MillionsMissing: A Hidden Epidemic and a Day of Action

(Photo credit: Mary F. Calvert) A hidden epidemic has swept the globe -- and your neighborhood is not immune. In its wake are millions of lives ruined. Its silent victims are all ages, from all backgrounds and in every state across America: Up to 99,000 in Illinois, 152,000 in New York and 211,000 in Texas. There is no prevention, no treatment and no cure for this barely acknowledged disease that gets barely any government funding. In total, there are 1 million to 2.5 million in the US, 17 million worldwide, whose lives have been devastated due to the most serious neuroimmune disease you never knew existed: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). With up to 76,000 in Michigan, 79,000 in Georgia and 300,000 in California, these numbers make up the millions of people missing out on their lives, all because of ME. And I am one of them. Mononucleosis is no big deal, right? In my early 20s my roommates and I were felled at the same time. We three went down like we'd been hit by a Mack truck that then rolled backwards. One month later, my roommates returned to work and college. I never returned to a normal life. A short term virus was my entry into long-term disability. The ME onset stories of the up to 52,000 patients in Massachusetts, the 69,000 in New Jersey and the 98,000 in Pennsylvania likely sound eerily similar to mine. When ME hits, an individual becomes so physically impaired, so weakened, they often have to quit school or abandon their career: 75% of patients can't work....
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news