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Corporate Control of People with Disabilities
"If you do not have a disability, it probably does not occur to you that you need permission from someone in authority to take a bus, to read a book, to go to the bathroom, to talk on the phone, to leave your house, to enter a public space, to choose how to treat your medical condition."
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As the cuts bleed harder, the cruel Tory truth will emerge
"The year ends with the country in a worse state than the government’s severest critics expected. Yet worse is to come, as 2012 slides towards the second recession in three years. Virtually everything David Cameron’s government has done has made matters worse; most policy initiatives are creaking while others are mere words without substance. In my political lifetime there has been no more callous or inept crew in charge – nor a government more skilful at disguising its nature."
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Illness Clusters: The Reason Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "Bring Friends"
"In a review of FMS literature, noted researcher Dr. Muhammed Yunus presents evidence for the cluster of illnesses we generally see all having a key feature in common: central sensitization (CS). As a group, they're called central sensitivity syndromes (CSS), although some of the conditions are classified as diseases."
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Links of the day 12/31/2011
Friday, 30 December 2011
Links of the day 12/30/2011
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Expect the government to shrink the banks? Think again. But the markets….
"The feebleness, impotence and tardiness of the Government in dealing with the banks could hardlybe more starkly highlighted. Everyone (almost) agrees that the UK finance sector is far too big – its liabilities equal 5 times Britain’s GDP – and the economy urgently needs to be rebalanced away from the City towards a revival of manufacturing. So what happens? The Government sets up the Vickers Commission which takes a year to come up with the wrong policy and then the Government takes another 6 months to confirm the wrong Vickers conclusions. "
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Professor Simon Wessely once again attempts to defend the indefensible
"Professor Simon Wessely once again attempts to defend what has already been shown to be indefensible, namely his own beliefs about the nature of ME/CFS, including his belief that graded exercise therapy (GET) has “an impeccable safety record” (Simon Wessely; Health in mind and body; The Journal of the Foundation for Science and Technology: 2011:20:7: 9 –11).
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The abolition of the NHS. That’s what is happening
"In a speech on exports and growth on 10th November 2011, David Cameron went “off-script” and revealed his government’s true agenda for the NHS. "
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/Myalgic Encephalopathy (M.E.) - Symptoms, Diagnosis, Causes
"It is clear that there are a large number of abnormalities in multiple body systems in ME/CFS patients. These abnormalities centre around the nervous, endocrine and immune systems and the way these interact with each other. Although these abnormalities have been identified it is still unclear which are causes and which are effects. New research will hopefully shed more light on this but until then doctors who are seeing the best results with patients seem to be those who take a multifactorial approach and try to correct as many of the abnormalities discussed as they possibly can, using currently available treatments."
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Government caught out on DLA statistics … again
"Serious doubts have emerged about crucial statistics used by the minister for disabled people to justify the government’s sweeping disability living allowance (DLA) reforms."
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Pacing as a strategy to improve energy management in ME/CFS
"Conclusion: Pacing offers practitioners an additional therapeutic option which is acceptable to the majority of patients and can reduce the severity of the exertion-related symptoms of ME/CFS."
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How to Turn Your Dumbphone Into a Smartphone Using Nothing But SMS
"If you want to get email, Facebook, driving directions, and other web features on your phone, you can cheat a little bit and get them through SMS messages. Here's how. "
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"People often assume that medicine can cure M.E, or at least keep it under control. Unfortunately, they are wrong. "
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Government’s Use of Atos to Combat Benefit Fraud Is Flawed, Costly and Counterproductive
"Despite the hype, the figures show the claimants in a different light. According to the government, who should know about these things, the Incapacity Benefit ‘Fraud and Error’ figure is 2.4%. Of this 2.4%, only 0.3% is down to fraud. This amounts to a loss of £20m. The rest is down to customer error (0.9% or £50m) and official error (1.2% or £70m). It would appear that not that many people are faking a sore back or depression after all."
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UK to relax pet quarantine rules
"The requirement for a blood test after a rabies vaccination to prove it has been successful will be dropped for those travelling within the EU, although both they and travellers bringing pets back from other countries with "robust" veterinary systems such as the US and Australia will still have to wait 21 days after vaccination before departure."
Thursday, 29 December 2011
Links of the day 12/29/2011
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Who's to blame for supermarket rejection of 'ugly' fruit and vegetables? - The Ecologist
"Fields of wasted crops lie testament to our fussy shopping habits and the refusal of supermarkets to stock edible but less-than-perfect-looking food"
Monday, 26 December 2011
A Very Furry Christmas
Really, people who dress up their cats should be taken out and shot.
But when they look this cute …
And the “Sloppy Kisser” t-shirt speaks the truth?
By the way, Balu made no attempt to take that off and just went about his business as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He cuddled and purred and eventually, fell asleep in it all afternoon, on his back.
What else do you get Canarian cats for Crimbo? Catnip bananas, of course!
We had a minor tantrum at dinner time when there was a mass walk out over the content of their dishes. The “tinned crap” they had been served, they claimed, bore no resemblance to the stuff they could smell and they refused to eat until I’d carved them a slice of turkey each.
Oh and not enough to get stoned on catnip, Balu also lapped up brandy-laced cream with unseemly gusto. I think they had a good time!
Friday, 23 December 2011
Links of the day 12/23/2011
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The prevalence of fibromyalgia in other chronic pain conditions
"An important recent recognition is an increased prevalence of FMS in other chronic pain conditions with structural pathology, for example, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, and inflammatory bowel disease. "
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MSPs refuse changes to the UK benefits system.
"It is important to be aware that whilst Holyrood cannot prevent Westminster changing the welfare benefits system. The UK government needs Holyrood to allow it to change the law so its reforms would fit the Scottish system."
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: God Bless us Every One!
"The change in attitudes and confidence is remarkable. Something seems to have convinced you all that we CAN do this, and the more of us that believe it, the more chance there is of it coming true."
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Heart Abnormalities in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"The leading causes of death were heart failure, suicide and cancer.
All 3 were were more common than in the overall population and happened earlier in life."
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Links of the day 12/22/2011
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"“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand and wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”"
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Monday, 19 December 2011
Links of the day 12/19/2011
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A-Z of medical conditions - DWP
"This medical guidance for Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance Decision Makers has been developed by the Departments Health and Benefits Division with help from experts involved in patient care. It contains background information on the more common medical conditions in DLA/AA claims, their treatment, the likely disabling effects together with the likely impact on ability to self care and get around. "
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Links of the day 12/18/2011
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Raising the pension age will be a public health disaster
"Looking at the evidence, one begins to wonder whether Osborne has understood ‘the response to rising life expectancy’ as meaning that life expectancy must be reduced."
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Nick Clegg mocks Conservatives over '1950s view' of British family
"Fallout over EU treaty escalates with deputy prime minister lambasting Tory view of 'suit-wearing dad' and 'aproned' mother"
Oh, looky, Nick Clegg's balls have finally dropped! Bit late, innit? -
Bible similar to Tory policy if you skip stuff on helping the poor and sick, says Cameron
"Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed that he is committed to Christianity apart from all the bits about helping the poor and sick, and definitely excluding the part where Jesus throws the money-lenders out of the temple."
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Benefit Questions, Disability Benefits, Benefit Questions Answered
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Life as we know it: Vitamin D for flu
" Vitamin D increases the immune system by 3-5 times and is better than any vaccine at helping the immune system beat the h5n1 (bird flu) virus."
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"A team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University has made a major breakthrough by unraveling the inner workings of melatonin, also known as the "sleep hormone." "
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome vs. Depression: One Doctor's View
"I really think the doctor summed it up perfectly. In the 4 years I've been hearing personal stories about ME/CFS, I've come across a lot of people who say they miss the things they used to do, that it hurts them to stay home when everyone else is off having fun, or perhaps that they've given up trying to participate because they pay so dearly afterward. However, I just don't hear people say that they don't want to do things anymore."
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Links of the day 12/17/2011
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Chronic fatigue syndrome scientist finds a new home
"Lipkin came to Mikovits’ defence in her latest troubles. He says that she should be entitled to keep a copy of her laboratory records and lamented her arrest. “It’s very, very ugly and the sooner we put all this behind us the better off we’re all going to be,” he says."
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Cold Hands & Feet: Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Raynaud's?
"Since I've had fibromyalgia, my hands and feet have been prone to getting cold. I'm not just talking a little bit chilly - I mean intensely cold to the point of being painful, and really difficult to warm up. That's part of temperature sensitivity, which is a pretty common symptom of fibromyalgia and also of chronic fatigue syndrome."
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Links of the day 12/15/2011
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: We Won Something!!!
"In plain terms, it means people in social housing with a spare room cannot be forced to downsize and the government have to go away and come up with a better plan. This is particularly important for disabled people who may have had adaptions made to their homes to live independently or who need a second room for a carer. "
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10 Things NOT to Say to a Person with Migraines
For *Migraines* you can substitute pretty much any chronic illness. The key is understanding.
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Where's the Benefit?: Press Release: Welfare Campaigners to Hold Xmas Party Outside Atos HQ
"Disabled people, benefit claimants and supporters will be holding a Real Victorian Party and Picnic in Triton Square, home of disability assessment company Atos, this Friday 16th December from 2pm."
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Music industry admits: ‘We’ve run out of songs’
"The music industry has today conceded that the reason all modern songs sound the same is because they ran out of new songs more than a decade ago."
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Dr. Ian Gibson on BBC radio: Prof Simon Wessely has been blocking proper research into ME for years
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DWP announce new benefit rates for 2012-13
"This publication gives the full list of proposed social security benefits rates for 2012. The annual up-rating of benefits will take place for state pensions and most other benefits in the week beginning 9 April 2012."
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Research Fund - Fighting Disability Cuts
With just a few weeks to go before the welfare reform bill becomes law, please help sick and disabled people to present vital research to MPs, Lords, the media and the public. Thank you.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Links of the day 12/14/2011
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Eugenics – a new government policy?
"We – the chronically sick and disabled – are officially-sanctioned, government-sponsored, hate figures, and the parallels with the plight of the German Jews in the mid thirties are, as I’ve been saying for over a year, all too real, and with the rise in disability-related hate crime, getting closer all the time.
Is it any surprise, then, that the public, on the whole, don’t give a shit about disabled people, including children?" -
"You might wonder what possible argument a government who promised to "protect the most vulnerable" could possibly make for this change. I myself was fascinated to see how on earth they had justified throwing disabled children to the wolves."
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Links of the day 12/13/2011
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Why do people defend unjust, inept, and corrupt systems?
"When we feel we can't escape a system, we adapt. That includes feeling okay about things we might otherwise consider undesirable."
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Chronic fatigue syndrome 'affects one in 100 pupils'
Are the numbers growing, or just more being diagnosed - clearly wrongly
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Cutting dole for those who fail to take up jobs ‘goes against human rights’
"... taking away jobseekers’ allowance from these people could plunge some families into destitution – something which would amount to ‘inhuman or degrading treatment’."
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Conflicting Approaches to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Mayo Clinic "Goes British"
"For example, based on research I've seen, I believe there's a group of people with a chronic viral infection (such as Epstein-Barr), people with a combination of viral and/or bacterial infections (such as HHV-6 and Lyme disease), people whose immune systems are damaged by a hit-and-run infection, and people who have something possibly akin to post-traumatic stress disorder that causes immune-system dysregulation. Each one of these groups, and possibly others, would require a different treatment."
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Links of the day 12/11/2011
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The Broken Of Britain: Time Limiting ESA - Template Letter to Lords
"For every peer who receives 5, 10, 50 template letters, at least they get to see the strength of feeling people have over an issue."
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Why Sugar Makes You Tired (and What You Can Do About It)
"Those sugar highs you think you get are likely a figment of your imagination. In reality, they're more like sugar sedatives. Jonah Lehrer, writing for Wired, points out that orexin—a brain chemical that keeps you feeling awake—is inhibited when you consume sugar. Fortunately, there's a fix. "
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Where's the Benefit?: Crimestoppers
"This week Crimestoppers launched a new campaign to "fight benefit fraud". They say this is in response to benefit fraud being deemed the third "most worried about" type of crime in a poll they ran this year."
We haz a Christmas Tree
It’s the first time the kids (the fur ones) have had a proper big Christmas tree, so I was wondering what they’d make of it. Would they turn into 10 year-old kittens and try to climb it and bat all the decorations off?
I was also prepared for the opposite alternative that they just totally ignore it, as Balu has, but what I didn’t bargain for was calm contemplation.
Kitty really seems to enjoy the tree and has spent most of her time sitting beneath it, apparently transfixed, from as soon as it went up. WIN!
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Links of the day 12/10/2011
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The Broken Of Britain: Time Limiting ESA - We MUST stop it.
"Just to be clear, this means that if you have worked and paid national insurance contributions you will face an assessment. If that assessment finds that you are indeed unwell, but may be able to do some work at some point, you will only qualify for support for a year."
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Muscle Fatigue & Brain Function in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"In a trio of studies out of Switzerland, researchers discovered changes in the brain that appear to be tied to muscle fatigue during exercise."
Friday, 9 December 2011
Links of the day 12/09/2011
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Battersea Dogs Home to start taking in abandoned pensioners
"‘By giving them a large cage, food three times a day and a walk at lunchtime, we are providing a standard of living way above that provided in a care home.’"
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A Rolling Festive Phone-in to Atos 'Healthcare'
"Beginning on Monday 12th December and running up until Christmas benefit claimants, disabled people and supporters will be ringing both local and national Atos Offices to complain about their obscene treatment of sick and disabled people."
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Pain-Topics.org News/Research UPDATES: More About Vitamin D3, Rather Than D2, for Pain
"We have long advocated for the potential benefits of supplementation with vitamin D3, not D2, in persons with musculoskeletal pain. While some authors claim the formulation of vitamin D does not make that much difference, recent feedback from an UPDATES reader, plus a research summary by two experts, point toward D3 as the definite choice."
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Disabled people on benefits shouldn't have to fear being active
"Many people are ignorant of disabilities, and many disabled people have fluctuating conditions that have a huge effect on how much they can do. Most people with chronic or painful conditions have to weigh up the costs of doing any activity. For some, managing at home is tiring, and just trying to cook or look after themselves can be exhausting on bad days. On rare good days, going out and doing things like going to the pub, playing outside with the kids or spending a day out with friends – even in a wheelchair or using crutches – can cause pain and fatigue the next day and beyond. Someone in good health can go outside on a whim, but for some severely disabled people many factors must be taken into account first, including the weather, the terrain, the amount of sleep they've had, the balance of their pain medication and the equipment and assistance from people they need to get around."
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Links of the day 12/08/2011
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Arthritis Care : Work Capability Assessment Year 2 review recommendations: Arthritis Care response
"Arthritis Care welcomes the publication of Professor Harrington's report regarding the second year of his independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The report acknowledges that while progress has been made against the recommendations from last year's WCA review, there is still significant work to be done to produce "a fairer, more effective and more humane process", and emphasises the importance of the "need to move away from concepts of 'passing' or 'failing' a WCA, which are unhelpful and often cloud the evidence linking health and work.""
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Tedious people still getting cancer
"New research showed that over half of cancers are completely unrelated to lifestyle, proving that it doesn’t matter how tediously healthy your existence has become, you can still get cancer."
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Radar | The disability rights people, our strength is you.
"Radar is the UK’s largest disability rights campaigning network, with a membership of 800 organisations and individual campaigners. We are a pan-disability organisation led by people with lived experience of disability or health conditions. We work in broad partnerships to have the widest impact."
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New guide to help disabled find adequate transport
"written by and for disabled people and is full of real-life experiences of using trains, buses, coaches, undergrounds, light railways, ferries and more. It also tells people what to do when things go wrong."
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Educating Your Doctor (& Others) About Fibromyalgia
"I recently came across a review of physiological abnormalities tied to fibromyalgia that's not only phenomenal, but is fully available online. That's a rarity. If you're trying to educate a health-care provider, I highly recommend sending them the link or giving them a printed copy."
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"More than half of us - 54% - think unemployment benefits are too high up from 35% in 1983. Workshy parents are to blame for child poverty, say 63%""
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Links of the day 12/07/2011
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Cancer patients to face welfare tests during chemotherapy, charities warn
"More than 9,000 cancer patients were placed automatically on the welfare payment from October 2008 to June 2010. However, the expert report says this "automatic entitlement" has encouraged dependency on benefits, "encouraging wrong behaviours from employers and stigmatising cancer as something that can lead to unemployment or worklessness"."
WTF happened to compassion in this country? -
Greenest government ever? This lot is deepest brown
" When Osborne said in the Autumn Statement: “We are not going to save the planet by shutting down our steel mills, aluminium smelters and paper manufacturers”, that’s the authentic voice of brown-nosed anti-environmentalism retoxifying the Tory party."
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"Together, the experimental evidence provides strong support for the idea that FM symptoms are related to dysfunctions in the central nervous system. "
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Links of the day 12/06/2011
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Modern-day nativity ruined as Mary and Joseph submit online tax return
"... instead of being visited by three wise men Mary and Joseph were doorstepped by three paparazzi who were guided to the newborn infant’s home not by a star, but by hacking into his parents’ voicemail. "
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"When her body was examined by the pathologist who specialised in M.E, he discovered “dorsal root ganglionitis” - infected nerve roots – and nodules of Nageotte, which are little tombs of dead cells, in her spinal cord. These would have caused her terrible pain and sensory nerve damage. They found similar cells in the body of Sophia Mirza, an ME sufferer who died in 2005 at the age of 32, and I believe in other sufferers. "
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Care in the Community
"Mr Duncan-Smith your weasel words on Care in the Community belie your actions. Cutting almost every vital aid to independent living will only send us back to the 50s. You acknowledge the problem. Now address it. "
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"This would be a great opportunity for anyone interested in business, health care or screwing up something big without having to become a politician."
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DWP get sums wrong on ESA - By 1 Billion!!
"This implies that thousands of sick and disabled people have been wrongly denied ESA over the last three years and thousands placed in the Work Related Activities Group who should have been put in the Support Group and given unconditional support"
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"antiphospholipid antibodies, mainly anticardiolipin, are frequently associated with viral infections. Their presence may probably reflect an intense or chronic antigenic stimulation of the immune system. "
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Structural Brain Changes in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"A new study suggests that structural brain changes may be responsible for some symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)."
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Cameron is giving away YOUR medical records – object now…
"The release of such highly personal records must surely be a breach of the Data Protection Act, so please, register your objections with the Office of the Information Commissioner at this email address:-"
Monday, 5 December 2011
Links of the day 12/05/2011
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Benefit Scrounging Scum: Please Sign Pat's Petition
"Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families."
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Welfare reform will reduce poverty? Purleeease
"Perhaps no coincidence that just yesterday I read that they were thinking of re-defining poverty altogether. After all, if you haven't got a hope in hell of meeting a policy objective, the best thing to do is move the goalposts eh?"
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How one IBS sufferer beat ATOS and the UK benefits system
"Can you get sickness benefits in the UK if you suffer from IBS? The answer to that is yes…but not without a fight, it would seem. One of my lovely readers, Luci, has very kindly shared her experience of applying for employment support allowance (ESA), the sickness benefit that replaced incapacity benefit in 2008."
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New IBS Book - Sophie's Story: My 20-Year Battle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Links of the day 12/04/2011
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Patients' NHS records could be shared with private firms
"Private health firms could be given access to anonymous NHS patient records and other NHS data, under plans to be unveiled by David Cameron."
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New green alliance in savage attack on George Osborne
"Coalition on path to becoming most environmentally destructive government to hold power in the UK, say campaigning groups"
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Gov't plans allowance cuts for the disabled
"The Labor Ministry is planning serious cuts to allowances and benefits for disabled people, according to the head of the Confederation of Disabled People."
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Sleep Apnea: Adjusting to CPAP With Fibromyalgia
"Sleep disorders are common enough in fibromyalgia that I believe we should all have sleep studies as soon as we're diagnosed, and possibly even as part of the diagnostic process. Chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause fibro-like symptoms, so an early sleep study could save someone years of debilitating problems. (The same goes for chronic fatigue syndrome, which shares many symptoms of sleep disorders, especially narcolepsy.)"
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Links of the day 12/03/2011
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Feckless Parents - Oh IDS, you Tool!
"All the while politicians just see an amorphous mass of scallies, all the time they allow headlines to reinforce their prejudice, we will continue to see "scrounger" headlines, continue to see rising hate crime and division."
Friday, 2 December 2011
Links of the day 12/02/2011
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TGF-β in blood cells is significantly elevated in patients with ME/CFS
"It has been shown that the abnormality in immune cells in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients is closely associated with the participation of TGF-β."
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Krugman: Coalition is "bleeding" Britain dry
"It really is just like a medieval doctor bleeding his patient, observing that the patient is getting sicker, not better, and deciding that this calls for even more bleeding."
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To those Newly Diagnosed With ME/CFS: Four Things I Learned the Hard Way
"“If I had been told by my doctors that by pushing my limits, and burning the candle at both ends, would destroy my vascular and heart systems, I would have listened.”"
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"It's a weird irony that Iranians know the history of Anglo-Persian relations better than the Brits. "
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Links of the day 12/01/2011
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Herbal Beats Pain Medication in New Arthritis Study!
"A new study reported at this year's annual Arthritis World Congress showed that a natural remedy — a special mix of the anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving herbs curcumin and boswellia — was much more powerfully effective at relieving arthritis pain than the medication Celebrex. "
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8 Things That Will Make Fibromyalgia Worse
"Do you do everything you can to ease your fibro symptoms, and wonder why you don’t feel better? If you’re being exposed to the following substances, you may be undoing all the good you’re doing with your diet, medications and alternative treatments."
