SITES AND USE IN NEWSLETTERS
Daily Telegraph Letters.
Cc: The Right Honourable Yvette Cooper, MP
If it is important to Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's political
career that she avoids talking about possibly having had M.E. (It=92ll
take more than a sudden northern accent to make Yvette Cooper into a
potential prime minister, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2011 -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/8799407/Itll-take-more-th=
an-a-sudden-northern-accent-to-make-Yvette-Cooper-into-a-potential-prime-=
minister.html),
it is much more important to hundreds of thousands of M.E. sufferers,
their carers, doctors and researchers, who are trying to make progress
towards effective treatment and cure that she does talk about it.
Since there is no universally agreed diagnostic test for M.E. (Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis) one can never be sure and especially from a distance,
without knowing all the history, whether a person had M.E. or not but,
to this Research Psychologist and veteran M.E. sufferer of 23 years, it
looks as though Yvette was very severely affected by a viral infection
(probably Epstein-Barr, or Glandular Fever) and took rather longer than
one usually does to recover from it but then was able to resume life as
before and with no relapses for years - just as actress Barbara Windsor
took 2 years and came back and is still working today. Since people with
M.E. never do recover this way, the crucial thing is to separate M.E.
from known causes and diagnoses such as this and especially the "fits
all" diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which may give false
hope and lead to advice for treatment that is ineffective and possibly
even harmful.
I doubt it would do Yvette's political career any harm if she confirmed
that she did not have M.E. and supported the M.E. Community's call for
more funding for biomedical research. That would get my vote.
Yours sincerely
drjohngreensmith@mecommunitytrust.org
Dr John H Greensmith
ME Community Trust.org
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