The more I look at this, the more crazy it seems...(Bell)
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100: No symptoms with exercise. Normal overall activity. Able to work or do house/home work full time with no difficulty.
90: No symptoms at rest. Mild symptoms with physical activity. Normal overall activity level. Able to work full time without difficulty.
80: Mild symptoms at rest. Symptoms worsened by exertion. Minimal activity restriction needed for activities requiring exertion only. Able to work full time with difficulty in jobs requiring exertion.
70: Mild symptoms at rest. Some daily activity limitation clearly noted. Overall functioning close to 90% of expected except for activities requiring exertion. Able to work/do housework full time with difficulty. Needs to rest in day.
60: Mild to moderate symptoms at rest. Daily activity limitation clearly noted. Overall functioning 70% to 90%. Unable to work full time in jobs requiring physical labour (including just standing), but able to work full time in light activity (sitting) if hours are flexible.
50: Moderate symptoms at rest. Moderate to severe symptoms with exercise or activity; overall activity level reduced to 70% of expected. Unable to perform strenuous duties, but able to perform light duty or deskwork 4 - 5 hours a day, but requires rest periods. Has to rest/sleep 1-2 hours daily.
40: Moderate symptoms at rest. Moderate to severe symptoms with exercise or activity. Overall activity level reduced to 50-70% of expected. Able to go out once or twice a week. Unable to perform strenuous duties. Able to work sitting down at home 3-4 hours a day, but requires rest periods.
30: Moderate to severe symptoms at rest. Severe symptoms with any exercise. Overall activity level reduced to 50% of expected. Usually confined to house. Unable to perform any strenuous tasks. Able to perform deskwork 2-3 hours a day, but requires rest periods.
20: Moderate to severe symptoms at rest. Unable to perform strenuous activity. Overall activity 30-50% of expected. Unable to leave house except rarely. Confined to bed most of day. Unable to concentrate for more than 1 hour a day.
10: Severe symptoms at rest. Bed ridden the majority of the time. No travel outside of the house. Marked cognitive symptoms preventing concentration.
0: Severe symptoms on a continuous basis. Bed ridden constantly, unable to care for self.
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At level 20, someone can be doing half of what they did pre-ME, yet they are confined to bed most of day!
Personally, I'm doing 25% of pre-ME activity (can't sustain any more), yet I'm doing 40-odd mile bike rides at a reasonable lick. I have detailed records of my activity going back to 1980, became ill 1991. What level would I be at?
Hang on, level 70 says '90% of expected except for activities requiring exertion' ... so no-one is expected to exert themselves? WTF does 'exertion' mean - hell that is such a scientific term!
This is just one example of some quack purporting to know something about ME, fatigue, physiology, science... Also, it highlights that we can't measure improvement subjectively (and certainly not at this level of non-rigour). Equally, physical performance measures don't completely cut the mustard. This would need to be resolved before any trial, otherwise we'd have another PACE debacle.