Graham
Senior Moment
- Messages
- 5,188
- Location
- Sussex, UK
I have just been watching a BBC programme about the saxophonist Barbara Thompson and her battle with Parkinsons, and it struck me that I haven't come across anyone with ME who has developed Parkinsons. Now that isn't too much of a surprise, because the odds would be small, I guess. But it made me think, is anyone looking at whether having ME changes the odds of having other illnesses?
It is my personal belief that there will be some form of link between ME and the broad autistic spectrum, because I find a surprising proportion of people with ME have someone in their family on the autistic spectrum. Whether this is true or not, surely an investigation like this could bring up some interesting pointers if links were found between the incidence of ME and of other illnesses.
I suppose there are two areas of study. One is whether having ME confers any advantage over developing other illnesses, in the way that sickle cell anaemia helps ease malaria (or so I understand). The other is whether there are family links with other conditions like autism (which still could be genetic, infective or environmental).
It could be (fantasy here!) that ME protects us against the Spanish flu - which hit the young and healthy the hardest. Perhaps we are the backstop. Who knows, if there is a bird flu pandemic, perhaps we will be the ones left to repopulate the world. Not much chance of that then, with our lack of energies.
Seriously though, has there been any investigations along these lines?
It is my personal belief that there will be some form of link between ME and the broad autistic spectrum, because I find a surprising proportion of people with ME have someone in their family on the autistic spectrum. Whether this is true or not, surely an investigation like this could bring up some interesting pointers if links were found between the incidence of ME and of other illnesses.
I suppose there are two areas of study. One is whether having ME confers any advantage over developing other illnesses, in the way that sickle cell anaemia helps ease malaria (or so I understand). The other is whether there are family links with other conditions like autism (which still could be genetic, infective or environmental).
It could be (fantasy here!) that ME protects us against the Spanish flu - which hit the young and healthy the hardest. Perhaps we are the backstop. Who knows, if there is a bird flu pandemic, perhaps we will be the ones left to repopulate the world. Not much chance of that then, with our lack of energies.
Seriously though, has there been any investigations along these lines?