{"id":15942,"date":"2018-03-23T08:06:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T08:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=15942"},"modified":"2018-03-23T08:06:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T08:06:43","slug":"forward-me-group-writes-to-the-times-patients-are-not-simply-deconditioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/forward-me-group-writes-to-the-times-patients-are-not-simply-deconditioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Forward ME Group writes to the Times: patients are &#8216;not simply deconditioned&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Times online<\/strong> letter, 22 March 2018: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/edition\/comment\/government-spending-on-road-maintenance-p3r6fnlrm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TREATMENT FOR PATIENTS WITH ME<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sir<\/strong>, The article by Tom Whipple, (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/findings-of-5m-me-chronic-fatigue-study-worthless-89z8x0xzr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Findings of \u00a35m ME chronic fatigue study \u2018worthless\u2019<\/a>,\u201d Mar 22) highlights a long-standing problem.<\/p>\n<p>The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is in the process of replacing its guideline for myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS), but this will take time.<\/p>\n<p>Patients with ME\/CFS in this country continue to receive damaging treatment in the form of graded exercise therapy (GET). <strong>Despite evidence of disabling metabolic abnormalities in their muscles, patients are advised to \u201cexercise back to fitness\u201d. They are not simply \u201cdeconditioned\u201d as claimed by many psychiatrists<\/strong>. Forced exercise above very low levels characteristically incapacitates most patients. The \u201cexercise will make you better doctrine\u201d applied to ME\/CFS is profoundly incorrect and has no scientific evidence base.<\/p>\n<p>The human cost is enormous, with many sufferers from ME\/CFS rendered worse by inappropriate medical management. Even worse, such management is inflicted compulsorily on some patients, both adults and children, with their informed consent being bypassed via the use of mental health and child protection legislation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Countess of Mar, Forward-ME; Dr William Weir, infectious disease consultant;<br \/>\nDr Nigel Speight, paediatrician; Dr Charles Shepherd, ME association;<br \/>\nDr Vance Spence, ME research UK; Jonathan Davies, ME research UK;<br \/>\nDr Gareth Tuckwell, ME trust; Dr Paul Worthley, ME trust; Jane Colby, Tymes trust;<br \/>\nHelen Brownlie, 25 per cent ME group; Tanya and Christine Harrison, Brame;<br \/>\nWilliam and Janice Kent, Remember; Hannah Clifton, ME trust;<br \/>\nClare Ogden, Action for ME<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Times online letter, 22 March 2018: TREATMENT FOR PATIENTS WITH ME Sir, The article by Tom Whipple, (\u201cFindings of \u00a35m ME chronic fatigue study \u2018worthless\u2019,\u201d Mar 22) highlights a long-standing problem. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/forward-me-group-writes-to-the-times-patients-are-not-simply-deconditioned\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[545,10,481,419],"class_list":["post-15942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-forward-me-group","tag-get","tag-graded-exercise-therapy","tag-times"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-498","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15943,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15942\/revisions\/15943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}