Other folks may be affected more at the 100% level because they can’t work at all, yet they continue to incur the expenses of living plus trying to get well. They deal with family and friend issues and usually enjoy few outside activities of any kind because they can’t physically, mentally or emotionally tolerate the activity and because they can’t afford them.

Either way you look at the problem, we all can appreciate the exciting announcement about the birth of the …

NeuroEndocrineImmune (NEI) Center, the first research center in the state of New Jersey dedicated to understanding and treating chronic neuroendocrineimmune (NEI) illnesses which includes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, is currently awaiting passage in the New Jersey State Senate.

NJ state senators cited studies that an estimated 20 million American adults and children suffer with NEI type illnesses: Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, CFS/ME and more.

‘The economic impact and loss of worker productivity in the United States due to CFS/ME, alone, is estimated to be over $9 billion per year. Chronic illness represents 75% of all the health care costs in the U.S.’

According to Senator Loretta Weinberg (D): “It makes sense to locate the NEI center in New Jersey. As the nation’s medicine chest, New Jersey is home to research institutions and private businesses that can cooperate to find a cure for these debilitating diseases.”

Let’s hope this is one bill that passes. The NeuroEndocrineImmuneCenter could be very important. Spend a little. Save a lot. *Remember: we’re a drain on the national pocketbook unless they come up with an answer!

Thanks, Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

That could be good news for people with acute and chonic pain issues. Living with daily pain, like the pain from Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, can feel more like a nightmare than actually living. For them, the term “pain management” is more of a joke than a reality because their lives are often greatly diminished because of the quantity and high degree of chronic pain that largely goes un-managed.

This information about morphine drugs comes from an announcement at the Science News, the Magazine of the Society for Science and the Public, updates March 15th, 2010.

Chemists pin down poppy’s tricks for making morphines.

Scientists have figured out two of the final key steps in the chain of chemical reactions that the opium poppy uses to synthesize morphine, suggesting possible signaling strategies for new ways of making the drug and its cousin pain killers.

However this turns out, whether they are able to make new and better morphine pain killers or not, it will be important for the scientists and drug manufacturers to provide good answers for pain control to those who need it, while also making sure that they don’t add to the new products’ appeal as illegal street drugs. The first part of that equation is very desirable due to the few choices that chronic pain patients have presently to ease their collective suffering. The second part… well, no one wants to see more opportunities for those who abuse drugs to be able to get them.

Let’s hope the drug manufacturers get it right his time and that the FDA pays close attention to which drugs it approves. For those people in serious need, pain management (or pain control) is as serious a daily life issue as living and breathing.

Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

So bear with me, if you can. I’m certainly human and I make a lot of mistakes. But coincidentally, it is a good time for you to tell me what you’d like to see more of here on the Health Matters Show blog and podcast. More articles on certain topics, more links to others people’s blogs (I lost all but one in my morning goof up!), more speakers, more topics, more facilities to keep in touch, etc. Whatever.

Please post your comments below. I hope your Saturday morning has started off with fewer problems than mine.

P-s-s-sst… later… come back to check out my YouTube and Vimeo channels that will show up in the right column widget box. New videos should be routinely come out now!

Yes, I’ll get most everything reinstalled unless the sunshine and warm spring weather call me too loudly. Have a fantastic weekend!

Cinda Crawford, your host of the Health Matters Show

Neither do we get to stay satisfied with one health status for very long because it changes literally by the micro-second. (Even if we’re talking about bad health, it, too, changes constantly.) From a quantum physics and physical standpoint, it is impossible to be at a complete standstill.

With all of the other uncomfortable unknowns about “chronic illness” like the cause, how to live with symptoms, who do we listen to that might help us, etc., it’s a daunting task to consider any change at all, much less a big one.

Yet we must not be afraid of change when it comes to healing…

After all, we do want to get well. Such is the idea and offer that I’m presenting to you today.

(8 minute audio file)

I have developed a methodology for healing all kinds of illnesses. It’s called Sacred Cellular Healing. It is spiritually-based, energy healing. It is designed to help your body heal itself fron the cellular level out. That means a whole lot of good change is going on!

Most people want to really know any person who is helping them. I easily accommodate people for appointments in Virginia by meeting them face to face to do work in person. Anyone not close by receives a Skype video call or a regular phone call. Whichever way my client and I use to be together during these special sessions, it makes for a close relationship that augments the intention of the healing process and encourages the client to heal. Note: This method works as well at a distance as it does in person. I have found no limitations.

A small portion of J. Lind of Iowa’s comments…
I am appreciative of Cinda’s compassion and her strong desire to facilitate an improvement in my health. Even though we have not met in person, my phone sessions with her were very natural and comfortable… .

Because of how Sacred Cellular is designed, I work on people one by one. Now that’s a darned good way for anyone to get the best and quickest results. But it didn’t take long though for me to realize that my system had a drawback:

• I can only handle a limited number of clients at the time!
  I’m one person. I spend a lot of time keeping in touch and helping people for free through my blogs and podcast, on Twitter and Facebook. The rest of my time is spent squeezing in every precious moment of client time possible doing Sacred Cellular Healing. Until now, this had to be done on a one-on-one basis. That severely limits the number of people I can help and there is no way that is satisfactory.

For you that could mean no traveling to appointments, no getting dressed, no waiting any longer for your chance to feel better, no paying exorbitantly high costs and no longer being made to feel like a second-classed citizen because you have an illness that is not understood, not respected nor are there answers for it within the general medical field. What it does mean is that you have an excellent chance to feel better and all at a very reasonable cost. I urge you to check it out now!

So today, dear one, do only one little thing: Sign up to receive my notices about this membership course on the right of this page. Only your name and email are needed to keep in touch.

I’m offering this healing course at Get Well Health because Learn How to Heal is not limited to any one illness. I’ve had success in helping people heal from arthritis, autoimmune illnesses, viral and bacterial problems, sexual abuse and emotional trauma, physical trauma, failure to thrive in infants, bowel dysfunction, broken bone healing… . You name it and I may have already addressed the health problem successfully!

My point is to urge you to get on the notification list NOW. I’ll have everything finished very soon. By being on the list, I’ll keep in touch to let you know what’s happening and when. This is a very exciting time.

Dear One, listen to the sounds of change and healing. They are positive and they are definitely in the air! Now… don’t be afraid. Simply believe that your healing is possible and act like you know it’s true.

I’m Cinda Crawford, your host of the Health Matters Show

With chiropractic care, you’re looking to correct spinal subluxations, as they call them, using various techniques. To me spinal subluxations are simply my spine being pushed and pulled all out-of-whack due to the tremendous force of cramped and hurting muscles. The actual definition is obviously much more specific.

Dear one, if you’ve been the recipient of any kind of physical trauma, your spinal and body changes can be much worse than anything I’m describing…

Recently, I heard from Biovedawellness.com and they left a comment here, linking it to a post on their site. It’s entitled, Chiropractic Care Helps Fibromyalgia Patient – BioVeda of Richardson Reports.

This information is worth bringing to you directly. If you have Fibromyalgia but you haven’t investigated chiropractic care, I hope you will now. An answer is an answer no matter what it is or how it’s applied to your health situation. Alternative or complementary care in many forms helps lots of sufferers around the world.

Here’s wishing you a more pain-free and comfortable day,
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

The problem arises because of:

• People who can’t see the legitimacy that something really important is going on medically, when the Fibromyalgia patient population in the US alone is estimated at 6 to 10 million people. Simply, they must be in a state of non-seeing. At the least, they are certainly in a state of denial.

You ask, “How can they not see what is so obvious?” I suggest that it must be because of the wart on the front of their nose has become unrecognizable. They see it all the time and their brains have blocked it out of their visual image of the world. Maybe they saw the wart once, didn’t like it or know what it was about, feared it at some unconscious level and/or simply decided to ignore it. Maybe it would go away… maybe they could avoid dealing with it. In very simple terms, they do not or cannot see what’s in front of them as Fibromyalgia, even though the situation is apparent to millions of other people all around them in the world.

Note: sometimes friends or loved ones can have this attitude, too.

• Medical doctors who really don’t make an effort to know their sick and hurting patients who come in the door with symptoms of Fibromyalgia. These doctors surely must be non-advised that if any of those patients meet the criteria for Fibromyalgia, they have a duty and an obligation to give them the diagnosis. The American Rheumatology Association agrees, insurance companies agree, and even the Social Security Administration supports such a diagnosis. *Research these issues more at Get Well Health.

• Individuals who are not aware of Fibromyalgia as being a legitimate illness are simply unknowing. We can certainly understand and put up with people in this group the most. Obviously not all of us know about every illness in existence today.

For people within these three groups, send them to my page on Fibromyalgia and all of the linked and referenced websites there. Surely there’s more available than they already know about or they wouldn’t have such flippant, non-caring and non-plussed attitudes about a very serious medical condition!

As I leave you today, I suggest that we in the Fibromyalgia community begin to prepare now for Fibromyalgia Awarness Day 2010, May 12th. Certainly we can begin to build a sense of urgency about it now. Also we have a duty and an obligation to spread the word about the legitimacy of this horrible illness. Don’t tolerate the doctor I mentioned above. And don’t put up with such nonsense.

PS- I became aware of this doctor’s opinion through a Facebook group that I belong to entitled, “Sufferers against Dr Crippen’s “Fibromyalgia-Whatever That Is.” You can find it and me on Facebook (as Cinda Crawford) or you can access his article here. (Get past the tarot card reading video and he has quite a bit to say… just none of it good.)

Please leave a comment to this post below. Then, send this information on and on and on. We all need to keep spreading the word about Fibromyalgia. And if you have any great ideas about how to create more Fibromyalgia awareness for Awareness Day, share them, too. I’m planning on doing a BlogTalkRadio Show and working out the details as we speak. If that interests you and you’d like to attend, comment below and tell me that, too. I would welcome your suggestions about how we can publicize the event within your community and sphere of influence.

Thanks so much and have a great day, Cinda Crawford
Host of the Health Matters Show

Doctors judged their patients by what they could see, feel, hear and sense. They asked questions and then offered an evaluation. Much of the time these old timey doctors were darned accurate and darned effective.

Such is the more subtle approach of most alternative methods of treatment. Recently, in the Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine, an analysis was made “attempting to evaluate the efficacy of possible treatments for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia
(FM). ”

The report is called Alternative medical interventions used in the treatment and management of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Here is the conclusion:

Several types of alternative medicine have some potential for future clinical research. However, due to methodological inconsistencies across studies and the small body of evidence, no firm conclusions can be made at this time. Regarding alternative treatments, acupuncture and several types of meditative practice show the most promise for future scientific investigation.

Likewise, magnesium, l-carnitine, and S-adenosylmethionine are nonpharmacological supplements with the most potential for further research. Individualized treatment plans that involve several pharmacological agents and natural remedies appear promising as well.

It’s great to see this information come out, but let me give you a hint why you don’t see more generalized studies like this one or individual “proof” studies: analyses of such programs are not cheap. As a matter of fact “proving” that something you do works on an illness can cost upwards in the millions. Most alternative programs cannot afford such costs if they want to keep their prices reasonable.

Ask Dr. Jacob Teitlebaum if you don’t believe me. He spent quite a few dollars $$$ proving his regimen was effective in treating fatigue-related illnesses in a double-blinded, placebo controlled study. That type of proof can only occur if you have the research dollars $$$ to fund the project yourself and the guts to see the process through to the end.

There is more to this story. I hope you keep an open mind and keep searching for the best answer for you. Many alternative or complementary medical practices and techniques may help you begin to heal from all kinds of illnesses, even Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

The answer you seek may already be available now.

Thanks, Cinda Crawford
Your host of the Health Matters Show and creator of Sacred Cellular Healing

(Note: This is actually the second part of our longer, extended interview. You can catch the first part from last week’s interview by accessing the link here, but please do it later. I don’t want you to miss what’s coming up next.)

(This audio file is 29 minutes and 44 seconds long, and it contains dynamite stuff! Either listen here or download for later. Just be sure to catch it all.)

No one can or should try to answer these questions for you. The right answers must come from you and you alone. Simply know, dear one, that you don’t have to go 20 years before you find them out and end up saying… if I’d only realized this -or- if I’d only done that!

Learn about what it will take for you to get well.

Learn about how you can be a different person.

Learn how taking responsibility for your health is the magic pill that you’ve been waiting for!

Pick up your copy of Mary Moeller’s fantastic book here at this Amazon.com link:

And if you want to check out more of what she’s doing now that she is enjoying life as a healthy person, see her newest website, Health Book Report.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Health Matters Show today. I am your host,

Cinda Crawford

PS- I would love it if you would share this post and podcast with your Fibro and CFS friends who really need some answers and help about how to get well. It just might be exactly what they need to hear. And that would make your action a very loving thing to do.

Well, you say, I don’t put anything harmful in my body? Well, maybe not, but take a moment to answer two simple questions:

• Do You… eat microwaved food that was covered by a plastic wrap during cooking? (If you do, could you be ingesting some nasty carcinogens that are released into your food from heated/ microwaved plastic wrap?

  Here are 2 references: one from a public website, Mindfully.org, and the other from the plastics industry. You decide which information to follow. Maybe your body will tell you louder than your mind. The FDA says we’re “basically safe” as long as you follow every one of their guidelines and we all know how the FDA really has a handle these days on what is and isn’t good for us! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the jab. We depend on the FDA and they really do need to do a better job. Plus, getting this right might require that you check out their reams of research every time you get ready to cook something- in plastic- in the microwave. To me the whole situation feels safer not to heat with with plastic wraps of any kind. I do use glass dishes with complete security- like the Corningware brand and, as far I know, they are excellent.)

• Do You… eat or drink food products containing MSG (monosodium glutamate) or Aspartame?
  

  Okay, if you’re not a label reader, you’re in for a shocker. MSG is in almost every packaged product on the market today! If I listed all the references about the dangers of consuming MSG, this article would have so many links, you couldn’t read them all. The take-away tip here is that you have to read labels. According to many scientists, both MSG and Aspartame are considered excitotoxins (or brain chemicals). MSG is put in foods to make it “taste” better. Have you seen all the soup commercials now featuring the fact that commercial food processors are taking MSG out of their soups? The ones that don’t include MSG are using it as a marketing tooll!

  And certainly Aspartame (Nutrasweet) proliferates in our food supply. Had a diet drink this week? There are only a very few diet soft drink companies that sweeten their product without Aspartame. Read labels. You’ll find some with Splenda or Sucralose. And, then you need to decide if you want to put those sweetener compounds into your body.

The truth is we could consider an endless supply of this type of question, if we put our noggins together and were honest.

It’s not hard to commit such food sins because we’re human and we live in a modern society. We all can do better and certainly take advantage of the good science and good health techniques and information that we have available.

Exactly that kind of information is what I have in store for you tomorrow on the Health Matters Show 3 pm EST podcast. I’m featuring Mary Moeller again with the conclusion of the interview that she and I did recently. Now, I learned a lot from Mary. She’s good! She talked about how to get well from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and what we should and should not put in our bodies. No garbage allowed here!

I hope you take advantage of everything Mary Moeller shares with us by visiting the website tomorrow. Consider this my invitation to you! Feel free to pass on the word to your friends. It’s a good interview.

Then be prepared to pick up a copy of her new book, if you haven’t done so already, Fibromyalgia Cookbook: A Family Guide to Becoming Health Again (revised edition) by Mary Moeller.

Thanks, Cinda Crawford
Hope to see you tomorrow right here!

First we had the great report from the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) that XMRV had been linked with CFS. That’s good. That sounds like we’re moving forward.

Now we have 4 reports from the UK saying there is no link. That’s bad… or is that good? (Hint: it may just be bad science!)

It turns out that the conclusion of the question about the involvement of XMRV will probably have to wait awhile because the UK experiments were not done in the same fashion and, therefore, they don’t yield comparable results.

Check out Mart Schweitzer’s new blog post at Slightly Alive and then read this posting sent recently to the Co-Cure folks… .

~~~~
Permission to repost

Bad science fails to cast doubt on XMRV research

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence – those speculating on the failed XMRV studies and claiming they cast doubt on the Science paper should understand the difference between exact replication studies and ‘quick and dirty’ approximation studies that did not replicate the exacting protocols employed by the Whittemore Peterson Institute, National Cancer Institute and Cleveland Clinic.

Information from the Science paper discloses the very strict criteria and additional tests used to characterise severely affected neuro-immune “CFS” patients, while the approximation studies used loose “chronic fatigue” criteria that were influenced by psychiatrists and fail to distinguish between neurologically impaired patients and those suffering chronic fatigue from a variety of causes.

These approximation studies only prove the failure to use precise scientific replication methodology and therefore have no bearing on the status of XMRV infection in “CFS” patients and the 4% positive population controls. The Science paper stands and ongoing scientific research is being conducted to replicate the findings and clarify the relationship between XMRV and human disease.

The Department of Health and Human Services is conducting studies on the prevalence of XMRV in the blood donor population and whether it is transmitted by blood transfusion, WPI is conducting a study on blood transfusion recipients, and the National Cancer Institute is studying models of mouse retroviruses that cause cancer and neurological disease, and potential anti-XMRV treatments. Furthermore Prof. Malcolm Hooper’s press release “Magical Medicine”, his formal complaint to the Minister for Science overseeing the MRC and letter to the Chairman of NICE, including a 442 page report of an extensive and fully referenced review of the literature on ME – which casts serious doubts about the psychogenic model of ‘CFS/ME’ filtered to the media – have significant medico-legal consequences.

~~~~

All of this debate is good, but we are left to decide what is the “best” information and what are the “real” results about XMRV’s involvement with CFS… for us. If you’re not a research scientist nor are you a doctor who specializes in CFS, ME or CFSME, then you’re wondering like me. When will good science and bad science meet? And when will the battle be over? All comments welcomed.

Stay tuned,
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

Foods were a big problem for me many years ago and for Mary Moeller, my interview guest yesterday. Read more about her fascinating story below… .

Even though Mary was a licensed clinical practical nurse with her education and care rooted in traditional medicine, she went through a tough time trying to figure out her illnesses and associated food questions. She felt forced to find better answers than the ones available.

Very soon, not only was she sick with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but her young seven-year old daughter came down with Lyme Disease and Fibromyalgia. That had to tear Mary apart seeing her young person fall so desperately ill, yet know that if things were going to turn around, it was up to her because nothing was helping at all!

Either way, surely every member of her family was suffering to the point that Mary began to consider personal suicide. Now she quickly gave up the idea of taking her life in order to find the needed answers to get her and her daughter well, but that didn’t mean that at that moment suicide didn’t seem like a viable option- a way out.

I think it’s safe to say that taking your life is never the best way out. However living through such horrible illness symptoms is a very personal journey and often seems more like living through an unending nightmare.

If you haven’t read and listened to yesterday’s Health Matters Show podcast, I urge you to do it now while this subject is fresh on your mind. Then, please, take the time to comment on that particular post. When you comment about something that really moves you, your action (your comment) increases the likelihood that search engines like Google and Yahoo, plus all the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and more will pick up this vital data. The more comments and posts about the original post, the higher it will rank in all searches. That means more people will find it and that is the purpose of all this! Good information for those folks who need it.

Dear One, if you and I are going to do what we can to conquer these illnesses, it’s critical that we work together, support each other and get the good word out about all of the issues surrounding Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Thank you so much,
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

As a Licensed Clinical Nurse, Mary worked in a doctor’s office at the time she grew more and more ill. No traditional medicines helped her. But Mary found her way out of the long, deep “illness” ditch and walked out a winner.

Through the aid of a caring doctor and her own intensive, investigative work, Mary uncovered many secrets of what it takes to get well from an illness like Fibromyalgia. Both this week and at least one more week, I am featuring my interview of Mary Moeller on the Friday podcast edition of the Health Matters Show. Access the audio below by clicking the right-facing arrow or feel free to download the file.

(18 minutes 5 seconds)

I encourage you to not only listen to what this knowledgeable lady has to say, but to order her book, Fibromyalgia Cookbook, A Daily Guide to Becoming Healthy Again (revised). too. It is listed here for your buying convenience on Amazon.com.

Mary revised her book in 2009. This is the new and improved version. It contains very useable and up-to-date information. Plus, Mary has laid out in detail exactly what you should do in the book to get well.

In my opinion, Mary’s book is awesome. I learned a lot of information from it, information that I didn’t already know. I carried it around with me for weeks, taking any free moment I had to read and devour every useful tidbit. The day I spilt an entire glass of water inside the book, I nearly ruined it. I tried to dry it out with a hair dryer, but too many pages were damaged and stuck together. So, I’m ordering myself a new one. Just for me! I consider the book to be that good.

Also, you can check out Mary’s new website which should offers great information on new health books. The website is called Health Book Report.

Thank you for joining me today on the Health Matters Show. Be sure to come back to the blog any day of the week to see if there’s an update -or- make it easy on yourself and receive it automatically by signing up in the “Get New Post Alerts” in the right hand column. Plus, each Friday at 3 pm there is an audio or video podcast about various topics having to do with getting well from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Do yourself a favor and be right here next Friday!

Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

She talks about how the power of the mind is an incredible tool in life. Your mind has the capacity to keep you stuck in your current reality or move you forward!

I’ve decided to put this book on the “suggested” reading list for the Learn How to Healyourself membership series that’s coming up shortly. (The whole course is almost ready!)

I encourage you to go ahead and pick up your copy of Joan Borysenko’s book or DVD. The DVD is listed below. Find the book in my Amazon store in the tab above or to the right under Cinda Recommends.

As you contemplate how to heal, please don’t let fear of the unknown stop you. Instead, be brave and know that all things are possible. Like beauty, health can be in the eye of the beholder, so to speak.

Okay, now answer this question and the ones that follow: How brave are you when it comes to stepping out into the future?

• How brave are you?
• What would you do today if so many of your symptoms went away that you suddenly felt well again?
• Are you brave enough to step out of your illness role and embrace good health and a happy life again?

Please do not answer that question glibly. Many people become entrenched in life as a chronically ill person. They may not be healthy, but they’re safe where they are. Dug in, so to speak. So that begs three final questions:

• How certain are you in your heart of hearts that you want to really get well?
• If today were the day, could you step out into the unknown knowing that it may be the best thing you ever did?
• Can you step out of your current “truth”- even if it’s painful and harmful- but still “safer” because you’ve found that you can live with the reality you have now? (The devil you know, as opposed to the scary devil you don’t know: a new life?)

Dear One, I know these are tough questions, but I don’t mean to leave you alone in answering them. For everyone suffering with Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, be sure to check back here at the Health Matters Show tomorrow for our Friday 3 pm EST podcast, when I interview Mary Moeller, author of Fibromyalgia Cookbook, A Daily Guide to Becoming Health Again (revised edition).

Interviewing Mary Moeller makes for a lively good time full of smiles and information that has the potential to really help you. Be assured that Mary walks the walk and talks the talk!

You and I will be the beneficiaries as she tells her life story of how she survived several illnesses (among them Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) to enjoy a healthy life again. Don’t miss the Friday edition of this show. Plus, see the newly revised edition of her book. She improved it and packed a lot more information and helping tool inside!

I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about Joan Borysenko, Mary Moeller or how to heal in general. All thoughts welcomed; all questions encouraged.

Thanks, Cinda Crawford
Host of the Health Matters Show

To date there is a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding XMRV. Most of it is coming from the UK after a series of studies found no correlation between XMRV infection and CFS or CFSME.

However, these studies are in question by many people because of how they were constructed, patient-wise. It is suspected that they didn’t use the accepted diagnostic criteria to qualify their sample patient population. We’re left to conclude that the results they obtained could be skewed.

Example: if you looking for blondes in a group of black-haired people, do you think you’ll find any blondes??

Similar to the early days with the HIV retrovirus, there’s certainly more that we don’t know than what we do know or what we can prove. Some instances of XMRV showing up in prostrate cancer victims and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers has been obtained. Per Stephen Goff, PhD of Columbia University in New York City, he “cautioned that has yet to be any clear evidence linking it to disease.”

However, there is more news from Dr. Goff and this time it’s better:

The genetic sequence of all XMRV isolates tested across the country, and across diseases, show so little divergence that the virus must have only recently jumped to humans — likely from a point source and with limited numbers of replication cycles during transmission,

This implies that a vaccine might be much easier to develop than for HIV, he explained at a press conference.

Prachi Sharma, PhD, of Emory presented another part of the results involving monkeys. They tested positive for XMRV replicating in the tissues although the infection was somewhat limited.

It was notable that the monkey exhibited no visible symptoms or fever when infected…

And reported by John Hacketts, Jr., PhD, of Abbott Diagnostics,

the researchers were… able to show, for the first time, the existence of antibodies to multiple XMRV proteins in humans… .

So on goes the saga. Hopefully, it will continue for awhile until they know all the answers. Here’s the link to the whole report on MedPage, but before you go, see if you agree with me on the following points:

#1: There has been a discovery of the existence of XMRV, Xenotrophic Murine Leukemia-related Virus, also recognized as the newest retrovirus since HIV.

#2: Per some clinical findings, evidence of XMRV is showing up in cancer cells of men with prostate cancer and in people classed with having CFS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

#3: Because of the virus’s newness and apparent lack of re-duplication so many times, there is hope that a vaccine might not be as difficult to develop as has been for HIV.

#4:All researcher/ scientists do not agree that XMRV is showing up in the CFS population in masse. Investigations are continuing. The main body to verify the findings are the WPI, Whittemore Peterson Institute of Neuroimmune Disease, located on the University of Nevada’s medical school campus in Reno, Nevada, as directed by Annette Whittemore, Founder and President.

#5: Until enough verification one way or the other occurs, we cannot consider XMRV more than a possibility of causing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in lots of people.

As has been said before, there could be more than one cause or trigger to this type of illness. All we, the patient population, wants to know are the real, true facts and we wait for “Secrets Unfolding Amid Tremendous Controversy.”

Thank you so much. Feel free to leave your comments below. And to research more about XMRV, see the other links on this page -or- simply put “XMRV” in the search engine here and pull up every post.

Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

In essence, the number of people considered to suffer with the illness has gone up by a multiplying factor of 12.7. That means that now the new United States patient population for CFS is a whopping 4 million!

I suggest that we don’t become too alarmed yet, because some of this difference could be due to the interpretation of the case definition used by the CDC: what is CFS, what symptoms does someone have to have to be classed as having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and all of the rest of the criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, that is required to meet a literal diagnosis. That’s because… .

The authors’ research group proposes that selection criteria for CFS cases have broadened and provides data indicating 38% of those with a Major Depressive Disorder were misclassified as having CFS under the new CDC empirical case definition.

Given the importance of standardizing procedures for identifying CFS, more research is needed using different criteria on samples of patients with CFS and other illnesses. The erroneous inclusion of people with primary psychiatric conditions in CFS samples has detrimental consequences for interpreting epidemiologic and etiological findings.

Unfortunately, this problem could be adding to our overall dilemma of not coming up with good, quantifiable answers. If (the collective) we are are not all working from the same starting point (e.g. the same diagnostic criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), we should place no faith in the results. The results mean nothing!

The new numbers for the CFS patient population may not be accurate at all. That’s why it’s important not to read too much into them… yet.

All comments and thoughts welcomed,
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

PS- You also can check this 2005 reference from Canada. Large numbers of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are not only found in the United States, but also Canada. This report includes figures for the illnesses, Fibromyalgia and MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.