Yes, it’s that time again. We’re asking you for your support. Health Rising’s BIG (little) year-end fundraising drive is on. We call it the BIG (little) fundraising drive because it’s our BIG drive, but our needs – though real – are puny compared to other organizations. Health Rising has a big footprint on the web – no one covers these issues with the depth or frequency that we do – but we don’t need a ton of money. We’re focused on getting the news out – and there was a lot of it last year.
A Look Back: Broad Themes Emerging – Treatment Options Expanding
This year, we saw the emergence of broad themes – a good sign that we’re getting somewhere.
Mitochondrial dysfunction and immune cell exhaustion took center stage, the idea that something in the blood may be causing these diseases has become inescapable, herpesvirus reactivation reared its head again and again, and a “failure to respond” on a cellular level provided a good biological explanation for why exercise is so difficult. On that note, a major 2-day exercise study validated perhaps the most significant finding in ME/CFS yet – and one that remains unique to ME/CFS – that exertion one day impairs one’s ability to generate energy the next day.
Key themes appear to be emerging.
We saw the same idea – that an infection-induced hypermetabolic state leads to a hypometabolic state and immune exhaustion – show up in multiple studies. Perhaps the most remarkable one – because of its obscurity – was an African study that found similar findings. When researchers focusing on African viruses get results like that, you know the word is getting around.
While we don’t have any FDA-approved drugs or sure-fire treatments, treatment possibilities continue to expand. Based on our poll and CUREID’s findings, the nicotine patch may be the best thing since low-dose naltrexone to show up for these illnesses. Several reports provided tantalizing evidence that when the right drug meets the right kind of ME/CFS/long-COVID patient, shocking things can happen. Monoclonal antibodies produced rapid and dramatic turnarounds in long-COVID patients, Copaxone has done the same for some ME/CFS patients, and an upcoming recovery story will show even people with severe ME/CFS can achieve remarkable recoveries. We may not need to find new drugs to make progress – we may just need to find the right ones that are available.
When the right drug hits the right patient, miracles can happen.
Along the way, we covered – notice how many of these have to do with energy production – several possible mitochondrial/metabolic enhancers (urolithin A, creatine, LOLA, methylene blue), “the Edge” – a lactate monitoring device, an old drug – amantadine- that might help with fatigue, possibly the next FDA-approved drug for fibromyalgia – Tonix, a new anaerobic exercise program, David Putrino’s autonomic nervous system training program, how hormesis might help, and more.
On the treatment end, the single most important moment in the post-infectious disease space was one that many people may have missed – the RECOVER Initiative program’s promise to take a more creative approach to its long-COVID clinical trials.
Time will tell how it goes but given the $500 million(yes, $500 million) the program has to play with, that change presents real possibilities for everyone with post-infectious diseases. In that vein, studies finding that common pathogens are every bit as effective as the coronavirus at producing ME/CFS/long COVID, and the CDC study finding vastly increased ME/CFS prevalence only underscores how needed treatment advances are for so many people.
The funding picture was mixed – and advocates are making major efforts to overcome years to bypass barriers at the NIH.
Coming up on the treatment end, expect blogs on red light therapy, cryotherapy, a customized immune approach, more recovery stories, plasmapheresis, natural coagulants, new antivirals for EBV, and more.
The funding picture was mixed. It was great to see the Biden administration take long COVID seriously enough to gift the RECOVER Initiative with $500 million and to see advocates push for $1 billion/year in post-infectious disease funding and a post-infectious disease center at the NIH.
ME/CFS’s big advocacy year (Roadmap Initiative, Intramural study, dramatically increased prevalence rates, NIH conference) foundered, however, as ME/CFS lost an NIH-funded research center, leaving funding (adjusted for inflation) down considerably. The year is not over, though, and we expect to see a grant opportunity for ME/CFS and post-infectious diseases.
It’s an exciting time and we’ll be digging into the new research and treatment findings and keeping a close eye on advocacy efforts in 2025.
Eight Ways to Support Health Rising
Please push a little money our way.
It’s easy to support Health Rising – just pick your preferred way. PayPal, checks, Amazon gift cards, Bitcoin, bequests – we gladly accept them all. (Please note you do not need to have a PayPal account to send money through PayPal (see below).
Our goal is to raise $75,000 during this drive.
Recurring Donations
(1) Become a Recurring PayPal Donor – Health Rising’s recurring donors provide our financial bedrock and they allow me to sleep better at night. 🙂
The great thing about recurring donations is that even if they’re small, they really add up. You might not notice the $5, $10, or more dollars going Health Rising’s way monthly, but we do. It all adds up. To become a recurring donor, simply go to the PayPal widget below or to the right sidebar of any page, click the amount you would like to donate ($5, $10, $15, etc.), and hit the Subscribe button.
Or, if you’re doing a one-time donation, PayPal will give you the option of making it a recurring one.
(2) Already a Recurring PayPal Donor? Want to give more? – (Want to give more than the current options allow? Just let me know! :)) Simply contact me using the Contact form (upper right-hand of the page), stating that. I will stop your current donation and you can restart it.
(3) Become a Recurring Donor with Online Banking (non-PayPal) – Not happy with PayPal? Use Bill Pay, Zelle, or similar programs at your bank to send checks or electronic transfers straight to us. If you’re with Wells Fargo, we can set up automatic monthly donations. Please contact me via the contact form (upper right-hand of the page).
Health Rising is wholly community supported.
One-Time Donations
(4) Make a One-Time PayPal Donation – One-time donations are Health Rising’s biggest source of income.
Use our handy donation widget to make a one-time or recurring donation. (To give a recurring donation, click on the amount and then click “subscribe”.)
(5) One-Time Checks! – We love checks! Please make out checks to Health Rising and send them to the below address.
Cort Johnson
404 Boulder Hwy
PO Box 91245
Henderson, NV 89015.
(6) Bitcoin! – Bitcoin has been very good to us. A Bitcoin donation from around ten years ago is now worth a hundred times what it was. Our Bitcoin address is 18D9JkiGxPcpx8RYNcG5p2Be1joU9J6v5D and our account is at Coinbase.
Outside the Box
Thanks for keeping us on the web for the past 14 years.
(7) Amazon gift cards! – Amazon is Health Rising’s go-to place to get electronic accessories, books, stuff for the vehicle, etc. Simply go here, find your gift card, and put my email address (cortrising@gmail.com) in the “To:” box, and voila – instant Amazon gift card!
Others
Airline miles, rewards points, bequests, places to stay (I’m traveling the West), dog-watching are all possibilities. Have some more ideas? Please let us know.
Thanks for your support!
Hi Cort, I really appreciate your ability to simplify complex research into layman’s terms. Also, I am amazed at how wide of a net you cast in your research. It is all very relevant and up to date. You give me hope when I often can’t find it myself.
So can you please tell me approximately how many blogs you will have done this year?
I want to donate per blog in a lump sum this year.
Thanks Sandra! I really like the wide net – I love to see connections pop up in other diseases. It’s one of my favorite things.
This year the blog total was down a bit – I had a bit of a rough summer – but we published 106 blogs over the past year. (The year before that we published 121). Hopefully it’s not just because I’m getting older as well 🙁
Thanks so much!
hi Cort, i write it here again if you would not see my “comment”. I get your blogs allready for a longe while no more. is there a structural problem? i found this through google. please can you let me know?
ps and if i subscibe again, there would be an e-mail send to me but i do not get an e-mail
Yes, if you subscribed again it should work but we are manually putting your subscription in. Check the blog on searching for treatments – just put it out – I believe you’re in Belgium but some good news from the Netherlands.
hi Cort (only your comment (second one i got today.
is it now ok or do i need to do something else? way to ill for that now.
if i undrstand correctly, you are taking care of putting my subscription, everything back in? yes i am from Belgium. ps although i tryd before, i did not get your blog….
Yes, you should now be getting the blog 🙂
hi Cort, still no blog, i can only get her by your comment mail to me and then i see this blog.
Thank you Cort and the team – you give me so much more hope than you know! And how you manage to interpret such complex studies to make them accessible to the masses is incredible! 🙂
Thanks!
Thanks so much, Cort! This blog is by far the most useful source of information to me, and I am reading a lot about the disease since my poor daughter’s life has changed drastically after a relapse 8 months ago… Thank you
Thanks! Glad to hear that its helping but sorry to hear about your daughter. Hopefully we will have answers sooner than later. The encouraging thing for me is how many people are now working on these diseases.
Is this a moment to note a change in the e-mails from you? Previously, an e-mail had a link to the newest topic. Then it included a string of links to immediately previous posts.
Since the change in your set up, an e-mail has the link to the current post and a a fixed list of 5 prior posts.
The five are Dr Clauw, Exercise study part 2, Dr Nancy Klimas and Haylie Pomroy, Widespread Ion Channelopathy, and lastly, Fatigued ME/CFS Brains Unable to Adapt. These were August 15 to August 31 posts.
The fixed list is not so useful as the cumulative list of previous posts, for me at least. Is there a chance to return to that old way? Or just send a link to the newest post.
Right! Our old email provider – which we loved – went out of business and we’re temporarily using this new one which is not nearly as user friendly. There is a way to fix that and get back to our old way of doing things. I just have to do it and I will.
Thanks for the reminder.
Hi Cort, thank you for all you do for our community. The hope you give to us is invaluable.
Gail
Thanks Gail for your support 🙂
Thank you for this summary of the latest research!
And as always… thank you!!
🙂
Cort, thank you so much for what you do!
I especially liked your research summary at the beginning of this blog. There are so many studies, each with its particular focus, that some time I get lost in the weeds. Your short summary help put things into focus. Must be hard to keep offering blogs but no clear answers–anything to keep hope alive.
Someday, someday… we are getting closer to the answers…
Blessings and thank you again!
I have found that too – it is so easy to get lost in the weeds and forget where we are.
I recently got 2/3rds the way through a blog on a study – looked up a drug the study suggested might be helpful – and found that I had already written an entire blog on the study. I had completely forgotten about it – and it was only about 6 months earlier…
Things are coming by so fast and in so many areas that we forget…
Cort, regarding your re-blog of a previously written blog? I still wince when I think about the paper you requested I write about Ehlers-Danlos–and I never completed. I discovered that you had an excellent summary of Ehlers-Danlos in your past posts and after reading it I thought, what could I possible add to this great review? Not that I didn’t try. I had pages and pages of attempts…
Anyway, long time coming, ‘the check is in the mail’ 😉
Ahh! What a nice compliment! Thanks for your nice words and support 🙂
Thank you to everyone involved in Health Rising this year and every other year. I will pop in a donation shortly.
Thanks, SaraTee 🙂
Hi Cort, it is allready a long time, but why do i not get your blog anymore? is there a structral problem? I found this searching on google…
So sorry Konjin! We have been blogging away! This must have happened when our beloved email blaster disappeared leaving us with this wretched GoDaddy system. It appears that your email somehow did not get transferred over. I don’t think you were the only one. We are adding it back in now and you should get the next blog 🙂
Hi Cort, this was the first mail (only your comment i got). is it now ok?
Yes 🙂
hi Cort, i write it here again. i get only your comment and if i click on thar to anwer i get on this blog. but still no blog from you….
I’m unable to donate via PayPal or credit card, it says my country isn’t supported. I’m in New Zealand. I only have a small donation so a bank transfer would be prohibitively costly. Any ideas? Thanks.
Yes, for some reason Paypal does not play well with New Zealand. How about an Amazon gift card? That works – the blog should have instructions how to do that. Thanks for asking!
Hi Cort,
I’ve tried to donate what little I can but I live in New Zealand and it say donations are not accepted from NZ. I hope that changes as there are a lot of people around the world that use your valuable page to help themselves, their families and to educated their Medical professionals. Thank you for all you do.
Happy Holidays and a healthier 2025 to you
Hi Cort, I read further down the page and donated via the Amazon gift card. Thanks, Pip
Yah!!! Thanks so much. I LOVE Amazon gift cards.