I'm saying that the current medical-scientific paradigm is broken. It doesn't work for complex modern chronic multi-factorial diseases such as ME. Re: Lipkin - I don't expect someone who has spent their entire life within a paradigm, and has been highly successful, to suddenly abandon that paradigm.
Abandon that paradigm for what alternative, though? It's not as if there is a proposed solution.
In any case, the current scientific paradigm works fine for complex multi-factorial diseases; it's just that with multiple causal factors involved, it takes longer to uncover the causes. This is analogous to taking longer to crack more complex passwords, compared to short simple passwords, due to the increased permutations involved.
One example of a science tackling complex multi-factorial disease is in
this study of a mouse model of Crohn's disease. This study found that Crohn's can be precipitated by a
norovirus infection, but only when both a specific
gene variant is present, and a certain
toxin has damaged the gut. Without any one of these three factors, Crohn's will not manifest in this murine model.
So this gives a causal equation for murine Crohn's:
Crohn's =
norovirus +
gene variant +
toxin
More info in this article:
Equations that Spell Disaster: Researchers are pinpointing the factors that combine to produce complex diseases.
Dr Chia provided another interesting equation for the triggering of ME/CFS: he found that the combination of an
acute enterovirus infection plus simultaneous administration of
corticosteroids in the patient during the acute stage of the infection has a higher chance of precipitating ME/CFS than just an enterovirus infection alone.
And of course the study of disease comorbidities gives further clues to the causal factors that might be involved. So, for example, the fact that IBS is a common comorbidity of ME/CFS suggests that the pathophysiologies taking place in IBS may also be contributing factors to ME/CFS.
It is true, however, that some scientists have a desire to find a single cause for a disease. But then, it is within the realms of possibility that ME/CFS does have a single cause — a single cause that might make patients susceptible to enterovirus, etc, infections, for example. Though I personally would wager that ME/CFS arises from multiple simultaneous causes, not a single cause.
One day I think we will know the causal equation or equations for ME/CFS.
