Guildford ME/CFS Support Group

ME people helping others with ME . Monthly meetings and quarterly newsletters

ME/CFS is a very complicated illness to understand for all concerned: sufferers, researchers, friends, family and society

There are many thousands of research findings proving that ME/CFS is a physical illness with a serious impact on: mitochondria; neurological; immune and endocrine systems; amongst others. Often it is triggered by a viral illness

It is no surprise that, as a result, sufferers have a limited ability to exert themselves before their abilities start to shut-down. Short-term memory failure; inability to multi-task; inability to mentally process; inability to drive; or even watch television are all examples of not functioning sufficiently

There are different degrees of the illness: mild (still working), moderate (largely housebound), and severe (largely bedbound). There may also be different sub-sets of the illness because different methods of treatment (e.g. for mitochondria, anti-virals, Rituximab) have improved the health of some ME/CFS sufferers

Typically, ME/CFS people do not recover to their pre-illness level of health. Though most can achieve some level of improvement, sadly some never do

Biologically ME/CFS can be as devastating to quality of life as well known illnesses such as MS, diabetes, stroke and cancer. Yet bewilderingly sufferers still have to contend with a largely uninformed society and expectations for talking therapy to be substantially effective

Please refer to the following links for further information:

International Consensus Criteria (ICC)

An overview of the candian consesus criteria (quite detailed)

Research summaries:

#MEAction research summary 2019

ME Association - research summary

ME Association - A to Z index of the most important published research

Invest in ME research