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Research proposals concerning systemic inflammation were axed at the NIH, due to the word "systemic" (on the list) because it sounds a bit like the abhorent phrase "systemic racism."

I've taken trazodone every night for 20 years for FM fragmented sleep problems (sucessfully, mostly). I use the 50mg dose. Many drugs have a more pronounced effect when you don't use them regularly.

Too bad each randomized group can't be rotated through all four arms of the trial.

Paul Offit (pediatrician/vaccine advisory board member-ACIP) wrote a substack email delineating RFK2's support of the very antiquated miasma theory of disease (pre-Robert Koch [pre-microbes]) which informs RFK2's nutrition and sanitation emphasis underlying the resurgence of measles outbreaks...

From the Introduction: "Chronic psychosocial distress is known to be the only etiological and/or aggravating factor of these conditions (Barke, 2019; Nicholas et al., 2019; Scholz et al., 2019)." The only etiological and/or aggravating factor of FM, CRP and 3 other chronic pain conditions? No.

Heavy on the psych in the afternoon schedule. Most speakers are Italian researchers. At least there isn't the Hauser or Woolf contigent that espouse that FM is not a thing. I'd try to go if I were in the neighborhood and had 1000 euros to register. Maybe.

I find by Wednesday of each week I need a refuge from what's happening in the US. The situation is here is bizarre and frightening, so reading experts' views feels comforting. But there's a saturation by mid-week and it seems like so much noise and dust. I find it harmful to me to read the...

My take on the difference between FM and ME is personal. I was diagnosed with FM and the rheumatologist added a CFS diagnosis to my chart because I had to take a rest at work by 830am, back when I was struggling to stay employed. Pain in several body regions at once is the key finding in FM...

Perhaps a trial with subjects wearing Virtual Reality goggles while doing Tai-Chi, receiving massage, fed chocolate, followed by a hot bath (water-proof goggles). These are called temporary diversions of attention. Key to withstanding higher unrelieved pain levels.

Fibromyalgia was termed Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) back decades. Why it's bumped down in the pecking order to functional is beyond me. Another instantly assumed meaning of functional is something that works, functions. In FMS, the opposite happens. Pain being a huge inhibition of normal F...

This rehash research paper feels like it was written in 2001. The ups and downs of how much FM is considered real varies by the half-decade. The empathy of docs is dependent on finding a bio-marker and/or the individual doc having a partner or close relative w/FM. Not being "believed" and...

I was exposed to the concept in nursing school in 1981 as though it was "the answer" to root causes of ill health. What vexes me is the huge proportion of funding that goes to psychological studies in health and diseases that has little import, is repetitive, and many instances inaccurate...

How very convenient for the medical practitioners to have a garbage dump for somewhat hard to describe conditions, conditions that cause considerable suffering to the patients who have them, and NOT to the practitioners. Since the science doesn't have the root causes nailed down, the...

Foreward by Ed Yong. Supported by a grant by National Science Foundation (US).

Yes, worth the long read. Good comments section though some commenters are convinced that mind cures pain. Oh woo. I felt compelled to comment re my FM.

Yes, household bleach (the approximate dilution depends on the percentage of chlorine in the product, some vary but you can add a tad more bleach to the dilution --1 pt bleach or a bit more to 9 parts water, that should be adequate).

Having had 4 bouts of likely noro virus caused gastroenteritis in one year's span I will go to these lengths: I am going to wear gloves going into the market, carefully removing them upon exiting store by the cuff (turning them inside out, wadding into a ball and discarding into a special bag)...

Another Israeli paper about mortality in FM, a review and meta-analysis: (it states suicide, accidents and infections are higher than normal controls, and cancer rates are lower). Link https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37429737/ PDF https://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/rmdopen/9/3/e003005.full.pdf

Hard to know how much the results were because of FM patients' higher BMI and much higher rates of smoking and being more sedentary, in addition to the detection bias and the limitation of one institution's record vs an immunologic causation. Still, interesting.

As a former hemodialysis nurse, I can attest to the depression and fatigue and some pain in that population, most but not all. Here "enrolled 160 patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis who had fatigue, pain, or depression showed improvements in patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with a...