I became a frequent visitor of Health Rising last year as well as a supporter, although I wish I could give more! The information provided here sum’s up almost all the relevant information on ME/CFS to be found anywhere. Cort and his colleague’s as well as the experience’s of fellow sufferer’s will arm you with the fact’s you need to better represent yourself to the ignorance of the established medical community. Within the studies, stories and testimony you will find the courage to keep fighting for a better quality of treatment and life, I did. “Don’t give up, your not beaten yet”
Scott
Cort Johnson is the quintessential patient advocate and researcher, breaking more news about this disease than professional journalists and all other associations combined. If it were not for Cort’s amazingly in depth research articles and posts from around the world, I would not be alive today. Most of the treatments that have worked for me, and the doctors associated with them, have come by way of Cort. I thank God for his selfless approach to helping patients like me.
Kelvin Lord
Finding this site, with such a wealth of information, has given me hope for the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I look forward to the new year knowing that the dedication of one man has and will continue to shine a light on those of us living with ME/CFS and FM and showing us a path to a better life. Blessings to you!
Marta Nelson
Thank you Cort, I so appreciate your articles and that you are skilled in organizing important information in a concise format so we can understand it and not become overwhelmed and exhausted trying to figure out what it all means. You are a treasure.
Cate
I have been relying on your blogs for reports and analyses of the ME/CFS world for years. I haven’t found any other blog or information site with the same sharp eye and full up-to-date info. And with such a good sense of humour. Your work has made a great difference.
Anne in Sweden
Cort, for many years now, has been a light in the darkness for me personally and for other patients in our Miami ME/CFS Support & Advocacy Group. He has an amazing ability to be able to absorb complex medical information and translate it to us in a way that our “cognitively challenged” brains can comprehend. I remain grateful that we can rely on him to keep us updated with the latest information about our illness.
Pat Sonnett (former Phoenix Rising Board Member)
First off I also want to commend you, Cort, for compiling all of this info into a site that makes it easy to find. It would be more than challenging otherwise for people so ill and fatigued. And I echo Tee’s comments that your reports provide hope, which is so important and too often hard to find with the minimal attention this disorder has gotten through the years.
Greg
Your site informed me and gave me much psychological support during times of great illness and often self doubt. Your commitment to objective science and courtesy was what kept me coming back to read again and again.
Anne
I can’t personally thank you enough for this web site, (Health Rising). It’s informative & balanced reporting has made it one of the best resources I have found on ME/CFS. Your engaging nature, has kept this site alive & relevant.
Howard Johnson
I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done for the patient population. I was diagnosed at age 29 with ME/CFS and never knew what I was in for because according to the Mayo website and clinicians I would do graded exercise therapy and CBT and be right as rain. I think you know how that plan goes… Anyway, here I am five years later, and raising three kids under ten and holding on by my fingernails to make it through each day. It is so tough, but your page gives me so much hope and so much information that I feel that know so much more than I ever could have without you. You are a blessing.
Betty Pospisil
I have followed your newsletters for years now and posted links from it on other sites/blogs/social networks to share information about ME/CFS. Your letters are both clear and informative. I know your new site will be a success since it has you at the helm.
Pris
You are an excellent writer for ME/FM patients with brainfogged brains. We need someone like you who can take something so complex that we’d give up reading but when you explain an issue, its written so we can easily understand.
Nancy/Charlotte ME/CFS/FM Support Group
I am deeply grateful to Cort for his many years of service to patients with CFS/ME at Phoenix Rising. His analysis of news and events is always insightful and his articles are thoroughly researched and well written. I have relied on his work above that found on any other sites. And I will continue to follow him in his journey as educator and advocate.
Mary Virginia
You’ve managed to coordinate reporting on the research efforts from around the world, to condense it, add perspective for the average desperate ‘CFIDS /ME /watever’ sufferer like me. That was a first for the community. You have traveled frequently across the nation, ill, yourself, a liason for the rest of us and those in power positions. You have won the respect of some of the finest scientific minds on the planet. You have given to so many globally, spearheading research efforts when others would have just given up.
And you gave us, the average patient, a voice. That was and is still, for me, something of a miracle. CFIDS sufferers around the world are indebted.
Deborah
When I think of Cort’s work for the patient community, I think Education, Balanced reporting and Science. Just the Fact’s, Mam…..Thanks for All the Enlightening Articles Cort
Bob Miller
One day I realized that the stress of trying to help others was also causing me to get worse, and I had to take a step back, addressing my own health needs again. I walked away completely from the internet, grabbed my camera and took steps every day to get my life down a peaceful path.
The one thing I did keep in touch with was your newsletters, as I knew you were going in the right direction in FMS-CFS theories, and not only your open mind but your efforts was much appreciated. Your resources and information were right on, and made sense. I recommended your newsletter many times..
Linda
Thank you, as always, Cort, for your continuing mission to gather and share the latest ‘scoops’ in the world of ME/CFS. I know I wouldn’t be aware of or have read a fraction of what you bring to us on this magnificent blog.
Judith
I would like to take this opportunity to express how phenomenal I think you are. Both my daughter and I have severe ME/CFS and are housebound. Your articles provide a real lifeline for us. The amount of effort you put in, probably at the expense of your own health, is nothing short of amazing.
Sandra Lean-Fore
Cort, you have inspired so many of us who crave the intellectual complexities of this disease to stay engaged in knowing the most of that which has been hidden the deepest. So many of your blogs lead me to seek out a deeper understanding on my own.
Claudia Goodell
I knew I could always find reliable info., and respected the incredible amount of work you’d done. In fact, it always amazed me. As someone who has had ME/CFS/Fibro since 1976 and severely so since 1987, the “brain fog” was often too great for me to deal with the amounts of info. provided.
Theresa
I have always enjoyed reading everything you have written and find you explain even the most complex scientific things in an easy to understand way.
Claire
I heck for your info because first it was amazing to me that someone with me/cfs could think and write so clearly and also that you are always balanced and thoughtful about the information. Those of us that struggle with this frustrating, little understood disease need advocates like you. You are a beacon of articulate strength – not to put too much pressure.
Margo
I am constantly impressed with the information that comes and that you do it with me/cfs brain is astounding. Please know that your blog is often one of the few bright lights for me. You are valued.
Margo
My thanks is long overdue but I am so very grateful for your incredible writing and keeping us apprised of all the good that is happening!! I am no longer sending out things because Simmaron has newsletters and we all have YOU! So thank you so very much for what you do, day in and day out, this world is a better place with you in it!@!
Anita
First of all, this was a great article! Especially for those of us unequipped to grasp science from lack of background. Thanks so much!
Esther
Although I don’t know you and it is often difficult to be online; I felt I had to thank you for all you have done for me and so many others who are too ill to be online.
Carol
I feel like Ive known you for quite a time. I was a reader of your blogs before one day I finally saw you also had done a forum and it was your blogs and you yourself, which made me decide to become part of the PR forum over the other forums I’ve previously frequented. Your blogs attracted thinkers and people who were more medically minded into PR which attracted then more of this group. You’d brought together a group where I fitted into for the first time.
Tania
What you have created from nothing is an amazing contribution to this community that won’t be forgotten. You ARE the heart of PR, and whatever you create next, I have no doubt it will be with similar class, credibility, and a sincere desire to serve those who need it. Suffice to say, whether “national blogger” or founder of a new organization, I will “follow” you wherever you go (pun intended).
Sincere thanks and all the best to you,
Lisa
I did want to take this opportunity to wish you well as you set out on your new course. It amazes me what you’re able to accomplish, and have always felt grateful for all the research and advocacy you’ve done for all of us.
Wayne
Though I don’t always agree with all your opinions, I love to read the enormous amount of information you always share and I want to thank you for all your great work over the past years.
Christina
You have won respect from people throughout the movement, and you should feel very proud of that…. You have done an amazing job, Cort; glory in it.
Marty
I visited Phoenix Rising primarily for Cort’s analysis and distillation of new CFS information. This was the strength. His well informed and well written articles are the most helpful place to gain useful, timely analysis for those suffering.
Kell
Your story was one of the first I ever read at a time when I was still sick and felt very alone – I commend you on all your efforts to share information for us to help each other and commend you on staying true to your own vision!
You have shown great leadership in the CFS community.
Dan Neuffer
You have been a blessing to the CFS/ME community and I know you will continue to be. You have a real gift in finding balance, dampening down expectations that fly too high fanning into flame hopes that have turned to mere embers. All the best to you.
Trish
I came to PR during the XMRV thing and was extremely grateful to have someone posting frequently, knowledgeably and fearlessly about it, despite the storm of strong feeling this way and that from readers, and I’ve been just as grateful to have your articles on all the other research and issues that have come up since then.
Sasha
You do what you do best: sharing your contacts with the researchers and doctors on the cutting edge, and stepping it down for us in ways that are easy to digest, and flavored with understanding and hope.
Helen
I really gained from your articles and looked forward to them. You clarified and simplified matters for me.
It felt like you were bringing the latest news hot off the press. You bridged the gap between researchers and patients and gave us much needed hope that the ME/CFS agenda was high in the mind of some very capable practitioners and scientists.You have given cohesion and forward looking impetus to a group that badly needs and deserves it.
Beaverfury
Thank you so much for these interesting articles, Cort. Your website/newsletter is my new favourite read on ME/CFS for two reasons:
Content – your articles are written in detail but simple enough for someone who has major cognitive issues to grasp. I feel I’m being kept in the loop with all that is going on and actually learning something in the process.
Thank you so much for these interesting articles, Cort. Your website/newsletter is my new favourite read on ME/CFS. Your articles are written in detail but simple enough for someone who has major cognitive issues to grasp. I feel I’m being kept in the loop with all that is going on and actually learning something in the process.
I’m really enjoying your site and learning so much about this illness I’ve been afflicted with for 12 years. Thank you for all your efforts and hard work to keep us informed and aware.
Mary Anne
My attraction to PR was your well written news articles and opinions, and I’ll continue to follow them on this website. I well recall your intelligence and kindness. When others chose to be combative and argumentative, it seemed you are a natural peacemaker. Think that serves you exceptionally well.
Questus
Cort: I also want to thank you for all your information, your insightful analysis. And putting me in touch with my reality and helping me understand it. I went for several years without checking the possible progress in combating ME/CFS. I quit researching. When I woke up from a very long sleep, there you were to bring me up to speed. Thank You!!
Joy Hillman
Cort I really love your site. I find the best, informative articles, keep up the great work. We need you!!
Rita
