51–60 of 228 posts
Why did they need machine learning? It seems from Figures 2B-G that there's a clear cut off. "Moreover, to create a classifier for ME/CFS patients capable of identifying new patients, required for a robust diagnostic tool, we developed a trained kernel Support Vector Machine (SVM), a supervised machine-learning algorithm, using our experimental data. To classify new patients based on whether they fall to the right of…
I'm just astonished by this. Millions of people (in the US alone!) suffer from this illness and I think everyone has wondered, or heard it wondered, if it's imaginary. For all these people to know there's something actually physically wrong with them is massive. It'll shift the thinking of everyone in the profession, of their families and friends and colleagues, and of themselves. It's a huge, huge breakthrough.
I'm just astonished by this. Millions of people (in the US alone!) suffer from this illness and I think everyone has wondered, or heard it wondered, if it's imaginary. For all these people to know there's something actually physically wrong with them is massive. It'll shift the thinking of everyone in the profession, of their families and friends and colleagues, and of themselves. It's a huge, huge breakthrough.
>Millions of people (in the US alone!) suffer from this illness and I think everyone has wondered, or heard it wondered, if it's imaginary. For all these people to know there's something actually physically wrong with them is massive. IMO the broader issue is the stigma against mental illness. The leading hypothesis remains that chronic fatigue syndrome is a mental illness. Both your comment and the linked article im…
CFS can absolutely cause mental illness though - constant fatigue, and sometimes pain, can take a terrible toll.
If you are living with CFS i recommend giving https://cfsremission.com/ a look.
I’ve been in and out of the doctor for a couple years, with weird pains, and most recently a lymph node that is a little enlarged in the neck. Obviously there are some scary (but unlikely) potential explanations. But, my sleep quality degrading over the years is something that has been happening much slower, and started much earlier.
Not a huge fan of self diagnosis but maybe some of the proposed dietary changes would be worth trying, since they seem fairly innocuous. I’m sure eating more apples won't hurt.
If anyone has experience with CFS and has advice, I’m all ears. I’d kill to sleep like I did when I was 18.
Paper at https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2019/04/24/190127411... Pleasantly surprised to discover that it was legally available! The test appears to be ridiculously good. Perfect separation of 40 subjects into those who have been diagnosed with CFS and those who are known to be healthy, from blood samples. I want to see this replicated, by people who are not the original authors; but if this test is anything…
For example, it's been found that a lot of CFS (and fibromyalgia) patients turn out to have small fiber neuropathy (damage to he nerve fibers that signal pain), and neurotoxins have been shown to cause general fatigue (I'm in mobile, so no references for now I'm afraid).
The skin biopsy test for small fiber neuropathy isn't routinely done because there aren't that many labs capable of testing the sample, and it's relatively expensive. Of course, for all we know neuropathy could be a symptom of CFS... but the point is there is a lot of cross-over, and there is no diagnostic test specifically for CFS.
I'm just astonished by this. Millions of people (in the US alone!) suffer from this illness and I think everyone has wondered, or heard it wondered, if it's imaginary. For all these people to know there's something actually physically wrong with them is massive. It'll shift the thinking of everyone in the profession, of their families and friends and colleagues, and of themselves. It's a huge, huge breakthrough.
>Millions of people (in the US alone!) suffer from this illness and I think everyone has wondered, or heard it wondered, if it's imaginary. For all these people to know there's something actually physically wrong with them is massive. IMO the broader issue is the stigma against mental illness. The leading hypothesis remains that chronic fatigue syndrome is a mental illness. Both your comment and the linked article im…
The strict delineation between physiological and psychological illnesses is mostly a Western construct and the unfortunate effect is that the CFS community has an obsession with proving that it is a 100% physical illness without any mental component. It shouldn't be necessary for them to assert that for them to be taken seriously. The same can be said of chronic Lyme, Fibromyalgia, IBS, many kinds of chronic pain
One fascinating thing is that there are people with non-physiological dissociative seizures (classified as a DSM mental illness). This population is actually much less likely to admit that their mental wellbeing has an effect on the incidence of these seizures than patients with conventional ones
In comes dr ron davis. His son acquired me cfs while traveling in india. Completely unsatisfied with the lack of care provided by his doctors, he ventured off to research the disease himself assembling a team of esteemed scientists. They all begin to promptly kick ass and take names making more headway on understanding the disease more than anytime in history. Meanwhile, they have open conferences which are posted on YouTube for patients to watch (and see hope) and other scientists to learn from.
Davis and his collaborators discover all sorts of cfs links and debunk a bunch of myths.really interesting research is occurring on trypanosomes, metabolic traps, and the microbiome. Eventually a large signal is found when the cells are stressed and voila, we arrive at the test mentioned in the link.
This folks is how science is supposed to unfold and it all happening right in front of our eyes for everyone to see in real time. Quite astonishing. These folks will eventually win the Nobel, im sure of it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have to agree with you here - the separation is too good. You just never get anything in the real world that works this well with complex diseases.
AIDS was once considered a very complex disease, but it has a very accurate (HIV) test today. My big concern would be if, like cancer, there are really many diseases and Chronic Fatigue symptoms are common, not differentiating.
For starters, these are both diagnosis of exclusion; these labels are also used by lazy doctors who lack a deeper understanding of their field (anecdotally, both personal and otherwise), or who are reluctant to run expensive tests for rarer conditions; and many people with these conditions have been found to have small fiber neuropathy.
Now that people with diseases such as CFS and diabetes can receive help, we are no longer breeding these diseases out of the gene pool. As a result, we are actually spreading them epigenetically over time.
We will be forced to turn to science, such as vaccines and pre- and post-birth biological modification, in order to continue the progression of our species in our battle against ailments and germs.
As a side note, what is the best way to get tested for CFS? Is it possible to devlop CFS after contracting certain immuno-suppressant diseases?
In my youth I was constantly sleeping in class, but I chalked it up to a combination of insomnia and 24/7 forced consumption of amphetamines to treat ADHD. I mean I would sleep literally anywhere if I had more than half an hour to kill with nothing to do, much to the embarrassment of my guardians. At the time I was not interested in getting tested for narcolepsy and adding yet another item to my list of mental illnesses.
Then right after high school, I contracted mononucleosis. I was completely bed-ridden for almost six months, and for about two years I basically had no energy at all. Always sleeping. Those two years went by in a flash. And now I still feel that to a degree, years later. I'm Bipolar II, and when I'm in my manic phase I have near unlimited energy, but when I'm at baseline or in my depressive phase I basically crawl into a permanent coma for two weeks punctuated by work.
A lot of people intentionally allow their children to contract mono in their youth, similarly to chicken pox, so that the virus comes at a more manageable period in their life. It can be devastating/disruptive to an adult life. I was homeless and unable to work for a long time. I wonder if any research has been done towards the link between early contraction of these diseases and CFS.
I'm just astonished by this. Millions of people (in the US alone!) suffer from this illness and I think everyone has wondered, or heard it wondered, if it's imaginary. For all these people to know there's something actually physically wrong with them is massive. It'll shift the thinking of everyone in the profession, of their families and friends and colleagues, and of themselves. It's a huge, huge breakthrough.
I've known several people over the years who have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and most of them have at some stage or another had to deal with discrimination from people that told them it was a made up illness. Having a solid test like this will make a phenomenal difference.