Old Bones
Senior Member
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Can someone tell me if there's a way to email the CMAJ?
The main CMAJ contact email address is: editorial@cmaj.ca
The email address for their Ombudsman is: pubs@cmaj.ca
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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.
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Can someone tell me if there's a way to email the CMAJ?
We dont need exercise....we dont need CBT...
WE NEED RESEARCH, TREATMENT AND COMPOTENT PHYSICIANS.
This is why things are so muddled and confusion is made between ME and CFS:
The Ramsay Definition for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
(1986)
“A syndrome initiated by a virus infection, commonly in the form of a respiratory or gastrointestinal illness with significant headache, malaise and dizziness sometimes accompanied by lymphadenopathy or rash. Insidious or more dramatic onsets following neurological, cardiac or endocrine disability are also recognised. Characteristic features include:
(1) A multisystem disease, primarily neurological with variable involvement of liver, cardiac and skeletal muscle, lymphoid and endocrine organs.
(2) Neurological disturbance – an unpredictable state of central nervous system exhaustion following mental or physical exertion which may be delayed and require several days for recovery; an unique neuro-endocrine profile which differs from depression in that the hypothalamic/pituitary/adrenal response to stress is deficient; dysfunction of the autonomic and sensory nervous systems; cognitive problems.
(3) Musculo-skeletal dysfunction in a proportion of patients (related to sensory disturbance or to the late metabolic and auto immune effects of infection)
(4) A characteristically chronic relapsing course."
From "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - Then and Now. An Epidemiological Introduction" (Chapter 7 in Clinical and Scientific Basis of M.E./CFS):
"Nomenclature
"The illness, though similar to non-paralytic poliomyelitis in many clinical aspect, could clearly be distinguished and was diagnosed as Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. This name gives a clearer clinical description than many of the eponyms used previously (Iceland Disease, Akureyri's Disease, Epidemic Neuromyasthenia) or invented subsequently (Post viral syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome). These share the common disadvantage of obscuring the world-wide incidence or of trivializing the clinical severity of the illness."
Dr. Ramsay, together with Dr. Dowsett, listed this criteria for M.E. in 1990 in the same article (just prior to his death):
"We adopted the following criteria:
"A syndrome initiated by a viral infection commonly described as a respiratory/gastro intestinal illness but a gradual or more dramatic onset following neurological, cardiac or endocrine disability is recognised.
"The cardinal features, in a patient who has previously been physically and mentally fit, with a good work record are:
(1)Generalised or localised muscle fatigue after minimal exertion with prolongedrecovery time.
(2)Neurological disturbance, especially of cognitive, autonomic and sensory functions, often accompanied by marked emotional lability and sleep reversal.
(3)Variable involvement of cardiac and other bodily systems.
(4)An extended relapsing course with a tendency to chronicity.
(5)Marked variability of symptoms both within and between episodes."
Personally, I find mild exercise beneficial (and enjoyable) during a remission, but harmful during a relapse.
My relapses and remissions typically last 1-4 years each and I've been through 9 of these cycles in my lifetime. So, for me personally, I have some confidence in this changing definition of exercise.
Right now I'm roughly 2 years into a bad relapse, and dream (literally) of not being housebound and once again doing some mildly active things.
The bottom line is Ramasay and others have had this pinned for decades....
@Old Bones you should consider creating an action on MEAction so others can copy your email and send it themselves.
@BurnA My computer skills are pretty minimal. However, everyone may feel free to copy any portion of my email posted above to use as they wish.
Here's my email to the CMAJ (main contact and ombudsman), copy to Dr. Jane Philpott, Canadian Minister of Health....
Superb, Old Bones!
@Old Bones could you try literally posting it ?
Sorry maybe I misunderstood, I thought you emailed them and they asked you to post it online somewhere but now that I read it again I'm not sure exactly what you said, by literally posting I meant mailing, but maybe that's what you did ? Sorry.@BurnA I'm not sure what you mean by "literally" posting it. Could you please explain. Thanks.
Do you need to use your name?I actually didn't expect to hear from the CMAJ regarding my email. So, the fact that I did is encouraging. Here's the text of an email received this morning:
"The CMAJ editors have asked that you please post your letter to the editor on our eletters system. We have provided the link to our article, http://www.cmaj.ca/letters/submit/cmaj;cmaj.150684v1,
where your letter should be linked. Once your letter is posted with the original article, the editors will review it for publication.
Kind regards,
Executive Assistant, CMAJ 1867 Alta Vista Drive Ottawa, Ontario KlG 5W8 1-866-971-9171ext. 2295/613-520-7116 ext. 2295 Fax: (613) 565-5471 "
The problem is, in doing so, I would lose my on-line anonymity. It's still possible to "Google" my name and get no "hits" that apply to me -- a degree of privacy I have consciously tried to achieve. I signed the email with my real name to give it credibility, but with the expectation it wouldn't be posted on the open internet. So, unless the CMAJ ombudsman takes this on, it seems my efforts will have been for nothing.
Edited to respect the on-line privacy of the CMAJ Executive Assistant, assuming this may be important to her as well.
Do you need to use your name?
The problem is, in doing so, I would lose my on-line anonymity. It's still possible to "Google" my name and get no "hits" that apply to me -- a degree of privacy I have consciously tried to achieve. I signed the email with my real name to give it credibility, but with the expectation it wouldn't be posted on the open internet. So, unless the CMAJ ombudsman takes this on, it seems my efforts will have been for nothing.
I understand this reasoning well. However, if you have a relatively common name, it would probably be difficult to associate "you" to this particular letter due to the sheer volume of Google results. I myself have a very uncommon name, so I take these precautions though.