Stupidity alerts

A few years ago, I read about a cool way to keep abreast of medical advancements for ME/CFS: subscribe to Google Alerts. Here's how it works. You give the site a search query—in this case "chronic fatigue" treatment. The Google Alert will then automatically search for new results and e-mail them to you on a regular basis.

These days, my daily alert is useless as far as hard information goes. I generally learn about important developments from the ME community before Google does its thing. I've kept it running, though, for a couple of reasons. First, it's a pretty good way to keep tabs on how the media reports the disease. Second, if an article says something stupid, I can leave a comment to let other readers know why it's stupid.

Usually the article in question talks about how very useful cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy are. (Both are promoted by psychiatrists who argue that ME/CFS is an "illness belief" rather than a real disease.) For instance, on Thursday I got an alert for an article—really an informercial—about how patients should use exercise bikes to help them get better.

I left the following comment:

Graded exercise therapy is a very bad idea for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (aka “chronic fatigue syndrome”). ME patients start out with a limited amount of energy each day. They deplete that energy when they feed themselves, brush their teeth, or walk to the bathroom. Telling them to spend energy on something that doesn’t help them meet their basic needs — using an exercise bike, for instance — doesn’t make any sense.

I notice that at this writing, the powers that be haven't seen fit to make my comment public. Perhaps they're just really busy.