I have posted my short bio
here. As you can see, I am close to finishing my PhD in (theoretical) physics. My strong points are analytical/math skills and computer programming/linux.
It is my understanding that there are quite a few members here with a similar scientific background (looking at you,
@Hip). I was wondering how ME has affected you career choices.
More specifically, I was lately thinking of taking a career turn towards medical-related research, given the amount of medical knowledge I have aquired throughout the years. It is however unclear how to make this transition in practice, and where my skills would be most useful (I am of course thinking of ME research in particular).
That's very interesting to hear,
@bananabas, that you have a theoretical physics background. What particular area did / do you focus on in your PhD, may I ask?
My first degree was in mathematics and physics, and since I love these subjects, I devoured many popular science books on both over the years. Now it's hard for me to read even the most simple popular science book on physics, due to brain fog.
The reason I am able to read (to some extent) medical research is because I feel it is of huge significance to me personally, and this personal angle seems to create the extra drive and determination in my mind to overcome the brain fog, and try to penetrate into the subject matter.
Anyway, to answer your question about transitioning to medical-related research: there are several medical professionals and medical researchers on this form, such Professor
@Jonathan Edwards,
@Butydoc, Dr
@charles shepherd, who may be able to offer you some advice. So that's one starting point.
There are also quite a few people on this forum with science, engineering, cognitive science, computer programming, etc, educational backgrounds and careers. Though most have had to abandon their career due to the brain fog of ME/CFS, which often makes complex analytical work pretty much impossible.
In my case, I worked professionally in computer programming, but these days with brain fog, I struggle with even quite simple things on the computer. From the perspective of those working in analytical careers, brain fog is probably the most debilitating aspect of this disease.
In terms of research areas that need to be explored in ME/CFS, I personally think that brain fog (aka: cognitive dysfunction, or cognitive impairment) really needs attention, as this is such a debilitating aspect of ME/CFS. There are almost no theories as to what causes brain fog. And yet brain fog occurs in several conditions, for example it occurs during chemotherapy (where it is often called "chemo-fog"), and it occurs in fibromyalgia ("fibro-fog"). You'd think that there might be a greater understanding of this, but there is not.
If you compare brain fog to say a dementia like Alzheimer's, there is far more understanding of what is happening in the brain in Alzheimer's than there is in brain fog. OK, in Alzheimer's there is the great advantage of there being observable physical changes in the brain, which then become the starting point for understanding Alzheimer's.
With brain fog, there are no apparent physical abnormalities (apart from ME/CFS autopsies showing some enteroviral infection of the brain). Thus it is more likely that brain fog is due to something like neurotransmitter level abnormalities, receptor abnormalities, or abnormalities in the activation of certain areas on the brain (with these abnormalities possibly caused by immune events in the brain, such as the cerebral immune system fighting a viral infection).
Since brain fog is quite variable (you can experience extreme brain fog one day, but the next day be relatively clear minded), this to my mind tends to indicate it cannot be cause by permanent physical damage of the brain; the variability of brain fog suggests its mechanism must be one which can vary in severity from day to day.
