If you can, please push some support our way. 🙂

It’s that time of year again. Time for Health Rising’s BIG (it’s our major drive), little (we don’t need as much as other groups) fundraising drive. Health Rising is a small organization with a big footprint on the web. We produce the most comprehensive, longest (maybe too long at times!) articles on ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and long COVID on the web.

Why are some articles so darn long – and may even be getting longer (ach!)? It’s the fault of the times – and me. With more research coming out and with the connections piling up, it’s getting harder, quite frankly, to wrap up a blog. There always seems to be one more lead to follow, one more possibility to track down. It’s a good sign, but it has it’s downsides.

Speaking of connections, every year about this time, I look back and see if a theme has emerged, and, when I did, there it was in plain sight – a continuing push for smarter and more effective treatment trials. It’s about time!

Smarter Treatment Trials

It’s as if a light bulb got turned on! We need treatment trials that reflect the complexity of these diseases.

It’s as if over the past couple of years, a light bulb suddenly came on. No more throwing everyone who met the vague criteria for these diseases into the same pot. Instead, we see groups “getting real” about these heterogeneous diseases; i.e., recognizing that, if we want to be successful, we will have to go beyond assessing a treatment’s efficacy in everyone with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, or long COVID.

We need to identify the biological subsets that are likely to benefit. That is the key to successful trials and ultimately to getting big pharma involved. To not do so is to be sentenced to mediocre, if not negative, results.

We’re not there yet, but the current trials are laying the groundwork for the next clinical trials, which will feature patients that PrecisionLife calls “super-responders” who seem almost guaranteed to respond.

PrecisionLife is a good exemplar of this movement. Its entire reason for being is to quickly uncover molecular subsets, identify the molecular factors driving them, pluck out biomarkers, run a “super-responder” clinical trial, and develop cheap diagnostic tests (!). The fact that it, rather shockingly, chose ME/CFS and long COVID to showcase its methodology publicly suggests that it’s confident about the state of the science now.

Plenty of other groups are running smarter clinical trials. The Open Medicine Foundation’s Lift Mestinon/low-dose naltrexone study will assess the metabolomics, proteomics, and immune systems of ME/CFS patients. The Simmaron Research Foundation, which just won a Solve M.E. Catalyst award, is developing an ME/CFS diagnostic panel for Rapamycin, and PolyBio’s Mt. Sinai Rapamycin trial is measuring a variety of immune factors. PolyBio’s long-COVID antiviral trial will be digging deep, deep, deep (coronavirus markers, EBV, human endogenous retrovirus (HERV), immune/vascular profiling, hormones, endothelial/vascular function) into its participants’ physiology. Its ME/CFS and long COVID lumbrokinase trial is assessing clotting and immune factors.

Even the much-maligned RECOVER Initiative is moving in this direction. It turned over a new leaf when it launched biomarker-hunting efforts in its new GLP-1 agonist and stellate ganglion clinical trials. Michael Peluso’s Ensitrelvir and monoclonal antibody trials are small, but very intense COVID trials that are explicitly designed to dig deep into the participants’ pathophysiology.

Making connections and uncovering broad themes is a core focus.

Then there are the mammoth long-COVID trials. The huge Baricitinib trial will include, get this, autonomic function assessments, plasma and blood analyses, lumbar punctures, cerebrospinal fluid analyses, and brain MRIs. Likewise, the ADDRESS-LC bezesterim long COVID trial, will explore over 400 biomarkers of inflammation/immunity, biomarkers of neurodegeneration, metabolic dysfunction, and DNA methylation.

These “smart” clinical trials will help us identify biological subsets and set the stage for “super-responder” clinical trials that target specific patients and seem almost guaranteed to succeed. They are a big step forward.

Uncovering broad themes and identifying connections excites me, and is one thing that sets Health Rising apart. It’s why our articles aren’t easy (which is why the GIST (which isn’t all that easy (lol)) exists). Getting at what’s under the hood, so to speak, is why Health Rising (and Phoenix Rising) started over 20 years ago. If you enjoy that kind of analysis and commitment, please support us!

Our Goal

Our goal is to raise $65,000. We’ll take it in any form that you can think of: Givebutter (credit cards, PayPal, etc.), checks, cash, Amazon gift cards, bitcoin, bequests – you can find them all below. If you have another suggestion, please let us know. Thanks for your attention and thanks for your support!

One-Time Donations

(4) Make a One-Time Donation — One-time donations are Health Rising’s biggest source of income.

Use our handy donation widget below to make a one-time donation. You can use your debit/credit card, PayPal, or Venmo account to donate via Givebutter.

Recurring Donations

Small, recurring donations really add up!

(1) Become a Recurring Donor – Health Rising’s recurring donors provide our financial bedrock. They allow me to sleep better at night.

The great thing about recurring donations is that even small ones really add up. You might not notice the $5, $10, or more dollars going Health Rising’s way monthly, but we do. Small recurring donations make up about 40% of our budget!

To become a recurring donor, use the widget below, the one found on most blogs or pages, or on the right sidebar of any page, choose monthly, and click the amount you would like to donate ($5, $10, $15, etc.) and click continue.

You can use your debit/credit card, PayPal, or Venmo account to donate via Givebutter.

(2) Already a Recurring Donor? Want to give more? – Simply contact me using the Contact form (accessible via the link in the teal menu bar below the logo area). I will stop your current donation, and you can restart it.

(3) Become a Recurring Donor with Online Banking (non-Givebutter) – Use Bill Pay or similar programs at your bank to send checks straight to us. If you’re with Wells Fargo, we can set up automatic monthly donations. Please get in touch with me using the Contact page link found in the teal menu bar below the logo area.

Checks

We love checks! Please make out checks to Health Rising and send them to the address below.

Cort Johnson
404 Boulder Hwy
PO Box 91245
Henderson, NV 89015.

Please note that, as I am away during late spring and summer (I operate Health Rising out of a trailer/van), it may take several months during that time before I can cash your check.

Bitcoin

Get Rid of Those Darn Currency Conversion Charges – Use Bitcoin! – Bitcoin has been very good to us. A Bitcoin donation from around ten years ago is now worth a hundred times what it was.

If you’re not a U.S. resident, those currency conversion charges can be killers. Make those charges a distant memory by using our Coinbase account to funnel some bitcoin our way. Our Bitcoin address is 18D9JkiGxPcpx8RYNcG5p2Be1joU9J6v5D

Amazon Gift Cards!

Amazon is Health Rising’s go-to place to get electronic accessories, books, solar power to keep us in the web, etc. Simply go here, find your gift card, and put my email address (cortrising@gmail.com) in the “To:” box, and voila – instant Amazon gift card!

Bequests

Health Rising gratefully accepts end-of-life donations. Please use the address below. Contact us at cortrising@gmail.com for more information.

Cort Johnson
404 Boulder Hwy
PO Box 91245
Henderson, NV 89015.

Become a Sponsor

The Solve ME/CFS Initiative, the HHV-6 Foundation, ProHealth, and others have sponsored Health Rising. Interested in having your corporation sponsor us? Find out more here.