Holistic Healing with Pixie: ME Association Factsheet – What you need to know about M.E.

The ME Association produced the following leaflet to help with media enquiries, but it could also prove useful to help in any efforts to raise awareness of M.E. especially during ME Awareness Week (7th – 14th May).

It perhaps works best as a shared online document – as it contains interactive links to additional sources of information – but it also works well in printed form.

We have made it available as a free download, and it also appears as such in our online shop if you wanted to make it part of an order, for example.

The Factsheet comprises three pages of information, the first page is reproduced below:

ME Association Factsheet

What you need to know about M.E.

M.E. (myalgic encephalopathy or encephalomyelitis) is a complex multisystem disease with a wide range of disabling symptoms.

M.E. is classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a neurological disease. WHO classification is recognised by the Department of Health, the Medical Research Council and NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence).
M.E. is estimated to affect around 0.2-0.4% of the population (c.250,000 people in the UK) – including children and adolescents.
M.E. affects all social classes and ethnic groups.
M.E. is the commonest cause of long term sickness absence from school.
M.E. can affect more than one family member – suggesting that genetic factors made be involved in predisposing people to develop the disease when a triggering event occurs.
M.E. has been estimated to cost the UK economy £3.3bn each year (see page 2).
M.E. can cause greater functional impairment than many other serious medical conditions, including multiple sclerosis and cancer.
M.E. is a devastating disease with no established biomarker. Significant abnormalities in the central nervous system, immune system, endocrine (hormone producing) system, and in muscle (causing energy metabolism impairment), have all been found to be involved in the disease process.
M.E. is not a minor ailment and there is a wide spectrum of severity. Around 25% of people are severely affected – being house-bound, or bed-bound and often requiring a wheelchair if they can mobilise – at various stages during the illness.
M.E. can affect some people very severely, leading to atypical seizures, speech and swallowing difficulties and extreme intolerance to light and sound. These people will be bedbound, require continuous 24-hour care and may require tube-feeding.
M.E. in most cases can be linked to a previous viral infection – from which people do not seem to have recovered. In some cases, M.E. can follow a vaccination, or other known triggering event.
M.E. is generally regarded as a fluctuating condition – meaning that the symptoms can vary in form and intensity throughout the day, from day to day, and week to week – making it very unpredictable.
M.E. is diagnosed following careful assessment of clinical history, physical examination, exclusion of other possible causes of symptoms and the application of diagnostic criteria. There are currently no blood or other diagnostic tests available.
M.E. has a unique and defining clinical feature known as post-exertional malaise – a delayed exacerbation of symptoms that can follow even minor physical or mental exertion.

Please download the Factsheet and help to raise awareness of M.E.

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from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/me-association-factsheet-what-you-need-to-know-about-m-e-22-april-2018/

from http://www.meassociation.org.uk

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