Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHS
John Greensmith
Recent activity
Comments (3)
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Comment on: Is the Daily Mail bad for your health?
I can find something better for Gabriel Fleming to do with his time than, first, draw attention to the poll in the Daily Mail, "Do you think ME is a genuine illness?" for those who missed it the first time around, for which they subseqently apologised and removed it and, secondly, have a poll on his page, which is really no better than the one he is condemning. It is to publish the reason why there is no question at all that M.E. (I specifically mean Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and not the catch-all Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, with which M.E. has become associated) is a genuine illness and then promote promising, approriately funded, biomedical research, for greater understanding of this seriously disabling illness, in the hope of finding effective treatment and possibly a cure. There is incontrovertible postmortem evidence of inflammation in the spinal cord, in a substantial number of people, from around the world, who have died after having M.E. It is not a question of whether but how many and about the onset and common variables they share. That should keep you busy Gabriel and if you need some help, I know lots of people who would be delighted to hear from you and I'll be happy to put you in touch.
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Comment on: Tory NHS would be 'biggest quango in the world'
And the one we have now isn't? Yours sincerely drjohngreensmith@mefreeforall.org ME Free For All. org
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Comment on: CBT could be treatment option for chronic fatigue
The evidence is far from as clear as Psychiatrist Jonathan Price asserts it is can help many people with CFS. It's unclear: whether he is including M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) in this catch-all diagnosis but this disabling neurological illness should not be bundled with other illnesses which have chronic fatigue as a symptom because they are not the same, should not be treated the same and, if he is, the statistics will be distorted; what kind of treatment regime they actually receive; how long for; whether in conjunction with another treatment such as drugs or Graded Exercise Treatmant (GET) which are potentially addictive, irrecoverably harmful and confound the statistics. When therapists - or, sometimes, the patients themselves -claim that CBT has helped their CFS, there are always other possible explanations, such as improvement with time, resting or pacing, which CBT advocates choose to ignore or overrule. This month, at a Conference at the University of East Anglia, Professors Mick Cooper & Robert Elliott from Strathclyde University showed that the efficacy of CBT is a 'myth' and we are probably wasting millions of pounds Jonathan Price seems to be looking into a very different pool - or with different tinted lenses - if he sees clear evidence where other researchers and patients see very muddy waters indeed Dr John H Greensmith ME Free For All. org
