Health Rising Begins
Health Rising is ten years old today!
2012 was a pretty good year for starting things. The Open Medicine Foundation, Dysautonomia International, and Health Rising all opened their doors ten years ago. On Dec. 29, 2012, Health Rising published its first blog, “Cort Johnson Says Good-bye to Phoenix Rising…Opens Up New Site”.
My anxiety was high. Phoenix Rising (PR) – the site I’d started 8 years earlier – had become the most popular ME/CFS website on the web. My decision to turn PR into a non-profit two years earlier, though, had backfired.
A series of events had left my relationship with the small PR Board strained, to say the least, and I was starting over. I had one ace up my sleeve, though – Stavya – Health Rising’s technical ace who has seen us through thick and thin over the past 10 years – had offered his services. Still, striking out on my own was full of uncertainties. Choosing cortjohnson.org as the original URL to help people find it, we launched.
An Unexpected Benefit
It worked out well. In the end, in fact, it probably worked out for the best. Instead of dividing my time between participating in the then-massive Phoenix Rising Forums and writing blogs, I focused almost entirely on creating blogs and resource pages, and Health Rising flourished. I lost the Forums – which I loved – but was able to dig much deeper into ME/CFS, FM, and now long COVID.
By the next year, Health Rising was receiving 88,000 pageviews a month, and by 2014, 130,000. Health Rising survived some massive Google Analytics changes and lumbered on in the 130K-170K range until 2020. Since then, we’ve received between 180-220K pageviews a month.
Ten years, 1,503 blogs, 149 pages, 59,000 comments, and 16,500,000 page views later, here we are! Not bad at all for the work of two people, plus our volunteer editors and the occasional guest blogger.
The Top Blogs and Pages Over Time
The big takeaway from the top ten blogs over time: people just want to get better.
Which blogs/pages attract the most attention is naturally of interest to me. While I can often generally guess which blogs are going to be popular, I am also – as the list of the top ten most viewed blogs of all time will show – frequently surprised.
To get an idea of just how exceptional the below blogs and pages are, note that most blogs get their hits over a couple of days, and then fade. A less popular blog – such as the recent HBOT blog – will get from 2-3,000 pageviews over a week, a quite popular blog will get from 6-10,000 pageviews, and a really popular blog will get above that.
To me, the really interesting blogs and pages, though, are the ones that have legs. While I may have some idea how popular (or unpopular) a blog might be in the short term, I have a lot of trouble predicting the ones that people will be drawn to again and again and again. Of the top ten blogs/pages below, only three of them (coronavirus vaccine, craniocervical instability, and Mestinon) would have made my list.
The uber-popular blogs and pages on Health Rising indicate – surprise, surprise – that the community is most interested in ways to get better. Note that since it takes time to build up pageviews, many of them are older, so you won’t find many newer blogs on this list (but see below).
Easily the top dog was a page, of all things. Since pages only get promoted through blogs and are not the subject of blogs, it was good indeed to see the “Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Resource Center” (297K) page easily take the top prize. (It must have been doing something right because, until recently, it featured some cringe-worthy grammatical mistakes). It was not surprising at all to see the Jan. 2021, Coronavirus Vaccine Side Effects blog and poll, “The Coronavirus Vaccine Side Effects Poll for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia” (209K), on the list, but the next blog raised my eyebrows.
“Are Oxygen Starved Tissues Causing Pain and Fatigue in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)?” (138K) was purely a technical blog but one which, on the other hand, certainly has more relevance today than when it was written. The “Enhancing Blood Volume in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia” page (107K) highlighted how important dysautonomia and orthostatic intolerance are – and is a really good page to boot :).
The craniocervical instability blog, “Could Craniocervical Instability Be Causing ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia & POTS? Pt I – The Spinal Series” (102K), really drew people in – and for good reason: it featured several severely ill people who had gotten well and had, at least for me, a kind of horror factor (bottom of the brain getting smushed) as well.
“Wired to the Gills: The Hyperadrenergic POTS Group – The Dysautonomia International Conference #V” (98K) was a complete surprise given that this website isn’t focused on POTS, (but notice the dysautonomia connection), but an even bigger head-scratcher came next: the Big Bellies Bloating blog. “Big Bellies: the Causes of and Treatments for Bloating” (98K). It’s a good, informative blog, but bloating…? You just never know (and again notice the possible dysautonomia connection). The Mestinon Miracle blog, “A Mestinon Miracle: Vagus Nerve Stimulating Drug Helps Long-Time ME/CFS Patient Exercise” (95K), was no surprise; enabling a longtime person with ME/CFS to exercise again is no small feat. (Again, notice the dysautonomia connection.)
Honorable mentions include Lauren Stiles’s (Dysautonomia International founder, and that connection again) 2013 story, “From Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to Fibromyalgia To POTS To Success: One Woman’s Journey Through the Medical Profession” (#11 – 91K), the “Stimulants for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia” page (#12 – 89K) (stimulants! – interesting!), the fascinating (to my mind) intracranial hypertension blog, “Pressure Building? Study Suggests Cerebral Spinal Fluid Pressure May Be Causing Problems in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” (#17 – 78K), and the newcomer: the 2021 Bruce Patterson blog “Has Bruce Patterson Cracked Long COVID?” (#20 – 72K).
The Controversial and/or Exciting Blogs – The High Comments Blogs
Blog that disturb the status quo often generate a lot of comments.
Comments are one way to judge interest and sometimes controversy. A popular blog may not necessarily have a lot of comments, but a controversial blog is almost guaranteed to raise them.
Not surprisingly, the “The Coronavirus Vaccine Side Effects Poll for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia” (413 comments) blog smashed the competition. James Buselli’s amazing CIRS recovery story, “Up from the Ashes: James’s Severe ME/CFS Recovery/Recovering Story“, garnered an enormous amount of interest (271), as did Dr. Montoya’s shocking dismissal from the Stanford ME/CFS Clinic, “Dr. Montoya Responds to the Events of the Last Week (268).
The many comments on Bob Naviaux’s ME/CFS work, “The Core Problem in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Identified? Naviaux’s Metabolomics Study Breaks Fresh Ground” (260), provided a reminder of just how exciting it was to have him and his conception of ME/CFS on board. Similarly, the Cortene blog, “The Cortene Way: New Drug to Be Trialed in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Soon – Pt. I” (260), featured something novel that brought both hope and validation: a new drug was actually going to be trialed in ME/CFS. The 233 comments on Christine’s DNRS Recovery story, “A Nurse With ME/CFS Finds Help in a Surprising Place: Christine’s DNRS Recovery Story” (233), were no surprise given the report of someone returning to health using a behavioral approach.
The 2022 Blogs
A look at the pageviews over the last year provide a look at the community’s current interests. In the main, they haven’t changed – with 10/12 blogs/pages focused on treatment, getting better is still the number one priority. Most of the treatments themselves, of course, have changed.
Given the advent of long COVID, it was interesting to see only one long-COVID blog, “Has Bruce Patterson Cracked Long COVID?” (#7 – 21K), crack the top ten. Instead, it was James Buselli’s story of an amazing recovery from very severe to at least functional capacity, “Up from the Ashes: James’s Severe ME/CFS Recovery/Recovering Story” (23K), that most captured the community’s interest over the last year.
It just blew my mind to see the 2019 POTS blog, “Wired to the Gills: The Hyperadrenergic POTS Group – The Dysautonomia International Conference #V (23K), take second place. That blog, which I haven’t looked at since I wrote it, for some reason, has legs! The 2020 blog, “The Strangeness of Low Dose Naltrexone: Weird Dosing, Backward Protocols, and Rejections – in ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia” (21K), I thought was fascinating, and well deserved to show up on the list almost two years after it was published.
The “Coronavirus Vaccine Side Effects for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia” blog (21K), was a no brainer. I would have bet good money that the “$8 Million Clinical Trial of a Mitochondrial Booster Underway in ME/CFS” (21K) blog would show up, and it did – that was an exciting blog to write. I was a bit surprised to see the Berlin Cures blog, “Berlin Cures…? Could BC 007 Help With Long COVID and ME/CFS?” (20K), make it to the top ten given how new and untested the treatment is. Some promising anecdotal reports, no doubt, boosted it up.
The Low Dose Naltrexone Resource Page, “Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Resource Center” (17K), is a perennial favorite – so no surprise there. I was gratified to see the FM clinical trials blog, “Looking Forward to 2022 Pt. II: Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS Clinical Trials Plus Six Potential Game-changers” (17K), show up, as those blogs take a ton of work.
More treatment blogs – “Oxaloacetate: the Best Mitochondrial Supplement for ME/CFS (and Long COVID?)” (16K), “A Burning Question: Can Niacin Help Mitochondrial & Blood Vessel Issues in ME/CFS, FM and long COVID?” (15K), and “Bye-Bye Fight or Flight? Hello Better Blood Flows? Stellate Ganglion Blocks, Long COVID, and ME/CFS/FM/POTS” (15K) filled out the top dozen.
The Future
The Big Map project will transform how you communicate with others and how you find helpful resources to combat ME/CFS, FM, long COVID and others on the web.
So much for the past – what about the future? Our hoped-for future, of course, is a cure and when that comes Health Rising will be all over it.
Until then, Health Rising is going to take a massive turn in a different direction in 2023. The blogs, of course, will continue to be my priority. Other things are going to change, though.
After years of promising them, four programs will finally show up in 2023:
- Lives Interrupted – Beta-users are shortly going to dive into the Lives Interrupted program that is going to, in a very direct and demonstrative way, highlight the economic and other costs of having these diseases. Be prepared for some shocks as the program calculates, in a quite conservative manner, your economic losses.
- The Big Map Project Pt. I – That Lives Interrupted program is part of the, for the want of a better term, Big Map project, the first part of which is going to provide a way for people with ME/CFS, FM, POTS, long COVID, and others to put themselves on the map and communicate with each other.
- The Big Map Project Pt. II – It is going to give you ready access to resources, resources, resources… You’ll be able to find and review doctors, physical therapists, research studies, clinical trials, and professionals such as attorneys, and others. The goal is to enhance your participation and find the best, most effective practitioners and other professionals in your area.
- Treatment Review – Finally, some time ago, Health Rising bought the Patients Like Me treatment review website… Thanks to a volunteer, that program has been rewritten in PHP and is basically ready to use. That rewrite job was a massive effort – an unexpected gift – from an ME/CFS patient and is greatly appreciated. The Treatment Review will be unveiled in the coming months.
Volunteers Requested!
I’m committed to keeping my focus on writing blogs. With that in mind, we’re looking for volunteers who can help us with the Big Map project.
Big Map Hosts Requested!
Community-Powered
On Health Rising’s 10th birthday, please consider supporting us 🙂
The reason that Health Rising’s been able to do what it’s done, and will be able to do what it will be able to do in the future, is because of the support from over 2,100 donors over time. Whether it’s $5 or $1,000, your support makes a difference.
Health Rising is not a hobby enterprise or something I thought to do in my spare time; it’s an ongoing enterprise that keeps me and Stavya afloat and the website on the web.
If having Health Rising around benefits you, and it works for you financially to support us – please consider doing so. Every bit makes a difference. On that note, thanks to the over 430 people who have contributed to us thus far in your end-of-the-year donation drive.
I have decided to support you monthly. You have supplied me with more information than any doctor. Your posts have given me hope when I didn’t think I could make it to the next day. I’m excited for the changes coming for the next year. Maybe 2023 will be the year a cure will be discovered!
Congratulations!
Thanks to your very impressive 18 years of writing about ME/CFS/FM and now long COVID, we are all *so* much better informed than we could possibly be otherwise.
Truly, it simply would not be possible without either one of you.
Hi Cort, thanks for the review and for all the work that goes into bringing us research and info we probably otherwise wouldn’t know about. One comment about layout: I find ‘The Gist’ box interrupts my flow reading each blog. By the time I’ve scrolled past it, I’ve forgotten the thread! Since it serves as a summary, wouldn’t it be better to place it at the end of each blog?
Thanks, Waiting – Thank goodness for Stavya – he has been almost unerringly guiding Health Rising through all sorts of pitfalls for ten years.
And yes, it’s actually been 18 years for me and blogging hasn’t it? That’s a long time to be pumping out blogs yet my interest hasn’t faded – the only reason I can think for that is that the field really continues to grow….Here’s to what will hopefully be a VERY interesting 2023.
Good idea, Dan. I will try and implement it. You know I never read the GIST in the blog. I write the blog and then I plug the GIST in – so I totally missed the flow issue.
Right now I plug other blogs in – which takes up space – and pictures and then try to fit the GIST in somewhere. I’ll be more strategic in the future – and move it downwards more. It may not get all the way down but I promise it will be further down. Thanks for making HR better 🙂
Thanks Gina!
Your historical review of your blog series is so very helpful to me–especially since I came to it late. The first number of years I was on Inspire, trying to get a handle on my Ehlers-Danlos. Then, because of so much PEM, I switched to your site. I’m still not sure if the cause of my fatigue is EDS or ME/CFS–but I keep researching.
With ME/CFS, because it is still not well understood, I bounce all around the research ideas. Of course, like others, I want to find something that helps! I plan to re-read a lot of the blogs you have mentioned.
For myself, I have recently found out that I have pre-diabetes!?! I’m skinny, eat healthy and get a moderate amount of exercise (and no other bad habits) so I am very miffed that I should find this out. All my research on diabetes has led me to Berberine. Being a natural herb, it has a lot of research that says it is as effective as Metformin. I know you wrote a blog about Metformin in the past but my doctor wouldn’t let me try it–because at that time I didn’t have full out diabetes.
I still hold out the idea that my profound fatigue is from an unbalanced body and if I can just get it in balance, I will do better. It may be some other problem though… who knows? At any rate, so far I feel much, much better taking my 2 grams of Berberine. Perhaps little imbalances, like slightly higher than normal blood sugar, can cause oversized body symptoms.
I’m also intrigued by NMN (a precursor to NAD+) and plan to try that later.
Thank you for this very useful blog, Cort! I’m flagging it to read all the links again! And I do like your plans for the future.
Hi Nancy,
I take berberine and don’t feel any better but A1C did go from pre diabetic to normal and fasting sugar in 70’s whereas in past always 90’s. Can’t be sure it’s the berberine but am gonna keep taking it.
Be careful with berberine. Studies show possible damage to dna, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427413008412 and changing the gut microbia, which is why it lowers blood sugar but also decreases the bifido , good bacteria. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18414-8. It also can cause GI disturbances so start low and slow. Good to know it’s helping!
Thanks T Allen I will cut down on it – sugar not that high so probably not a good trade off.
congratulations with the 10 years Cort! i do not understand everything you are going to do now…
but what i mis is in the past, there was on the right side a collumn where one could surche the “blogs”/things. Since it is gone, i can not look back anymore on certain topics/issues.
the being able to communicate you had put in, i find nice.
because I do not undrstand what you are now going to do, I will see…
Thanks Konjin….I didn’t think many people were using that feature and it took up a lot of space. We were planning to put it on another page.
I actually use the search function frequently to find past blogs. It works really well. It’s on the far right-hand side of the blue menu bar near the top of the page. It’s got a little circle. It should actually work better than the other thing.
thanks Cort. I found it but it is sadly enough not of help for me… wat to ill. If i can read, i read for excample your blog but just forget immediatly what i have read. even often after a few sentences. so for me, the sidebar with topics was a good thing to look at if i could and find over and over again things i needed 🙂 I hope it comes somehow back. i wold like now not come on a single word to search and then i am not even on my worst…
Happy B-day HR! What I really likes is the diversity of subjects you manage to review. I do read and find studies on my own too, but I’ve lost the capacity to review and retell. I’m really looking forward to the Big Map! There are so many tentacles to this subject! Happy new 2023!
Tentacles – that image sure fits. One thing about ME/CFS, FM,POTS, IBS, Long COVID, migraine, cancer related fatigue, MCAS – is that there’s an almost neverending stream of interesting subjects 🙂
I have for a long time been interested in the subject of fatigue. I mean, thats something in common with every sickness or disease, almost anyway and in different amount. All from the induced sickness behavior “to keep us at bay” in ie influenza or even common cold, to stress exhaution, over training, depression, EDS, ME/CFS, MS, FM, cancer and cancer post treatment fatigue etc. This is my aim at the moment, because I really know way to little about fatigue in all it’s shapes and forms.
And sometimes the research dig soo deep that I loose the perspective, how everything is or isn’t connected. I think we must make the science even more understandable at times to get understood by people that’s not so interested but have to know. I’m grateful for all the work you do making things more understandable, even if I loose myself in details at times. 😉
I’ve been here from the start and continue to learn from all your hard work. Thank you and Congratulations 🎊
Nice! Thanks Kathryn
Happy Birthday to Health Rising and well done Cort for all that you do. I look forward to your future blogs and hold out hope that before long answers will be found.
Thank. I have personally come upon some things that are actually consistently helping for really the first time in 40 years. They’re ridiculously simple that I was shocked they’ve helped out – so I personally am more confident about my future. A blog is coming up on them.
Wow Cort that’s great!
Hi Cort, thanks for the review and for all the work that goes into bringing us research and info we probably otherwise wouldn’t know about. One comment about layout: I find ‘The Gist’ box interrupts my flow reading each blog. By the time I’ve scrolled past it, I’ve forgotten the thread! Since it serves as a summary, wouldn’t it be better to place it at the end of each blog?
A great big Thank you to Cort and Stavya for all the hard work, time and brain power that goes into this blog.
The CFS community would never hear of the ongoing research out there, and how discouraging that would be if we thought nothing was being done to help us! You keep us going!
Thank you and Stavya. I rely on the information you provide.
Congratulations on this ten-year anniversary of Health Rising and gratitude for the previous eight years as well. You continue to be the reliable go-to source of information for so many of us in the ME/CFS/FM community. Thank you for all you do to produce the blogs, and thank you for always encouraging us with hope for a brighter future. You are a treasure to all of us.
Dear Cort, congratulations on 10 yrs of Health Rising! I very much appreciate your blogs and in particular the “gist” box you provide with each review! In 2022, I have seen your blog read and retweeted by scientists, too! Your blog has also created a community of commenters under your blogs that often provide many useful different perspectives on the same topic/treatment. Personally, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the new branch-outs as I struggle with processing the detailed blogs and comments as they are (which is why I love the gist box :-)). But I am ready to let myself be surprised by what you have up your sleeve with these plans for 2023…Your curiosity and passion for science shows in each blog and I hope that 2023 is going to bring much new science to report on!
So many people benefit from your blogs Cort, I just wish that would translate into more $$$$$’s for your fundraiser! What can we all do?
Gina started the comments saying Cort is a better resource than any other single person/place. I totally agree. She also said that for that reason she donates. I agree with that choice, too.
On a separate note, one thing I have observed from Cort is consistent patience with commenters and positive tone in his articles and comments. I’m not talking about rah-rah pie-in-the-sky, I mean that even while sticking to evidence-based science, the tone is one of generosity/curiosity/goodwill. This must be a challenge, but it makes a huge (huge!) difference. The space that turns 10 today helps make me feel informed and safe and less-alone. (And thanks also to all the commenters on this site (which I think is just about everyone) who follow his lead.) Happy B-Day.
Happy Birthday HR and here’s to many more! A salute of admiration and gratitude to the blog and to you Cort. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication. Looking forward to all the new programming. The future looks bright… happy new year!
Happy Birthday HR! Thanks for the history lesson, I had no idea PR and HR were related by you Cort! Your info gave me my life back, (unlike any Drs) so I’m forever in debt to you. I’m also wondering why more people don’t contribute? Maybe reminding people that this could go behind a paywall would convince people they could spare a dollar a month (or hopefully much more!). Look forward to seeing what new things you have for us in 2023!
Congratulations ! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the education and hope you provide . You have accomplished so much !!
Congratulations on so many years writing so frequently about M.E. and related topics. I am often amazed that you have this disease and can write so often and so clearly. Ten years is a good anniversary, I think, especially after such a long time with Phoenix Rising.