My Facebook page has an interesting reply to the news about XMRV and ME/CFS from Dr. David Bell by way of the CFIDS Association of America.
For all you folks who have a Facebook page and we’re not connected yet, go be-friend me. Then click on the link to read what Dr. Bell has to say about this discovery and read all of the replies. It’s easy to see why Dr. David Bell is such a hit with patients and everyone he meets.
Plus, this exciting news about discovering XMRV as a retrovirus that may be responsible for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is truly refreshing and encouraging for the long term. Here’s a short snippet of the complete answer that he gave about the XMRV retrovirus:
I would think of XMRV as the puppet-master. It is known to be linked to prostate cancer; it lurks in the shadows and pulls certain strings causing cells to become malignant. Perhaps it pulls another string to cause EBV to be more active, or Lyme, or enterovirus? Another string to alter RNAse L? Many, many questions open up.
But we already know several things. First, ME/CFS is not like your average infection, pneumonia for example. This is a really complicated disease. But AIDS was complicated and now is pretty well figured out. Secondly, we know the clinical aspects of ME/CFS, putting aside the arguments over what definition you use. And the good news: After following patients for twenty years, not many are getting cancer. But there is bad news; cancer takes a long time to get going.
But the really good news is that if XMRV is the puppet-master of ME/CFS, it conceivably could be very treatable. Theoretically, more treatable than HIV.
May we all benefit greatly from this discovery and from the massive work involved in such an undertaking. I say thanks to the people behind this and thanks, again, to Dr. Bell for your insightful input.
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show
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