Slow onset vs. sudden onset ME/CFS - numbers anyone?

[alex3619]

Without the potential, those infections can't foment the process that ends in ME.

An easy way to think of it, without the complexity of chaos or systems theory, is that there is a sharp divide between well and ME, and you can think of it as a cliff. Healthy people are on the top, usually well away from the cliff. Less healthy, or with the right susceptibilities, can be closer to the cliff. A pathogen can push you toward the cliff. So can other events. Eventually something might push you over the edge, and you fall into ME. So the issue is what kind of things push you over, or the underlying mechanism.

Most pathogens that can trigger ME seem to have an affinity for both the gut and B cells.

This is only a way to think of it, the reality is more complex.

 

[antherder]

A pathogen can push you toward the cliff. So can other events. Eventually something might push you over the edge, and you fall into ME.

And trying to climb back up to the top of the cliff just doesn't work, because there aren't enough footholds (or ledges to rest on) to get us there. And then there's the BPS/GET crowd up at the top, pointing and laughing and saying, "Come on, you're not trying hard enough, just a few more steps."

We need someone (ie, some researchers) to throw us down a life raft so we can circumnavigate the steep rockface, and the GET gits, and come ashore where the terrain is more hospitable.

I've got that cliff hanger scene from The Princess Bride in my head now...

 

[Mary]

The Princess Bride

Best movie ever! (okay, one of the best )

 

[antherder]

Best movie ever! (okay, one of the best )

Agreed!