• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Vermont and New England people especially--read this

frozenborderline

Senior Member
Messages
4,405
I recently contacted my senator Bernie Sanders, regarding funding CFS research more in general, and Ron Davis' work in particular. Vermont is a small enough state that I think the senator really may respond to this if enough people contact him. I can post what I contacted him in particular. Hopefully we can get a dialogue going. After his presidential run, Bernie has a decently high profile, so maybe he could not just fight for this in the senate, but get more media attention for this illness.

Hi, Senator Sanders.
I am a constituent of yours and a long time supporter, who worked on your campaigns when younger. I was in undergraduate, almost all the way through, when I got Lyme working for a tree nursery. This triggered a number of gradual onset, severe health problems, even though the lyme infection was initially treated. I eventually had to drop out of undergraduate one semester away from graduating, because of my severe fatigue and immune issues. I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is most likely a severe metabolic issue triggered by any number of things--from a bacterial or viral infection to a severe injury.
I have had great trouble getting adequate medical care for this condition. Even my specialist who has done research does not know exactly what to do. This is why I am extremely, extremely passionate about funding research for ME/CFS. I am writing to you to ask for help on behalf of all ME/CFS patients with increasing funding for research on the disease AND making sure the funding gets used as it should be. CFS is funded less proportionately per sufferer than almost any other major illness. It is extremely debilitating, often causing people to be completely bedridden and unable to work. While the CDC and NIH have recently realized it is an illness with physical etiology and that psychological treatments do not work, they are still far away from funding this illness adequately. Sufferers are committing suicide in large numbers.
The NIH has started awarding grants to CFS researchers, which is a start, but the numbers are still too low. They also, for bewildering reasons, passed on awarding a grant to the Open Medicine Foundation, at Stanford, which is doing the finest quality research on CFS. I hope you'll look into the work that Ron Davis and Robert Naviaux are doing at the Open Medicine Foundation, and make up your own mind, and consider fighting for OMF to receive grant funding from the NIH. Not only could this work save millions of CFS sufferers, the implications of it could be applicable to many, many diseases, because of the work on developing sophisticated diagnostic technologies, and advancing the study of metabolism in general.