Thank you
@Justin30 . I am pretty overwhelmed by lots of the stuff on this thread. We know Eric Gordon to be a very dedicated, thoughtful doctor who works really hard, really cares about his patients, and is willing to try anything that works. He is not getting rich off of patients. It's hard to even know where to start in addressing all the stuff on here.
Mass Spectrometers used for metabolomics testing cost a million dollars each.
He's sending the samples to Dr. Naviaux for the test. The $1500 he's asking for: $1000 goes to Naviaux (it's expensive to do this test!) and $500 goes to the computer process of getting out the individual's data, and all the blood processing, etc. He made it a donation so it could be tax deductible. Perhaps you'd rather have him just charge the fee. An MRI costs much more than this, but is covered by insurance. There is no insurance for CFS patients for this stuff, because of the extreme neglect of the whole medical profession, CDC, NIH, etc. It is really hard to get funding for this disease, so researchers are getting creative and using crowd funding-type methods. One way (also used by Nancy Klimas for DNA tests) is to have the patients get the tests done and let the researchers have the data. Ron and Laurel Crosby are doing this too, with Metabolon's testing. It's true, we are not there yet in terms of knowing exactly what to do with the results as a patient, but I would think patients would do this for several reasons. Patients can help the research enormously, while getting info about their own profile. Patients can finally see a lab report that shows massive things wrong. It's very validating. It's helpful to show their own physicians who need convincing. Attempting to normalize some of the levels of metabolites may be helpful. With more research we will know more about how to do this. Building a good foundation in the body with more things in the normal range will likely be the underpinning of the next step, turning on the switch out of hypo metabolism, or whatever it is.
Whitney has seen Dr. Gordon for YEARS. He is the one who first diagnosed him. We have bought many supplements from him that Whitney has tried. In the absence of good research, CFS patients are left with trying things. Some people are lucky enough to find something that helps a little, or a lot.. It's rare or never that they get "cured". Having a doctor who is willing to try things is a blessing. Especially a knowledgable, experienced doc like Dr. Gordon. He is not getting rich off of supplement sales. He is providing things and making them easier to get. Some of this stuff is hard to find.
Dr. Gordon has been available by phone for us, and has driven all the way down here to see Whitney several times. I think it is really sad to see people talking like this about him. We need docs like him. He is trying to help us. He's another person who is totally dedicated to helping people with CFS. He is feeling REALLY bad about what is being said about him on here and on twitter. I understand that people are wary and skeptical, given the history of this disease. Now we have some really good people trying to help. Maybe we should be grateful and not do things that drive them away. I think there is a way to ask questions that does not accuse people or assume they are bad and unethical.
I hope this is helpful. It feels good to be part of a supportive community.
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