Solve webinar today, 19 Nov: "Post-Exertion Malaise: The Intersection of Biology and Behavior"

[Sasha]

Dr. Dane B. Cook is the Co-Director of the Exercise Psychology laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Director of the Marsh Center for Research in Exercise and Movement.

He received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the University of Georgia and post-doctoral training in neuroscience at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, N.J.

Dr. Cook’s research focuses on the psychobiology (i.e. the relationships between biology and behavior) of exercise with a specific focus on how exercise influences the central nervous system in both health and disease.

Much of Dr. Cook’s research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in conjunction with biological and behavioral outcomes, to understand central nervous system mechanisms of pain and fatigue in patients with fibromyalgia and ME/CFS and veterans with Gulf War illness.

These studies combine exercise science and brain imaging methods to better understand these diseases. More recently, Dr. Cook’s research has begun to incorporate additional biological systems, such as the immune, autonomic and gut microbiome to better understand how distinct, yet related, physiological responses interact to maintain illness.

Dr. Cook’s work in ME/CFS has demonstrated augmented brain responses during cognitive processing, altered cardiopulmonary responses to submaximal exercise and augmented gene expression and symptom responses to maximal exercise.

His laboratory is currently testing the impact of resistance exercise training on symptoms and brain responses in Gulf War veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

This randomized controlled trial aims to determine whether weight-training is an effective treatment for Veterans with chronic muscle pain and whether treatment effects are related to changes in brain structure and function.

More details here.

It's 6-7pm GMT - I can't see what time in the US/elsewhere.

You need to pre-register.

I'll be out so I'll miss this but I think they put them up on YouTube later (?).

 

[Sasha]

If you register, you can email questions in advance for Dr Cook.

 

[duncan]

The intersection of biology and behavior? Not biology and activity, or biology and exertion?

Behavior?

Little alarm bells ringing in my ears.....

 

[Sasha]

The intersection of biology and behavior? Not biology and activity, or biology and exertion?

Behavior?

Little alarm bells ringing in my ears.....

Indeed, but if you read the blurb, it doesn't sound like a 'behavioural' approach.

I guess we'll see.

 

[duncan]

The "B" word looks better when you spell it in English vs New Jersey (he pursued his post-doctoral training in NJ): behaviour vs. behavior.

Downton Abbey vs The Sopranos.

Darwin vs Snookie.

House meets....Well, House satisfies both backgrounds technically, I suppose.

All silliness aside, I know it is an indictment against my character that I distrust an entire discipline. After all, there are individuals like Lenny Jason and Fallon (I add his name begrudgingly).

I suppose.

 

[Valentijn]

My gist is that he's more looking into the cognitive effects of exercise than the psychological side. But that's often classified as being a psychological or neuropsychological area.

And his general approach to ME/CFS seems to be that the biology causes the behavior, not vice versa. Which makes sense in the context of his studies where such testing is done after the CPET. Might tie in pretty well with what the Lights have been doing.

 

[SOC]

The "B" word looks better when you spell it in English vs New Jersey (he pursued his post-doctoral training in NJ): behaviour vs. behavior.

Downton Abbey vs The Sopranos.

Darwin vs Snookie.

House meets....Well, House satisfies both backgrounds technically, I suppose.

NHS vs NIH
SW vs Francis Collins
Peter White vs Ian Lipkin
Queen Mary University London vs Columbia University
Oxford University vs Stanford University
Esther Crawley vs Nancy Klimas
Rod Liddle vs David Tuller
Ben Goldacre vs James Coyne

Wait... did I get that backwards?

 

[Sasha]

 

[duncan]

I was just being silly, poking at my home state with a little self-deprecating humor.

What has been happening in the name of psychiatry - or at least what some individuals have done under its banner to people with ME and Lyme and many other diseases - is an international travesty.

And my concerns may not even apply to this man.

 

[Sasha]

A little bump for this... starts in just under an hour.

 

[Sasha]

Anybody watch it?

 

[waiting]

Yes, I thought his presentation was excellent. It's worth the watch once they put it up on their YouTube channel.

Some excellent, illuminating graphs of controls vs patients -- think the Lights' past gene expression studies.

Did you see it, @Sasha?

 

[Sasha]

Yes, I thought his presentation was excellent. It's worth the watch once they put it up on their YouTube channel.

Some excellent, illuminating graphs of controls vs patients -- think the Lights' past gene expression studies.

Did you see it, @Sasha?

That's good to know!

I had to go offline so I missed it but I look forward to seeing it on YouTube.

 

[Bob]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfmrPd4-rIE

 

[duncan]

Seeing as how I was so quick to post about my concerns, I think I should volunteer that after watching the clip, I came away with a different opinion. I feel he says some good things. I think it is well worth the watch (close to an hour).

I want to see it again. He compares gene expression with symptoms, and on the surface it sounds good. I don't know anything about gene expression, though. Cortisol receptors and three others - what are the implications of the four gene expressions he selected?

He actually warns that exercise may be dangerous to us - I was floored.

Again, not sure why he selected the four gene expressions he did - or what their significance is. Also, he tries to point out that symptomology is a very individual thing with PWME. Of course, he is spot on with that. Still, this was after he shows in pooled data how abnormal our scores are from controls. In the process, I wonder if he undermines the impact of the pooled data results.

Anyway, I went in prepared to dislike this guy. I came way with this sense he deserves a closer look.

 

[Sasha]

Thanks, @duncan - it's great to see someone who raises a concern about something being fair enough to come back and say that things were actually OK!