Posted by: Maff
on Oct 24, 2008
An article on WebMD this week addressed a very interesting issue. Should doctors give patients placebo (non-active) pills in any circumstances. It turns out this is a surprisingly common practice when doctors are faced with poorly understood chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia.
A recent survey revealed that more than half of doctors give out fake prescriptions to patients and that the majority of doctors feel this practice is OK.
Posted by: Maff
on Oct 17, 2008
Tagged in: Untagged
At this time of year many people (in the US especially) are getting, or at least thinking about getting, flu shots. So I thought this would be an ideal time to talk about flu shots, and vaccinations in general, particularly in relation to those of us who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia.
First of all the flu vaccine is one of the most controversial in terms of its use, efficacy and safety. Of the commonly used vaccines perhaps only MMR is more controversial due to the media circus generated by the work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield in the UK around 10 years ago.
Posted by: Maff
on Oct 10, 2008
Yesterday I received an email from Steve Johnston at Liverpool Court Studios, an audio/video production house in Canada.
Steve had stumbled across The Environmental Illness Resource and kindly attached a video he had made about EI for a client some time ago.
Posted by: Maff
on Oct 03, 2008
This week I was contacted by the producer of The Restaurant; a reality TV show made by the BBC here in the UK. For those who don't know, the premise of the show is that couples compete over the series/season to prove they have what it takes to run a successful restaurant. Each week they are set different challenges to test different skills required to be restauranteurs. The overall winners are set up in a restaurant of their own; financially backed and personally supported by Raymond Blanc who has a big hand in the show.
The reason I was contacted by the shows producer is because in an episode to be aired on October 22nd in the UK the contestants are to be set the challenge of preparing meals for diners with special dietary needs, with a particular focus on those with coeliac/celiac disease. The contestants must therefore prepare a full meal free from gluten. Those of you who are coeliacs or must otherwise avoid gluten will know all too well that this is not an easy task at first!
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