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Century-old Vaccine Gives New Hope to Fibromyalgia Community 8/14/17 ProHealth

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,389
Location
Concord, NH
"Los Angeles-based biomedical firm EpicGenetics and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers are seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct a clinical trial next year to test the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine as a potential treatment for fibromyalgia."

"The FM/a test currently costs $936 but is covered by some insurance companies and Medicare."

"If you'd like to learn more about the FM/a test, visit FMTest.com. Click here to read more about EpicGenetics' fibromyalgia genome project and the BCG vaccine study. If you're interested in having the FM/a test, please fill out the application form on the home page at FMTest.com."

http://www.prohealth.com/library/sh...zZjbVm3xjLrFQdEFZHv1x7otRtGIiw&_hsmi=60136834
 

rodgergrummidge

Senior Member
Messages
124
Hi @*GG* thanks for the info.

The FM/a test is based on a paper published by senior author Gillis. The paper reports fibromyalgia-related
cytokine patterns which may identify unique immunologic traits. However, the specificity of the test for FM/a is unclear as the cytokine patterns in FM patients were identified in relation to normal healthy individuals. In the real world, the FM/a test would be applied to a whole range of sick patients with proinflammatory conditions and disrupted cytokine profiles. Whether the FM/A test could accurately diagnose FM patients from many other chronic diseases is unclear.

As described here, there has been a call to retract the original Gillis paper as it has been suggested that Gillis failed to declare his financial interest in Epigenetics, the company that has commercialised the FM/a test. The critique also suggests that Epigenetics listed prominent FM researchers on their Advisory Board without their permission. The advertising offers "a quick, accurate and definitive test for fibromyalgia" but the basis of such a claim is not clear.

caveat emptor

Rodger