Cognitive dysfunction, often referred to as “brain fog”, is a complex and distressing core symptom of ME/CFS that encompasses issues with mentally processing, verbalising, and remembering information. The experience of cognitive dysfunction cannot be equated to the occasional forgetfulness and lapses in concentration experienced by healthy individuals. Rather, cognitive impairments in ME/CFS can fluctuate between […]
Last week, in a posting on X, the Simmaron Research Centre, USA (whose institute works to advance translational science in treating neuroimmune diseases) have highlighted that “one of the biggest challenges in ME/CFS research has been patient heterogeneity“. This research group is behind a Rapamycin Pilot Treatment Trial for ME/CFS, and in 2022 published a […]
Post-exertional malaise (PEM), the cardinal feature of ME/CFS, is particularly debilitating as it involves the amplification of existing symptoms, alongside the potential appearance of new ones, following minimal exertion. However, the term “exertion” may be misconstrued, by those unfamiliar with ME/CFS, as activities typically considered high intensity by healthy individuals. Consequently, healthy individuals may inappropriately […]
Researchers Tanoj Bahadur Singh, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, Leighton Barnden, Natalie Eaton-Fitch, Tuong Hieu Huynh, Maira Inderyas, Kiran Thapaliya Institution National Center for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia Publication Frontiers in Medicine – Translational Medicine, 2026 July 17; 13:1824498 Funding This research was funded by ME Research UK (SCIO Charity Number […]
A study, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, has looked at whether immune-related and gut-related symptoms in people with ME/CFS group together in different ways depending on sex and menopausal status using a dataset from Germany. The researchers focused on four symptoms: The analysis included information on 608 women and 137 men over the […]
Many people with ME/CFS also live with other illnesses, such as fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic migraine, endometriosis, or painful temporomandibular disorders. Because of this, a recent review study by Prof. Emmanuel d’Incau and colleagues is highly relevant. Their research reviewed the evidence surrounding what they termed “Chronic overlapping pain conditions” (COPCs)—defined as a […]
Researchers Kiran Thapaliya, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, Maira Inderyas, Leighton Barnden Institution Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia Publication Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2026 June 19; 20:1875420 Funding This research was funded by ME Research UK (SCIO Charity Number SC036942) with the financial support of The Fred and Joan Davies Bequest Key findings About the study Dr Kiran […]
A team or researchers in Regensburg, Bavaria have highlighted the lack of research around general anaesthesia in people with ME/CFS. Stating that “robust clinical evidence to guide perioperative management or anaesthetic techniques in patients with ME/CFS remains lacking” and at present, care during and after surgery is largely delivered as “care as usual”, the researchers […]
Pacing is a self-management technique that involves balancing activity and rest to try to prevent or reduce post-exertional malaise (PEM), the cardinal symptom of ME/CFS. While some people with ME/CFS use heart rate monitors, such as those built into smartwatches, to help them pace their activity levels, little is known about the experiences and attitudes […]
On the 26th June 2026, the fifth meeting of ME Research UK’s Researcher Circle took place. In this session, Dr Alkisti Manousaki – Daphne Jackson Fellow at Leicester University, co-funded by ME Research UK and the Medical Research Council – spoke to the group about fellowship applications. Within the talk, Alkisti: Following the talk, the […]
