BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

By DENISE GRADY Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome are infected with a little known virus that may cause or at least contribute to their illness, researchers are reporting. The syndrome, which causes prolonged and severe fatigue, body aches and other symptoms, has long been a mystery ailment, and patients have sometimes been suspected of malingering or having psychiatric problems rather than genuine physical ones. Worldwide, 17 million people have the syndrome, including at least one million Americans. An article published online Thursday in the journal Science reports that 68 of 101 patients with the syndrome, or 67 percent, were infected with an infectious virus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV. By contrast, only 3.7 percent of 218 healthy people were infected. Continuing work after the paper was published has found the virus in nearly 98 percent of about 300 patients with the syndrome, said Dr. Judy A. Mikovits, the lead author of the paper. XMRV is a ...

Hey! They Don’t LOOK Disabled! Who Is Allowed To Park In those Disabled Parking Spaces, Anyway? Have you ever seen someone get out of a car parked in a space reserved for the disabled, who did not LOOK disabled? Did it make you very uncomfortable or even upset? Did you let them know of your disapproval by giving them a dirty look or yelling something at them? Well, you are not alone. Many people are very disturbed by the sight of a seemingly mobile person stealing the space of someone who is truly in need of it. After all, we want to protect the rights of people for whom these spaces are reserved! However, in wanting to help those who deserve these parking spaces, we actually may be hurting someone who does have a legal right and a legitimate need to park there. H ow can this be true, you ask? Isn’t it obvious who is and who is not disabled? The answer is… NO. The qualifications for the general accessible parking spaces include those using chairs, walkers, crutches and canes, as well a...

1. The illness I live with is: Atypical M.S., Fibromyalgia, Neurally Mediated Hypotension, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, PTSD, Adrenal Fatigue, PCOS, Neuropathy 2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 1995 (PCOS I was diagnosed in 1966) 3. But I had symptoms since: 1994 4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Not working and not being around people every day 5. Most people assume: I'm just fat and lazy 6. The hardest part about mornings are: severe migraines and chronic pain. Just walking can be excruciating 7. My favorite medical TV show is: You Are What You Eat 8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: Cellphone 9. The hardest part about nights are: Falling Asleep and Staying Asleep 10. Each day I take 11 pills & vitamins. (No comments, please) 11. Regarding alternative treatments I: t ried them all - some worked some didn't 12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: invisible 13. Regarding working and career: mi...

People say a lot of things to and about folks with invisible chronic illnesses. I think most of the folks on my flist have heard it all before, aimed at them or people they know and love. Some of it's cruel. Some of it is unthinking. Some of it is well-meant but painful. A lot of these things fall into general categories. Have you tried...? This one is almost always well-meant but it doesn't do much for me. Usually it's folks who have only recently met me who use this one. It doesn't seem to occur to them that, having lived with my various conditions most of my life, chances are I've tried it unless it's something that's just come out of the newest research. Drugs, alternative therapies, magical and spiritual work, physical therapy, acupuncture; I've tried pretty much everything. I've done years of research online and talked to dozens of doctors over the years. Some things have helped. Some have been useless. Some have caused problems for various rea...

Well, DUH! by livescience.com People who suffer chronic pain tend to have general physical capabilities similar to those decades older, a new study finds. Scientists re-examined data from a 2004 study of 18,531 people age 50 and over. As one example, among participants age 50 to 59 who had no chronic pain, 37 percent could jog a mile and 91 percent could walk several blocks with no trouble. Among those with chronic pain, only 9 percent could jog the mile and only half managed the walking task. "We found that the abilities of those aged 50 to 59 with pain were far more comparable to subjects aged 80 to 89 without pain, of whom 4 percent were able to jog 1 mile and 55 percent were able to walk several blocks, making pain sufferers appear 20 to 30 years older than non-pain sufferers," said study leader Kenneth Covinsky of the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Chronic pain is a huge problem for middle-aged and older adults. In fact 24 percent ...