New Website on Latest ME/CFS Research

Sigh...here we are at Friday again...another week where I scarcely found time to write a blog post!  Summer is just so very busy for me, with my kids at home every day, plus my husband has been traveling every single week for business this past month.  It's taking all my energy just to keep up with the day-to-day stuff.  I took my laptop to the pool a couple of days ago, hoping to catch up a bit, but was just too worn out to do anything but lie in a lounge chair and read.  I am devoting this morning to some catch-up work!

Anyway, this post is long overdue.  At the end of May, the CFIDS Association of America officially launched its new website, Research 1st.  It's intended to provide a one-stop shop for everything related to ME/CFS research - the latest news, summaries of important studies, media coverage, and useful links.  The CAA asked me to be one of their initial reviewers of the new site, but with my 2-month long bout of bronchitis and our vacation, I never got to it until this week (bad blogger).

So, I have finally taken a look at the new site, and I am very impressed.  There is a wealth of information there, and it is well-organized.  It has become very difficult to keep track of all that is going on with ME/CFS research (in some ways, that's a good thing!) with all the controversies, increased media coverage, and so many different potential areas of study in this complex illness.  The new Research 1st site is a great place to go to get the latest information, to read more about specific areas of research, and to find out what's new in the field, all delivered in a very factual, unbiased way. 

Here are some of the features that I found most informative:

• A comprehensive list of studies currently recruiting ME/CFS patients (note that some of the current studies are even being conducted by e-mail and phone, making it possible for anyone to participate);
• A link to Dr. Daniel Peterson's new ME/CFS research foundation and its first two studies;
• A summary of all of the major XMRV studies to date;
• A very comprehensive summary of completed ME/CFS research studies (if you are feeling like nothing is happening in ME/CFS research, just read through some of these summaries!);
• The Research 1st Blog, a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest ME/CFS news.

I will definitely be using this new website a lot, and I have signed up to follow the blog.  Maybe that will help me to keep up a bit better than I have been this summer!  Check it out for yourself.