 

Teque

Alex,
standard operating procedure in the UK over suc has alway been to deny*, deny, wait, and wait, delay, delay, bullsht, bullsht,* until most of the vicitms are dead, so less to pay out, grrr.
See Gulf War Syndrome, asbestosis, miners, nerve gas illegally tested on our servicemen (they told them it was treatment for the common cold!), etc etc.
Grr.

Depleted uranium is hellish stuff, more toxic than mercury, a heavy metal (so it never breaks down), and the radioactivity it has isn't dangerous until you ingest it...but since uranium is very reactive and mostly in dust from the impact shattering/burning it, it's easy to absorb it one way or another.
Jeesh!
They said Agent Orange was safe for decades...on the basis of previous historical outcomes, the likelyhood of Depleted Uranium turning out to be a damn horror, are pretty high ;)

Bryster,
Puts on V's mask and bows with a theatrical flourish! ;)

Man, those numbnuts' stupidity and arrogance is beyond belief, though if you look at the attitudes of similar folks back in the early parts of the 20th century, you start to understand why the Nazis had such a peculiar support/background from which they grew tacit support. ie, Eugenics and other nuttiness.
Makes me think of that awesome line in Babylon 5: "Ah, arrogance and stupidity in one package! How effcient of you!" hehe

think the youttube video I posted has the interview with the lad they did "sink of swim" experiment on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJmis85FM4s

way back, when I wanted to go to university (from other thread we talked in), all though certain areas interested me in science, it was "Science" itself which interested me: it's ethics, morality, history and practical application and helping Joe Citizen understand and appreciate what Science does for him/her, but also their responsibility in using it's gifts and making their leaders behave wisely...see the A-Bomb as to why, never mind all the other horrors.
 so I got the "rabbit frozen in car headlights" stare when I said that, lol, they just wanted folk to specialize, be an "ologists", be part of the "Machine", and couldn't understand what I was after, jeesh.

To me, science in practical reality is woefully unethical and ammoral, when it damn well should not be, we can't afford it to be liek that. Shocking that attempts to create a "Hippocratic Oath for Science" have been frutiless. Many researchers do behave with honour, but there's os many groups, companies and indiduals who don't.
Only a matter of time afore some damn idiot causes world wide havoc because of unprincipled behaviour. See the huge amounts of fraud and terrible behaviour int he pharma industry, every week brings out another horrendous  and dumb peice of behaviour to light. The Foot & Mouth outbreak form the lab in England other year (and stuff a hell of a lot worse than that has gone on, see the Tuskegee Experiment, the US, UK and Soviet's NBC weapon programs, even on unwitting civilians as well as servicemen, omg...!!)

My great uncle was one of the guys who liberated the Belsen concentration camp, you can guess my attitudes to all such crap and unethical gits.

These should be the spiritual and moral thoughts at everyone's forefront:
***"Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me!"
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

***And the underpinning principle of science and it's vital caveats:
"***If you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, is the truth"
"All scientific facts and knowledge are correct as best we know at this moment in time, future evidence may invalidate or alter it. Every single fact must be checked and re-checked every day, every piece of knowledge must be checked in the light of new discoveries, and this is an eternal task."
"Science is about probabilities, not absolute certainties!"
***(Ok I know, science deals with facts not "truth" but hey, Sherlock hit the nail on the head, hehe)

Tsquare
ack, how's she coping with it? :/
And thank you! :)

I found some things help:

hot baths (seriously, most folk for osme reaosn find it takes the pain etc out very well for an hour or so).

Not sleeping too long, too much sleep makes ya worse, oddly enough.

Selenium and ZInc (forget the zinc type that's best, doh!), in standard doses, never over do vitamins except maybe vitmain C.
Don't use ginseng, found it knocks the utter bejezuz out of me, gah!

MP3 player with soothing music, helps cut out all the crap and make sure folk do NOT bother her in groups, several folk talking at once is like having your head cored out with a hammer drill, ugh

Tylex (much better than cocodamol for the pain though they are supposed to be the same thing for me, Tylex is twice as effective)

Gabapentin or Lyrica for pain I use take doses of gabapentin cause it's got nasty side effects I find :/

Testosterone injections in my case, some folk it shuts down testosterone output as it affects the "HPA Axis", in my case it's whacked the pituitary gland, so it doesn't control testosterone productionm I almost have zero, so testosterone shots are prescribed, not something someone should EVER damn well take without doctor's orders (like idiots wanting to build muscles), but it's had huge positive impact on my quality of life :)

reactolite glasses. I had to wear them anyway as I used to do arc welding and am sensitive to UV light in bright sunshine, but ME/CFS make syou veyr sensitive to bright lights, hence the worst affected have to live in dark room, poor souls :(

And find a GOOD doctor. Many are alas, worse than useless when it comes to ME, sigh. Can't cure ya but can make life a lot easier :) first idiots I saw did nothing for me but after about oh 5 or 6 years, got a really damn good one, awesome fella, my deepest respects to him :) Alas he moved out of the region to be nearer his folks, such is life :p

I sent you an email for when you are feeling better. :)

Teque