Not caught up with this thread today, but wanted to just jot something down now, even though it is almost certainly repeating what others will have said before.
To me it comes down to two fundamentals regarding the studies that were reviewed, and by inference therefore the review itself, being as it supported those studies' findings:
- The studies/review shows no proof that people correctly diagnosed with ME improve with exercise.
- The studies/review shows no proof that people correctly diagnosed with ME do not deteriorate with exercise.
I particularly think it is important to distinguish between 'deterioration' and 'harm', because the impression I get is that BPS researchers somehow manage to avoid categorising deterioration as a form of harm; thereby claiming exercise caused no harm. I think us trying to prove harm might be might more tricky that proving deterioration; though to prove deterioration with statistical significance almost certainly requires reliable objective outcome measures.
Also, when MS bites back against the need for objective measures, reasserting his belief in the adequacy of subjective measures because "that is how the illness is defined", this really tells us how MS and Co totally misunderstand what ME/CFS is and what it is like for people living with it. That may well be how their mind set defines it, but it's an invalid definition, as is their mind set. It's a very physical condition, which has both objective as well as subjective consequences; they erroneously choose to ignore the objective ones.