Positive Health Online

Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalitis and Long Covid Third Edition: It's mitochondria, not hypochondria

by Sarah Myhill and Craig Robinson

Published by Hammersmith Health Books; Third edition. 2024. Paperback. £24.99. ISBN-10:‎ 1781612544.

Reviewed by Nancy Blake BA CQSW assisted by Esq O Robbie Hogg-Blake

This Third Edition brings the latest information about Long Covid into the remit of this formidably exhaustive manual on the etiology, pathology and appropriate treatment of these complex and much-misunderstood chronic diseases.

While politicians and economists bewail the current 700,000 individuals lost from the economy through chronic illness, it seems the only concern is getting them back to work, not in trying to address the illnesses underlying this frightening statistic.

For this reason, the reader is advised to begin with Chapter 23, The politics of CFS and ME:  the name, the blame and the shame. The history of the controversy between the psychiatrists and others (the bio-psycho-social school (BPS)) who insist that the inability to exercise with these conditions is purely psychiatric and a matter of anxiety and deconditioning as against those who insist that there is a physical disease process in operation (which has resulted in many sufferers being forced to exercise into a state of complete disability) is in danger of repeating itself.

The fundamental realities of these conditions form the remainder of the premise of this book:  the energy-producing mechanisms of the body are disrupted, and must be brought back to proper functioning in order for the patient even to approach recovery.

The detail in this book is necessary for a full understanding of the illness. The patient himself need not understand the minutiae of how these conditions work, but ideally the patient should be in the care of someone who has the full information.

 https://youtu.be/XCO5I9ybvDw?si=1KwxLlZI2r62idUq

Support for the importance of the mitochondria and the latest research concerning physical changes to the muscles of people who have exercised and suffer from post-exertional malaise (PEM) as well as confirmation that PEM has no resemblance to deconditioning can be found in a recent YouTube discussion between David Tuller and Dr Rob Wust in which they discuss Dr Wust’s two recent publications on PEM and on deconditioning after bed rest. David Tuller is a professor of investigative journalism from the University of Berkeley to whom the ME community owe a debt of gratitude for his persistence in querying the many faulty research papers written by members of the BPS school. Dr Wust is a professor of sports physiology at Amsterdam’s Vrije University.

For anyone interested in the ongoing controversy, David Tuller’s work in questioning flaws in BPS research would be of interest.

Further Information

Available from Amazon.co.uk