Monster Baraniuk ME/CFS Spinal Fluid Study Opens

[Cort]

Why is it a surprise? Because Baraniuk's 2005 paper on unusual spinal fluid proteins was one of the most exciting papers of the decade. Baraniuk got more funding and did another study. I was a part of it.

He provided posters on the study results at the Ottawa conference about 4 years ago but never published any papers. At the time he told me many papers would come out.

Now - ten years after the 2005 paper he's starting ANOTHER spinal fluid proteome project and it's huge one.200 spinal fluid samples! You don't see that very often!

Maybe there was some problem that he got fixed - let's hope so...We want studies and we particularly want studies of the brain like this....We need to get it filled up as quickly as we can.​

• https://sites.google.com/a/georgeto...ouncements/cfsresearchstudywithlumbarpuncture

We have performed lumbar punctures (“spinal taps”) on CFS, fibromyalgia (FM), and Persian Gulf War Illness (PGI) subjects and a group of healthy volunteers. The CFS and related groups had a unique set of proteins in the fluid surrounding their brains. This is very exciting because it is strong evidence that CFS, FM and PGI are “real” diseases. The proteins we found may turn out to be diagnostic markers for these syndromes, and become part of a test for CFS/FM/PGI illnesses. They also offer insights into the molecular mechanisms that go awry, and point towards potential treatments. First, however, we must perform more spinal taps on participants with CFS and healthy control volunteers.

We offer a new, paid, clinical research study with a 1 night stay at Georgetown University Medical Center, lumbar puncture and other, more simple tests. We are recruiting 100 participants with CFS and 100 healthy control subjects who want to help find a cure. Contact us at 202-687-8231 or by e-mail at baraniuklab@gmail.com.

Healthy participants are also invited to participate by having lumbar punctures. Healthy volunteers are essential to be able to identify new, significant diagnostic markers that can distinguish between chronic fatigue syndrome and a normal state of health. These differences will point towards the cause(s) of chronic fatigue syndrome and potential new ideas about treatment and diagnosis.