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Yes, my genetics friends showed me some amazing expression profiles for DRG cell populations. Vagal cells may link in to DRG but the 'vagus nerve' itself seems to me a pretty boring structure. Edit: actually AI says vagal cells do not go to DRG and that is what I thought I was taught!

I don't see any likelihood of finding cytokines around a nerve trunk. Before discussing the 'vagus nerve' I think we need to consider whether we are interested in sensory cells or motor cells or subsets of those or whatever. The vagus is just a bundle of fibres belonging to cells doing all sorts...

What constitutes 'legitimate'? Even in carefully controlled trials we have no idea whether the drug caused an improvement or worsening in an individual unless we have some objective pharmacodynamic data.

My impression was that someone saw a commercial opening for a commissioned service. The whole thing seemed to be an exercise in whitewashing.

"physicians may regard patients’ complaints with suspicion, sometimes assuming fabrication or exaggeration (Blease et al. 2017; Buchman et al. 2017). Yet, as the adage “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” reminds us, equating the absence of objective findings with the dismissal of...

Yes, but that applies to all medicine maybe. A good psychiatrist will make fair decisions about things like this. I have seen it in action and the way it can be lifesaving. A bad psychiatrist will be lazy and get things wrong. Same for physicians. But the whole narrative here seems to me very...

Maybe mine were a bit earlier too. I forget. But they did seem to appear overnight. What I find reassuring is that there don't seem to be many more of them 5-10 years later. It's very odd. Definitely not a linear progression.

I would endorse those reservations. Jo Cambridge got involved in NK cell counts and assays early on and developed an ingrained scepticism for both the data and the interpretation. The low and high NK counts in the Dara pilot correlating with response did seem to me pretty remarkable - enough for...

I don't think this is new. We have always known that certain aging phenomena occur quite suddenly in certain decades. Loss of eye lens accommodation occurs around 40. Cataract formation around 80, unless there are accelerating factors. The Heberden's nodes of 'generalised osteoarthropathy appear...

It is not clear to me that she ever got a valid diagnosis.

I shouldn't think so. Changes in immunity with aging are very fashionable - everyone has set up departments of aging immunity but to be honest I have never noticed it make much difference. A few people, particularly those with diabetes seem to lose immunity to common infections like Staph...

Apt.

But may have caused her to succumb to infection.

I do not see why she shouldn't. A review is not, as far as I am aware, confidential.

Post moved from a thread about a specific person This case does seem to highlight the absurdity of an ME?CFS plan that aims to provide services for mild/moderate cases but completely ignores the severe. I suspect the inability of charities to help partly reflects the absence of much medical...

Actually, it is a good example of pseudoscience: " This illustrates that Invisible Illness is not hampered by Mendenhall’s intention and positive wish to help - it is her research lens that is her Achilles heel. " Where have we heard that before? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the mind-body...

That is pretty damning. From what i can gather from the quotes from the book it is the worst sort of humanities-style interference with a medical problem exactly along the BPS lines, presumably wrapped up in a way to superficially appear sympathetic.

Indeed, James Ladyman's "Every Thing Must Go" is a treat, at least for the first four chapters, just not much to do with medicine!

John Worall is mostly known for his work on structural realism, with James Ladyman. Their take is sensible, if not that novel, but it is way out in metaphysics in relation to anything medical. (The idea is that all we can know about the world is its mathematical causal structure.) Worrall got...

Yes, but it is not what matters. And of course official approval depends on some people's opinions - so isn't any more rigorous. And politics comes into it a lot. I would say there are no known effective treatments. If you want to be pedantic. But no effective treatments is the reality.