Daily Telegraph: Living hell or yuppie flu? The confusing fog of chronic fatigue syndrome

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Richard Holt
https://healthybeast.podbean.com/ (Lucky Old you!!!!)



Tired of chronic fatigue syndrome

February 1, 2019
Writer Nick Duerden had a very active life before he was hit by an illness that left him virtually unable to leave the house. Luckily he could still type, so he wrote a book about how he used alternative medicine to try and overcome his condition. Sceptical about all of this? I was - and thankfully so was Nick...
Get Well Soon: Adventures in Alternative Healthcare is published by Bloomsbury.
Find out about Nick's other work at Nickduerden.co.uk.


Richard Holt

Richard Holt writes regular articles for Telegraph Men. He can be contacted at

richardholtuk@gmail.com

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Healthy Beast
@richmholt

A podcast for anybody who believes that sitting still and pretending not to be an animal is bad for your health

https://healthybeast.podbean.com/


Health
Trying to keep the animal as happy as possible.

A belated attempt by Richard Holt to live a good, healthy life.

He talks to people who understand these things far better than he does. (Depends who you talk to!)

 

Or not, my advice would be to ignore him and do something better with your precious energy.

 

This has been disproved but it remains as a myth probably because it gives cancer patients (and their families) a sense of control over outcomes. Most of us know people who have died from cancer despite fighting and others who made the decision to not have treatment. The whole idea of positive thinking having an effect on anyone's health has no basis and is just a reflection of the way "disability porn" is so popular in our society.

It makes me angry. If anyone has the right to show anger, to be selfish, to rest and enjoy quiet times with family it is cancer patients. If they want to run a marathon and start a charity fine, but if they want to sit at home feeling sorry for themselves that should be fine too.

This isn't aimed at you Esther!

 

Ah, but I don't have ME ( am a carer for 2 that do have it- moderate/severe - son over 20 years and husband nearer 40 years)
I am blessed with lots of energy so i might make a tentative contact.....

 

Utter bollocks isn’t it. Is that Simon Aylwin in any position of influence or care because he doesn’t get it at all.
What he’s describing is CF but with ME it’s nothing to do with the activity being unaccustomed and that sounds like wessely speak “ofcourse you might get some “unpleasant sensations” when you try new things, just ignore that and steadily increase regardless of symptoms”. I can get symptom flare just from staying on the phone too long, it’s tiny levels of exertion which should not trigger such dramatic response.

Plus it’s not just fatigue is it, hence PEM not PEF is preferred by patients to cover, you know, the rolling around in pain bit.

Plus if it’s repeated it can make the condition worse, that’s how most people deteriorate.

Then to top it off he puts the emphasis on patient belief based on some stupid form of reasoning which ignores the fact that people who feel they can exercise are probably just less sick.

This whole BPS viewpoint is essentially just reconditioning which is a ridiculous response to this illness and is utterly unsubstantiated by evidence and at odds with basic patients narrative, the stuff you usually listen to to form a picture. It’s BS and I apologise for swearing, I only use it to convey extra special contempt and anger.

 

Hold on - people are missing out my second sentence!

The idea that positive cognitions cause improved prognosis has been debunked by research that showed the association was a result of patients being able to make an informed judgement about their prognosis. ie some patients with cancer have sound medical reasons to be more positive about prognosis than others, so of course positive cognitions about prognosis will be associated with a better survival rate.

I was just pointing out how, if there is an association like this with ME/CFS (and I'd assume there would be for most conditions), it doesn't necessarily tell us anything about whether cognitions influence prognosis.

 

"Profound tiredness after unaccustomed exercise" he says. He's missed the point. It's mostly "Profound bloody tiredness after ACCUSTOMED exercise, for no bloody reason."

I never stopped brushing my teeth, or going to the loo, so why is this so bloody exhausting?

 

These sorts of "yuppie flu" headlines will continue forever unless patient organisations start pushing back with complaints to authorities or even lawsuits.

 

That's OK, I wasn't referring to you.

 

Partly inspired by the Daily Telegraph article:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1095367841832947713

 

Or indeed, it’s profound bloody tiredness before, during and after accustomed activity...

 

I have now listened to the full 40 minute interview between Richard Holt and Nick D.
Nick D was honest and even handed about his situation; I even made some notes and observations, but it's clear Mr Holt is not a good listener.

If he had really listen and used his brain, he wouldn't have created the self opinionated, supercilious crap copy published by the Daily T.
But then he's obviously playing to the crowd to earn a buck at someone else's expense.

If I were Nick D I would have been furious to give him so much air time and see this result.
Especially at the damning explanation of the NHS approach by Nick, Richard seeks the opinion of an NHS practitioner who was happy to validate his own distorted view of ME matters.

 

Exactly.

It always seems that so much of the crap coming from the BPS crowd boils down to them implying causation from correlation without justification.

 

Anyone else find breathing to be super hard? I don’t recall ever stopping doing it for a long stretch of time, but I may have been so busy thinking positively I forgot to...

 

depend son what you mean by long periods of time really. I have always had instances of forgetting to breathe, it's perfectly possible to distance me enough so I just forget, for a while.

...and yes, at times, breathing can be quite hard, more trouble than it's worth from my point of view, but the animal disagrees.