Great Article on ME/CFS in O Magazine

"We are here! We are here!" That's a quote from Horton Hears a Who and my way of telling you that I'm still alive, despite my absence from the blog lately. I was wrapped up in holiday preparations last week, then we spent the weekend celebrating an early Christmas with extended family...and 12 of the 13 of us there this weekend came down with a nasty stomach virus, including my family of four! I was the last one to recover, but I seem to be much better today, so fingers crossed.

I wanted to let you know about a very good article on ME/CFS published in O, The Oprah Magazine in December. This is significant for several reasons:

• It's rare for the mainstream media to cover ME/CFS,
• It's even rarer for them to get it right and publish an accurate article that describes the seriousness of our disease,
• And O Magazine gets major exposure, with a circulation of 2.4 million!

You can read the full article at this link. It spotlights a patient who went from being an active, successful professional to being incapacitated, and it discusses the infectious and immune roots of the disease. It also includes interviews and references to two top researchers, Dr. Jose Montoya and Dr. Mady Hornig, both of whom are investigating infections and the immune system with respect to ME/CFS.

My only qualms with the articles are very minor. It refers to the disease as CFS throughout (though admittedly, that is still its official name according to the CDC), and the title is a bit cringe-worthy for its prominent use of the word "tired" to describe how ME/CFS makes you feel. But anyone who reads the article will have no doubt that it is a serious and debilitating disease. Overall, it is a big win for the ME/CFS community. In addition, given the size and popularity of O Magazine, it is quite possible that other women's magazines will follow its lead.

I think you can still find copies of the December issue where magazines are sold (sorry, I meant to post this two weeks ago!), but you can read the whole article online, share it, comment on it, print it, etc.

What do you think of the O Magazine article?