pine108kell
With regard to auto-immune diseases and infection, Multiple Sclerosis, which is very similar to ME/CFS, is an auto-immune disease (the immune system, of course, attacks the meylin - fatty sheaths - around the axons of the brain) with links to Epstein-Barr virus, among others. It's treated with anti-virals (amantadine) and interferon (betas), which is essential to fighting viral infections. While I haven't yet seen the video (I'm doing a naughty thing and skimming this article/comments while on the phone w/boyfriend at the moment! It's amazing I can even think/write coherently...or am I?), it sounds like Montoya views ME/CFS very much along the lines of MS.
My best friend has MS. We were diagnosed - with different diseases - at the same time. He was immediately placed on Avonex, a beta interferon, along with amantadine and nortriptyline (tricyclic antidepressant to help with sleep). While he has had a good chunk of damage to his cognitive skills (particularly unfortunate given that he is a PhD candidate), he's managed to adapt with the help of cognitive psychologists (they're only bad if they think they can cure you!) and occupational therapists and is slowly finishing his dissertation. Physically, you would never know he has MS. He works most of the day, 5 days a week. Goes to the gym each day. Went to the Middle East last year to do research. He drove down here to Portland from Seattle (a 3 hour drive) to help me
move. While immune modulators and anti-virals have not cured him, he's "practically an Olympic athlete" in his words compared to me, who is mostly bedridden (I can use the bathroom on my own, make my own breakfast - not without going over my anaerobic threshold, however - but need help to take a bath, cannot drive, must limit use of my laptop in bed & can only read small portions at a time - despite being a PR member longer than almost anybody here, I've not reached the 100 post threshold because I can't post much - can only leave my apartment once a month to go to my dr's office to get my morphine script and my blood clotting time checked after developed blod clots in my lungs 5 years ago -- in other words, I'm seriously disabled).
If Montoya can give us the same options that MS patients have today, BRING IT ON!