Dan Wyke

@danwyke.bsky.social

Severe M.E. patient, person-centred counsellor (currently not practicing), recovering poet (Rack & Waterloo Press)

Apologies if this has already been pointed out but, last year, as predicted by patients, all three of the NIH RECOVER Initiative's large-scale brain retraining trials failed to improve cognition in #LongCovid patients. #MECFS www.healthrising.org/blog/2025/12...

RECOVER's Neuro Long COVID Clinical Trial to Improve Cognition Flops... (As Expected) - Health Rising

The RECOVER Initiative's big Long COVID Neuro trial failed. Find out how and why and what should come next.

healthrising.org

ME Awareness Week is approaching. I don't know that there's anything I can say that I haven't said before. A lot of progress *has* been made but acceptance and understanding by the whole medical profession and effective treatments for all patients are still a long way off. #MECFS

Bank Hols with ME are usually a downer but I've had a good afternoon. I listened to a podcast about Peter the Great, watched some snooker, read a few pages of Henry IV pt2 and listened to a talk about compassion by Rob Burbea. Fingers crossed I end today under my PEM threshold.

It was always a mistake for Integrated Care Boards to cut the number of district nurses. An increase in the number of people suffering from chronic conditions, like #MECFS and #LongCovid, means patients need home-visits more than ever.

My two key takeaways from this week on Twitter are: 1/ A lot of patients - especially women - have been gaslighted by doctors. 2/ A lot of doctors shouldn't be practicing medicine.

"Over-diagnosis" is a fiction designed to cast doubt on historically under-researched diseases which disproportionately affect women. Patients either meet diagnostic criteria or they don't.

The medical profession needs a radical overhaul. Since the pandemic started, there has been a sharp increase in chronic diseases which traditionally doctors have been taught to ignore/disbelieve. If drs cannot up their game, they should be stripped of their licence to practice.

Saw my in-laws for two hours this week for the first time in 10 years. They are elderly and realistically this might be the last time I see them. There are people in this country who are responsible for preventing the development of treatments for ME, and breaking families apart.

I've recently discovered that an effective way to increase the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA without resorting to Diazepam is to take, well, GABA. This stops my PEM in its tracks every time. Inexpensive and safer than benzos. Intending to experiment with a maintenance dose.

Bild

Another problem pwME face as a result of the difficulty their bodies have metabolising fat for energy is the accumulation of cholesterol. To make matters worse, pwME often can't tolerate statins because they can directly impair mitochondrial performance + cause neuralgia/myalgia.

One thing I hate about ME, that catches me out every time, is how long it takes for my body and mind to let go of even minor stressors. My fight-flight response gets activated at the drop of a hat and the associated thoughts rattle around my head for way longer than is helpful.

I've been registered with the same surgery for 16 years and in all that time not a single dr there has indicated that they recognise me. Aside from being an inefficient way to practice medicine, I find it really rude! Is this a strategy GPs use elsewhere or unique to my surgery?

It would have been a whole lot easier - and ultimately cheaper for the government - if they had installed air purifiers in schools and hospitals and other public buildings.