by Cort Johnson | Nov 6, 2019 | Cardiovascular, Homepage, Inflammation
It’s the simplest of medical tests. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR or SED rate) test simply measures the rate at which the red blood cells in whole blood descend in a test tube over a period of one hour. This non-specific measure of inflammation works... 
by Cort Johnson | Oct 14, 2019 | Autonomic Nervous System, Brain, Brainstem, Fibromyalgia and Pain, Gulf War Illness, Inflammation, Ion Channels, Mast cell activation syndrome
When you have a systemic disease, any part of your body can provide a clue – even your nose. Over 15 years from 1998 to 2012, James Baraniuk, a longtime ME/CFS and GWI researcher at Georgetown University, became the first and thus far the last person to try and... 
by Cort Johnson | Apr 10, 2019 | Energy Production, Exercise, Homepage, Immune, Inflammation, Neuroinflammation
A Critical Look at the NIH’s Accelerating Research Conference This chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) conference was different. Besides the normal goal of bringing researchers together to share their latest results, it had an ulterior motive – getting NIH... 
by Cort Johnson | Jan 13, 2019 | Energy Production, Gene expression, Homepage, Inflammation, Metabolism, Muscles, Oxidative Stress
Nothing happens in your body without some of your genes going off like skyrockets. If your body is responding to something – or acting differently in some way – it should show up in a different pattern of gene expression. If you get a virus, for instance,... 
by Cort Johnson | Dec 20, 2018 | Fibromyalgia and Pain, Inflammation, Metabolism, Muscles, Neuroinflammation
A Molecular Revolution We are in the midst of a molecular revolution. Instead of plucking out individual factors and studying them, researchers are ploughing through immense amounts of data to try and get at the molecular roots of illness. They’re using genetic,... 
by Cort Johnson | Nov 29, 2018 | Immune, Inflammation, Metabolism
Energy production problems seem to show up everywhere one looks in ME/CFS and the immune system is turning out to be no exception. A recent B-cell study suggests that problems producing energy could be leaving ME/CFS patient’s B-cells in a naive state...
