New insight into why women are more likely than men to develop autoimmune diseases

I wonder if this would also explain why more women develop ME/CFS/FMS?

The finding, detailed in a paper published in The Journal of Immunology, focuses on a type of white blood cell, the innate lymphoid cell, that exhibits different immune activities in males versus females.



MS is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and is the result of a dysregulated immune response. Using a mouse model of MS in which only females get disease, this study showed that innate lymphoid cells are activated and protect male mice from the disease. Although female mice have these same cells, they remain inactive and do not protect them.



The research opens up new avenues for investigation into sex-determined disease susceptibility and could one day lead to better therapies for both men and women with MS and other autoimmune diseases.

 Protecting women from multiple sclerosis -- ScienceDaily

Mitochondrial Depletion Could Underlie the Energy Problems in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Very, very few chronic fatigue syndrome studies have emerged from Germany, but the last two have been good ones. The one before this was the first to find evidence of EBV activation in ME/CFS, in years. This one – a model exploring mitochondrial dynamics – may help explain what’s causing the post-exertional problems, published in the Biophysical Chemistry journal, this study extended a well-known metabolic model explaining what happens to the mitochondria in the skeletal muscles during exercise. The authors enhanced it by adding some processes to it (lactate accumulations / purine degradation) known to occur in the mitochondria. In silico analysis of exercise intolerance in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Nicor Lengert, Barbara Drossel Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Technische Universitat. Biophysical Chemistry 202 (2015) 21–31



Mitochondrial Depletion Could Underlie the Energy Problems in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Infections can affect your IQ

Anyone can suffer from an infection, for example in their stomach, urinary tract or skin. However, a new Danish study shows that a patient's distress does not necessarily end once the infection has been treated. In fact, ensuing infections can affect your cognitive ability measured by an IQ test.

Infections can affect your IQ -- ScienceDaily

New Minister For Disabled Strongly Against Disability Benefits And Human Rights

Like a lot of people, we’re still coming to terms with finding ourselves in a country ruled by a Conservative majority.

The new administration’s attitude towards sick and disabled claimants is probably summed up in a single act: the appointment of a new minister for the disabled who is strongly against disability benefits and human rights.

It’s not surprising then that many of our members are deeply worried about what the future might hold, particularly with £12 billion in benefits cuts now about to become a reality.

20 May 2015 Newsletter

UK population is becoming overweight and obese at younger ages

Children born since the 1980s are two to three times more likely than older generations to be overweight or obese by the age of 10, according to new research. The study characterized population shifts in body mass index using data from more than 56,000 people born in Britain from 1946 to 2001.

UK population is becoming overweight and obese at younger ages -- ScienceDaily

Skipping meals linked to abdominal weight gain

Skipping meals sets off a series of metabolic miscues that can result in abdominal weight gain, a new study in animals suggests. In the study, mice that ate all of their food as a single meal and fasted the rest of the day developed insulin resistance in their livers -- which scientists consider a telltale sign of prediabetes. When the liver doesn't respond to insulin signals telling it to stop producing glucose, that extra sugar in the blood is stored as fat.

Skipping meals linked to abdominal weight gain -- ScienceDaily

Adrenal or Brain Exhaustion? Darden’s ME/CFS and FM Cortisol Story

Most persons with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia suffer from adrenal exhaustion and will produce irregular results on a saliva stress test. It is postulated by many researchers that the “hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis” is out of balance in patients with CFS & FMS. This axis is a complex set of interactions between endocrine glands, which control reactions to stress and regulate many body processes including digestion, the immune system and energy storage and expenditure. Addressing low adrenal and thyroid function is an important part of bringing the axis back into balance.

Adrenal or Brain Exhaustion? Darden's ME/CFS and FM Cortisol Story

The UK is now the most unequal country in EU, and Cameron has been very conservative with the truth

This isn’t the first time Cameron has used this lie. We have a government that provides disproportionate and growing returns to the already wealthy, whilst imposing austerity cuts on the very poorest. How can such a government possibly claim that inequality is falling, when inequality is so fundamental to their ideology and when social inequalities are extended and perpetuated by all of their policies? It seems the standard measure of inequality is being used to mislead us into thinking that the economy is far more “inclusive’ than it is.

The UK is now the most unequal country in EU, and Cameron has been very conservative with the truth

Fibromyalgia has central nervous system origins

Fibromyalgia is the second most common rheumatic disorder behind osteoarthritis and, though still widely misunderstood, is now considered to be a lifelong central nervous system disorder, which is responsible for amplified pain that shoots through the body in those who suffer from it. Researchers have analyzed the neurological basis for fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia has central nervous system origins -- ScienceDaily

ME/CFS and the Fundamental Importance of Recognising and Respecting our Energy Limits

There is nothing new in this statement. There is even specific ME/CFS terminology for it: staying within our ‘energy envelope’! But the fact is that it’s extraordinarily difficult to achieve. However I believe that if we were only to focus on one illness management goal, this would have to be the one.  The more we can keep within our energy envelope the better chance we have of improving our health.

ME/CFS and the Fundamental Importance of Recognising and Respecting our Energy Limits

Emotional toxicity of austerity eroding mental health, say 400 experts

The 400 signatories, from all corners of Britain, said the government’s welfare reforms have caused emotional and mental trauma to Britons – forcing families to relocate against their will and burdening disabled, ill and unemployed benefit claimants with an intimidating benefits regime.

On a broader level, they warned British society has been ruptured by a neoliberal dogma that has serious socio-economic impacts.

British society has been “thrown completely off balance by the emotional toxicity of neoliberal thinking” and the grueling effects of this ideology are  particularly visible in therapists’ consulting rooms, they said.

​Emotional toxicity of austerity eroding mental health, say 400 experts

The Benefits of Fiber (And How to Know You're Getting Enough)

Some of the benefits of fiber include:

• Promoting fullness and satiety.
• Improving blood sugar regulation.
• Decreasing blood cholesterol.
• Pooping regularly.
• Reducing the body’s absorption of other calories (which can be beneficial in a weight loss context.)

The Benefits of Fiber (And How to Know You're Getting Enough)

New research findings may shed new light on the potential cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)

Researchers from Griffith University's National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED) -- part of the new Menzies Health Institute Queensland -- have uncovered significant factors contributing to the pathology of this illness.

The results reveal genetic changes in important receptors associated with immunological and cellular function and contribute to the development of this complex illness.

New light shed on cause of chronic fatigue syndrome -- ScienceDaily

7 Reasons to demonstrate on Saturday 20 June

1) The government plans £12 billion in welfare cuts targeting the poorest in society.

2) The new Tory disabilities minister opposed protecting benefits for disabled children and cancer patients.

3) Michael Gove has been appointed justice secretary. In 1999, when he worked for the Times, he called for hanging to be brought back as a punishment. He's also attempting to scrap the Human Rights Act.

4) Cameron is announcing new plans to target 'extremists' giving the government powers to target anyone they think is undermining 'democracy'. This policy will be used to attack the Muslim community, and how long will it be before anti-austerity protesters get targeted too?

5) The new equalities secretary voted against gay marriage.

6) The new business secretary wants to make it harder for trade unions to take strike action.

7) The government plans to end social housing as we know it.

End Austerity Now National Demonstration

Human rights, the reintroduction of hanging and what we have lost

Gove’s first task is to scrap the Human Rights Act, (HRA) which was the previous Labour government’s legislation designed to supplement the European Convention on Human Rights, it came into effect in 2000. The Act makes available a remedy for breach of Convention right without the need to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

As I have previously reported, the rights protected by the Act are quite basic. They include the right to life, liberty and the right to a fair trial; protection from torture and ill-treatment; freedom of speech, thought, religion, conscience and assembly; the right to free elections; the right to fair access to the country’s education system; the right to marry and an overarching right not to be discriminated against.

Cameron has argued that it should be repealed just 15 years after its implementation … so that he can pass another unspecified Act – a British Bill of Rights. Why would any government object to citizens being afforded such established, basic protections, which are, after all, very simple internationally shared expectations of any first world liberal democracy?

Human rights, the reintroduction of hanging and what we have lost

High Rates of Gynecological Disorders Implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The first intimations that chronic fatigue syndrome might be associated with gynecological issues  came early in the history of the disorder.  In 1988 Dr.  Komaroff co-authored a paper finding increased gynecological complications (endometriosis, ovarian cysts, polycystic ovaries, uterine fibroids, menstrual abnormalities and galactorrhea), in 149 women with ME/CFS. Similar findings (early menopause, hysterectomy) have been reported in fibromyalgia as well.

The gender imbalance, the two-peak incidence pattern in ME/CFS occurring during times of hormonal fluctuations, the significant symptom reductions some women experience during pregnancy and the high rates of gynecological disorders found other functional syndromes all suggest female hormones must involved in some way in both ME/CFS and FM.

High Rates of Gynecological Disorders Implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

DWP Plan Harsher ESA Test, PIP Safety Net Pulled, Claimant Death Statistics To Be Published

Plans to make the medical test for employment and support allowance (ESA) harder to pass and to increase the amount of bedroom tax some claimants have to pay have been leaked to the Guardian.

Meanwhile, with polling day almost upon us, the DWP have been ordered by the Information Commissioner to publish highly controversial claimant death statistics – but not until well after the election is over.

And we have news of an important protection for PIP claimants at risk of suicide or self-harm that has been removed.

6 May 2015 newsletter

"A life on benefits is frankly no life at all" - Why David Cameron is wrong

What none of this has done is make my life worthless. I do not have "no life at all." I am a person, with experiences, who has contributed to society just by being myself. I enjoy things, I create things, I learn things, I say things. I talk to friends and make new friends. And all of this despite starting my life on benefits and continuing it now on benefits. All of this despite the fact that I may never be able to undertake paid employment again.

Where's the Benefit?: "A life on benefits is frankly no life at all" - Why David Cameron is wrong