What Amir appears to believe is that there is no such thing as ME -- our symptoms are caused by TMJ disorder.
I think the situation is more nuanced. There are many possibilities here, which need to be considered. And even if Dr Amir is making claims which may go beyond what the evidence supports, or even claims that are simply incorrect, the fact that his treatment techniques have significantly improved some patients with symptoms that resemble ME/CFS or MS should merit careful investigation and consideration.
And it is important to note that Dr Amir's treatment techniques, and
what Dr Amir himself says about these treatment techniques, are two entirely different things. Dr Amir's theories about how his techniques work, and his theories on ME/CFS, may be right or wrong, but in any case, this is completely independent to the efficacy of the techniques themselves. Many ME/CFS doctors for example offer treatments that are beneficial, but their own theories on how their treatments work may or may not be right; often these theories are just educated guesses.
Dr Amir may be well off the mark in his views on ME/CFS and his treatments; but his treatments would still appear to have some efficacy, at least for some patients.
So let's separate Dr Amir's
theories about ME/CFS and his treatment techniques from the actual techniques themselves. In other words, let's look at any empirical evidence Dr Amir can provide us, rather than any theories he espouses.
Now let's consider some possibilities:
• Perhaps the first thing to consider is the incorrect labeling of ME/CFS or MS: were most of the patients that Dr Amir's treatments have helped misdiagnosed with ME/CFS or MS? After all, ME/CFS is a wastebasket diagnosis, which doctors may apply when they cannot find any other explanation for the patient's symptoms.
Even if this is the case, the fact that Dr Amir's treatments have led to dramatic improvements in some patients should be of interest just in itself. It is certainly of great interest to the patients he has helped.
• The next thing to consider is whether TMJ dysfunction may be a causal factor in some patients that genuinely have ME/CFS. TMJ dysfunction is a common comorbidity of ME/CFS, and as is the case with all disease comorbidities, it is logically possible that the comorbidity is playing a causal role in the disease. So if TMJ dysfunction is indeed playing a causal role in ME/CFS, then treatment for the TMJ dysfunction may well lead to improved ME/CFS symptoms.
This does not necessarily mean that TMJ dysfunction is the sole cause of ME/CFS (even if Dr Amir says it is — as I said, his own theories should be kept separate from his techniques); it just means that TMJ dysfunction might play a role in ME/CFS.
Earlier I offered a possible explanation of why TMJ dysfunction might play a role in ME/CFS, based on the vagus nerve sickness behavior theory of ME/CFS posited by Michael VanElzakker.
• Or even if TMJ dysfunction is not playing a causal role in ME/CFS, nevertheless, TMJ treatment may somehow offer benefits for ME/CFS patients. An analogy can be made here to the controversial treatment of MS by using stents to widen the veins issuing from the head: by improving blood drainage from the brain in this, some have obtained improvements in MS. However, this does not mean that MS is simply caused by narrow cerebral veins.
I would like to see more empirical evidence and detail from Dr Amir regarding his techniques. I have asked twice already for some indication about what percentage of his patients who were diagnosed with ME/CFS get benefits from his treatments. This is important information.
Even if it were only 10% that benefited, that would still make Dr Amir's treatments well worth trying out, because as I mentioned earlier, most ME/CFS treatments only seem to work for a minority of patients, so with all treatments, it's a case of trying out your luck.
