• On the lack of funding given to legitimate M.E. research, Dr Byron Hyde M.D. writes: Without heed, we are sitting on the edge of a cliff, waiting for disaster. For many sufferers of M.E. that disaster is already here, and few are listening. The Clinical and Scientific Basis of ME p. 115

• Do not for one minute believe that CFS is simply another name for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.). It is not. The CDC definition is not a disease process. It is (a) a partial mix of infectious mononucleosis /glandular fever, (b) a mix of some of the least important aspects of M.E. and (c) what amounts to a possibly unintended psychiatric slant to an epidemic and endemic disease process of major importance. Dr. Byron Hyde MD

• Recently an M.E. patient's spine has been examined in the UK and the inflammatory nature was also discovered. Myalgic Encephalitis is a diffuse inflammatory injury of the capillaries at the level of the basement membrane of the brain. It makes no sense to rename the horse and call it Myalgic Encephalopathy. All brain pathologies involving brain tissue are encephalopathies. Let us stop fussing around and get back to the real problem and that is investigating the patients. Dr Byron Hyde MD

• Fatigue is a totally indefinable concept. Fatigue is impossible to measure or quantify. Fatigue is so non-specific that it can be a common element in any acute or chronic disease and many psychiatric diseases. Worse, it redirects the medical and public attention away from the obvious Central Nervous System changes in these patients. Much worse, it makes fun of a serious illness. It has turned out to be a damning indictment to all M.E. patients. Dr. Byron Hyde MD

• Do not for one minute believe that CFS is simply another name for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.). It is not. The CDC 1988 definition of CFS describes a non-existing chimera based upon inexperienced individuals who lack any historical knowledge of this disease process. Any disease process that has major criteria, of excluding all other disease processes, is simply not a disease at all; it doesn't exist. M.E. and CFS should be separated as definitions. They are not the same. Dr. Byron Hyde MD

• All definitions which wear the 'f' word (ie. fatigue) in their name are not M.E. nor neurological. They are definitions of fatigue conditions. And when these definitions were written it was not neurological M.E. which they were attempting to define. The Committee for Justice and Recognition of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

• The "Fatigue" definitions still in use, outrageously distort the true prevalence of the illness (ME) by up to 100 times. Dr Elizabeth Dowsett

• Now, do [ME] patients prefer to stand up or lie down? Of course, they prefer to lie down. Do you know why? "Do you know what your cardiac output does when you stand up? It drops 30%. In all humans, without exception. When [disabled ME patients] stand up, [they're] on the edge of organ failure due to low cardiac output." Dr Paul Cheney

• "It is ironic that in this day of specialists, the generalists have been the only group of physicans able to recognise the spectrum of symptoms in CFIDS as a specific syndrome. But in our era of technology, it is rare for specialists to listen to generalists."Dr David Bell MD