Jarred Younger on Neuroinflammation in ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia

[Avengers26]

Deleted

 

[user9876]

It would be interesting to see what a bone marrow transplant might do for a ME/CFS patient. In reality, this is not going be investigated, because of the severe risks and complications involved in bone marrow transplantation (though I wonder if there have been any cancer patients who also have ME/CFS that have received a bone marrow transplant?)
.

I do know someone who had ME symptoms but no formal diagnosis (actually a fibromyalgia diagnosis) but definitely had PEM who had a bone marrow transplant for Leukemia (but also followed by Rituximab for post transplant lymphoma) and a lot of other drugs!. The ME symptoms seemed to go including the pain disappeared (I think prior to the Rituximab) the nature of the fatigue changed in that the PEM went.

 

[Hip]

I do know someone who had ME symptoms but no formal diagnosis (actually a fibromyalgia diagnosis) but definitely had PEM who had a bone marrow transplant for Leukemia (but also followed by Rituximab for post transplant lymphoma) and a lot of other drugs!. The ME symptoms seemed to go including the pain disappeared (I think prior to the Rituximab) the nature of the fatigue changed in that the PEM went.

That's interesting. I guess, though, we would have to be careful about coming to any conclusions, unless it were certain that they had ME/CFS. Leukemia does involve fatigue, so unless they had had ME/CFS for say a decade before the leukemia arose, my thoughts are that the leukemia fatigue could have been mistaken for ME/CFS.

But it would be great to hear some more accounts of ME/CFS disappearing for good after a bone marrow transplant.

 

[user9876]

That's interesting. I guess, though, we would have to be careful about coming to any conclusions, unless it were certain that they had ME/CFS. Leukemia does involve fatigue, so unless they had had ME/CFS for say a decade before the leukemia arose, my thoughts are that the leukemia fatigue could have been mistaken for ME/CFS.

But it would be great to hear some more accounts of ME/CFS disappearing for good after a bone marrow transplant.

The fatigue definitely wasn't initially Leukemia. But her medical history was complex.

 

[Hip]

The fatigue definitely wasn't initially Leukemia. But her medical history was complex.

Would you know how long she had ME/CFS before the bone marrow transplant, and the level of her ME/CFS (mild, moderate or severe)? Also, how long has it been since the bone marrow transplant, the period that she has remained completely free of ME/CFS?

Did she mention this to her doctors, by the way? The discovery of rituximab as a treatment for ME/CFS was as a result of one patient remarking to her doctors that her rituximab infusion for arthritis also had a dramatic impact on her ME/CFS symptoms.

 

[voner]

I suggest anyone interested in microglia activation/pathways check out this paper that's being discussed on another thread. distinct differences between males and females involving microglial pathways (in mice). Sex differences. males use microglial pathways to transmit allodynia, while females use a different pathway that involves immune cell signaling. The authors speculate the involvement of T cells.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...-and-female-mice-microglia.38970/#post-623555

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Perhaps @Jonathan Edwards might weigh in here, but from reading many areas of science out of my own interest, it always seems that when a scientist is running with a particular hypothesis, they usually try their best to figure out how the observed facts can be explained by their hypothesis. The hypothesis is their baby, and so naturally they work hard to try to make sure it has the best start in life, so to speak.

You can rest assured that many other scientist are going to be skeptical and critical of your hypothesis or theory, so if you don't work to support your hypothesis, nobody else will.

Absolutely the opposite Hip. If you have a theory what you do is find all the reasons why it might be wrong and then ask other people why it might be wrong and go on and on trying to find problems with it until you finally come to the conclusion it might be right. Of course this is not what most scientists do, but it is what we are told we should do and it is the only approach that makes sense since science is only about discarding the ideas that do not work.

One of the conclusions I have come to over the years is that:
To spend a lifetime on the same question is dedication.
To spend a lifetime on the same answer is stupidity.

Even if you find an answer that looks as if it is going to be roughly right you want to move on to finding out where it is wrong in detail - or simply move on to a new question.

 

[Gijs]

Karl Popper said that a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can and should be scrutinised by decisive experiments. If the outcome of an experiment contradicts the theory, one should refrain from ad hoc manoeuvres that evade the contradiction merely by making it less falsifiable.