The XMRV debate

I'm so glad you plugged in with XMRV this week, Aimee, thank you!  I knew in 1989 when I had chronic fatigue syndrome (couldn't walk a block nor climb a full flight of stairs without resting, cut back to 7 hour days .. spent one whole summer really quite debilitated and SCARED as I was only 29 and nobody knew what it was caused by yet) that there was a study which had found it to be a retrovirus.  This was 1989.... HIV and AIDS was the big news and new and the drugs hadn't been discovered to mitigate the disease.... So I found it REALLY interesting this past October (of 2009) when the XMRV study was released and there was such a hubub about it being 'new' information.  It's a very complex process, research and I'm looking forward to learning more about it through this particular episode.  I hope many people will write here and we can all collect and learn together. 

Perhaps we can spend some time this weekend and the near future giving people we know this link and asking them to Comment.  I've not yet had time with the volunteer with IT experience who is going to get the new security certificate's address installed on Lumigrate.com so people will still get a 'Warning' about the security, but if it's just people that know what Lumigrate is they should know that we are who we say we are.  And I hope to maybe even get that fixed tomorrow... not sure yet.  So far this week everything's a big wiggy but it ends up getting done if I juggle and shuffle in the order things happen (which is not the order I'm trying to do them but whatever!). 

That's my 4 cents!

For anyone who wonders about Aimee's ability to take in and study information and write it up, I put a link to the 15 minute interview of her on her local TV station related to fibromyalgia.  It's in the Fibromyalgia Forum as a topic I believe and I think I might have put the link also in my introduction of her in this forum... if not, I'll go back and do that. 

Also, I suggest people look at what Emma-Kate Lamb writes in the Chronic Fatigue and XMRV Forum at Lumigrate -- she's an OT from New Zealand who is quite active in this topic as she has Chronic Fatigue (and not fibromyalgia) and works for a teaching university and comes at things from a really high level and perhaps a bit different direction for leaning than Aimee does.  Which is GOOD.... we don't have to all agree on Lumigrate, we just will be respectful of opinions being opionions and what we have in common is the desire to learn more together. 

~~ Mardy

PS -- Really good resource/link, Aimee -- thanks.  Science magazine...

Aimee dawlink!  So good to read you, sweetheart!  It's your Yenta and yes, of course I'm chiming in what else would I be doing?

There are two sides to everything, unless you're in an argument; then there are three sides (yours, mine and the truth).  In this case, though, we're going with cause and effect.  We have the effect and the millions of people that suffer for it and the yolds (dummies) that don't believe it exists but we'll deal with that at a later time.  In order to find the fix for the effect "researchers" seem to think they need to know the cause.  In other words, the big shots want their moment of glory and to be able to say, "oh look we've spent lots of money on you poor people, now we get to go to heaven."

Here it is bubeleh, we all need to go back to farming.  Put down the pesticides, the hair sprays, the Lysol wipes, the clorox bleach and get down and dirty with the soil under our fingernails and work the land ourselves.  Perhaps, just perhaps, we stop eating all this store bought garbage that we're told is "good" for us, and stop taking a hundred thousand vitamins that don't do anything but fill our stomachs with nothing but gelatin and oil of some sort and actually smile once in a while because it feels good... we'll feel better. 

Long and short?  Forget the study, let the schmucks (forgive me) do what they do and do what you NEED to do to be better.  Be well my dawlinks!

Your

Yenta

Excellent points Yenta!!

Over the last few years, I have really started to notice the effect of all these chemicals.    The thing that first made me aware was when I was having chronic hive outbreaks.   Serious, big, red ugly hives covering mostly my neck.   I only had so many scarves to cover those puppies up!   I went in for allergy testing and they did the first 24 "normal" allergies, and nope, none of those were the cause.   So then I stepped up to 250 smalls cuts on my back.   Ugh the things we do..   Well, the only positive finding was VERY positive, and that was for formaldehyde!  The allergist, who is very well respected in his field, says "hmm, never had anyone test positive for that, but hey, you aren't a coroner, so shouldn't be a problem!".

Problem??  OHHH Yes!  Did you know formaldehyde is a preservative used in millions of products?  It's in the air, water, beauty supplies, cleaning supplies and many foods.   So the same substance that gets pumped into a body to preserve it after death, is being pumped into all of us in small doses every day.   Anything with paraben or methyl is a formaldehyde deriviative.  

There is no way to completely avoid formaldehyde that I can find, but I'm working on it!  I do believe it is one more notch in making all of us sick.   Add in all the things that get pumped into our foods to make them taste better and last longer and well, we are on a dangerous path!

I'm happy to say that here in my corner of Ohio, the local big farm is going organic.   It's taking time, as they are working to make the soil completely free of chemicals, as well as the water they use.   So it's one small field at a time, but they are getting there.   In the meantime, they have a "Happy Box" which is delivered weekly with organic, fresh fruits and veggies.   And then a group picked up the brass rings and are developing a co-op for meats, dairy products and eggs.   Between the two, I'm hoping to be eating healthier soon!

Ok, I went off on a tangent, but Yenta always makes me think!!   Thank you Yenta!!

Aimee dawlink, I'm so happy I was able to help.  And you can tell that allergist about what you found out!  Oy!  When I read all those things that goes into the foods... it just makes me krenk (ill).  Moishe and I shop for our fruits and veggies at a Farmer's Market.  We have a wonderful time doing it. 

So I was watching a TV program, with my mind I can't remember which one so don't ask; but they were talking about organic milk for some reason.  Supposedly, they were saying, organic milk has steriods in it from the grass the cows eat and regular milk has it added AFTER the milk is processed.  Read that again please bubelehs, I'll wait.  There's a reason I'm stating this and yes, it does refer back to the XMRV.  Whether or not it's true about the steriods in the grass (though I can't understand that), who was the yold (idiot) that decided to take the time to find this out and why?  Does the person FEEL better drinking organic milk?  Yes?  Then stick with it!

If XMRV could not be duplicated in the lab or in their heads or even on paper (toilet paper even) then can we call it a dead subject and move on with our lives?  Will this change "discovery" actually change anything?  Is this going to be like buying bottled water from the supermarket, unnecessary (it's from the factories tap liblings).

There are a lot of things, my dawlinks, that need to be researched.  Labels don't tell you everything because manufacturers don't have to reveal everything they put in their products.  Very sneaky little shnorers (parasites).

Time to go tend the garden on the roof.  Moishe is schlepping the tools for me today, he's such a dear.  Be well!  Your Yenta