The Sick Times: 'Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise' Written by Rachel Fairbank thesicktimes.org/2026/07/28/d...

Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise - The Sick Times

The 14th annual Dysautonomia International conference outside Houston included presentations on the role of autoimmunity in dysautonomia and a biobank initiative for POTS research.

thesicktimes.org

Today’s impulse buy: 🍑 and 🍌 candy

In my latest for @thesicktimes.org I covered the recent Dysautonomia International conference, which was held just outside Houston. It was three days of learning about all of the latest in research and clinical care.

Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise - The Sick Times

The 14th annual Dysautonomia International conference outside Houston included presentations on the role of autoimmunity in dysautonomia and a biobank initiative for POTS research.

thesicktimes.org

Today @thesicktimes.org: @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social covers the recent Dysautonomia International conference! Featuring a new biobank initiative, presentations on autoimmunity, clinical trial results, discussions on the overlap of POTS and ME, and more. thesicktimes.org/2026/07/28/d...

Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise - The Sick Times

The 14th annual Dysautonomia International conference outside Houston included presentations on the role of autoimmunity in dysautonomia and a biobank initiative for POTS research.

thesicktimes.org

"The idea that exercise is the best medicine for all people with POTS still lingers. As Davenport noted, “We need to interrogate who has the fear here. We can’t be afraid of not exercising.” @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social's write up on the DI conference for TST 🫀 thesicktimes.org/2026/07/28/d...

Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise - The Sick Times

The 14th annual Dysautonomia International conference outside Houston included presentations on the role of autoimmunity in dysautonomia and a biobank initiative for POTS research.

thesicktimes.org

I’ve been doing some research lately, including tracking down my old birth records. I looked up my childhood pediatrician, to see if she is still alive. She’d be in her late 80s by now. Not only is she still alive, she’s organizing anti-ICE protests at her retirement home. Legend.

I was planning to get some work done today…but my body said ‘absolutely not.’ Looks like I’m having a rest day.

Haaland is the gift that keeps on giving. Who wouldn’t want a taxidermy raccoon as a souvenir?

‘Lock the doors’: The story behind Erling Haaland and his taxidermy raccoon

nytimes.com

It’s an awful day when Susan ‘Laments Roe’s Fall But Doesn’t Regret Confirming Kavanaugh’ Collins is the more moral candidate in the race. I honestly don’t know what I’d be doing, if I was a Maine voter. It’s an absolutely awful place to be in.

The fact that Bryan Johnson, who spends two million a year and countless hours on his health, still developed an autoimmune disorder, is a reminder that a significant portion of our health is completely outside of our control.

I was in Glacier National Park just last week — the hotel we stayed in was evacuated just a few days after we left. It is such a gorgeous place. I hope people are safe. dailymontanan.com/2026/06/30/h...

UPDATED: Heavy rainfall leads to flooding, closures in Glacier National Park • Daily Montanan

Update 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 1 Glacier Park officials announced this morning that the Many Glacier road and developed areas are now open. The campground remains closed as do the waters and boating a...

dailymontanan.com

As a chronic over-explainer, the hardest part about writing is just how ruthless I have to be about omitting unnecessary details. But…but…but…these details are IMPORTANT. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they aren’t. And if they aren’t, they absolutely have to get cut.

5-4, for an issue that should have never been under debate to begin with. Such narrow margins, for such a foundational human right.

Sherrilyn Ifill@sifill.bsky.social · last mo.

The SCOTUS today reaffirmed the guarantee of birthright citizenship. In so doing, it affirms the 1898 SCOTUS decision in Won Kim Ark. United States. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Following up on a pitch, only to realize the editor was laid off, is a very 'journalism in 2026' experience.

I finally got around to reading Yesteryear, the tradwife novel that everyone has been talking about, and boy, do I have some thoughts on it. I’m going to start this by saying that my upbringing was very tradwife-y. Think Ballerina Farm, without the money. A lot of this felt familiar.

“For years, the rallying cry was autism awareness. Increasingly, it’s autism acceptance. […] acceptance is harder. It means your autistic kid doesn’t have to perform neurotypicality to be loved, included or taken seriously.”

Voices: My daughter showed me a drawing. It changed how I see autism.

“For years, the rallying cry was autism awareness,” one Utah father writes in an op-ed. “Increasingly, it’s autism acceptance. That shift matters more than people realize.”

sltrib.com

It turns out that carrying a book onto the plane called “The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them,” can be quite the conversation starter. (This wasn’t a bad thing. I just didn’t really think about it before grabbing this particular book.) It was a good read, btw.

ADHD tax in action: $126 surcharge, because I completely forgot about stopping for gas before dropping off the rental car.

That Hurt's Office Crying Meme

Alt: That Hurt's Office Crying Meme

static.klipy.com

I’m in upstate NY for a workshop this week, which meant I had to explain to my son that I was going to attend class, and have homework. “But Mommy, I thought grownups didn’t have to go to school anymore!”

I’m in upstate NY for the week, where the same driving habits that get me labeled as an old-lady driver in Texas are the same driving habits that are getting me labeled as an asshole driver in upstate NY. Am I an old lady or am I an asshole?

Why Not Both? The Iconic Meme

ALT: Why Not Both? The Iconic Meme

static.klipy.com

My son, who is SEVEN, recently informed me that he googled me. “Mommy, there was a photo of you in your office!”

Box of Shame: Hiding Inside

Alt: Box of Shame: Hiding Inside

static.klipy.com

The thing that absolutely burns my biscuits about this is that human writers don't "sound like 'AI'". The fucking slopgrift machines sound like us because it STOLE MASSIVE TRANCHES OF OUR WORK. It's blaming the *victims of* the theft for the grift *built on* the theft.

Scoiattolo@scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz · 2mo ago

Is fun how the general public is convinced that things I've been using for decades—em-dashes, the rule of three, and now, apparently, serif fonts—are signifiers for slop. We're training people to use bad heuristics and we're going to make both design and the written word worse.

I'm seeing a lot of conversation about Belle Burden's Strangers that is starting to annoy me. Burden is an outlier in that she comes from a wealthy and connected family. Her story is common in the sense that her husband benefited from her unpaid labor, only to then claim that it had no value.

I recently posted a cat video to Tiktok which is gaining some traction, which means I’m starting to get comments from corporate accounts. Anyway, here is the video, for your viewing pleasure. My little void cat, Sabrina, is fond of giving me tap-taps whenever I work too hard.

Taking your pet to the vet can be such a wild experience. “Here is my pet, who has a very random symptom, and who can’t talk. Please figure out which of the 100+ things it could be, all while they are growling at you.”

As a freelance journalist who wants to cover conditions such as Long COVID and ME/CFS, I find that I have to walk such a fine line, where I have to suss out whether or not an editor/publication will allow me to cover the topic in a way that is comprehensive, evidence-based and compassionate.

Our new puppy is basically the dog version of my son: She’s very smart, very high energy, very affectionate and has her own mind about things. It’s fun, but it’s also a little exhausting wrangling the two of them.

I just got home from a conference, and although I enjoyed attending, my goodness, am I exhausted. I basically spent all of Sunday sleeping, and I’m still tired.

I had a chance to watch Off Campus, which is being described as the ‘straight Heated Rivalry.’ It is not the straight Heated Rivalry, but it was a pretty good show in its own right.

In my experience, when patients talk about finding a doctor who will find the “root cause,” what they mean is they want a doctor who won’t blame every single symptom on anxiety/depression/weight. That’s it. That’s what they want. For doctors to do their actual job.