Only 41% of British GPs claim to be confident about diagnosing ME/CFS, but the remaining 59% will have to wait another year or two before being given official guidelines on this illness. These are being drawn up currently for the Department of Health by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in the wake of the Chief Medical Officer's Report on CFS/ME. Click here to read the report.

Patients who need a better informed doctor immediately could guide their GP to the excellent Canadian Clinical Working Protocols. At 154 pages long this may seem a daunting document, but it is a mine of
valuable information for anyone - either doctor or patient - trying to understand this often perplexing illness. Offering considerable detail about both symptoms and treatments, the CCWP were developed from the best available research evidence provided by a panel of world experts.

A useful and very readable six-page commentary on the CCWP is available at: www.tymestrust.org/pdfs/ttview.pdf (pages 29-35).

The only other currently available official guide on ME/CFS is the Australian Clinical Practice Guidelines
(www.co-cure.org/AU_CFS.pdf). Although this may be useful to those who prefer a shorter text (17 pages), it does not give such a complete or fully accurate picture of the illness as the CCWP.

Useful Tip (From page 42 of the Canadian Clinical Working Protocols.
If organic food is not available "...soak produce in water with 1 tablespoon of sea salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per gallon for 20 minutes to help remove toxins such as pesticides".

Click here for more research reports

First Published in April 2008

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