Quote

“I have treated more than 2,000 AIDS and CFS patients in my career. And the CFS patients are MORE sick and MORE disabled every single day than my AIDS patients are, except for the last two months of life!”
– Dr. Marc Loveless
(infectious disease specialist and head of the CFS and AIDS Clinic at Oregon Health Sciences University, in Congressional Testimony, CFS Awareness Day, May 12, 1995)

Coping With The Holidays

Coping With The Holidays
By Kelli Ellis

I am my own worst enemy. Like many others with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue, I find the holidays a highly stressful and painful time of year instead of the joyful and happy time it should be. I am too focused on the perceived expectations of others instead of the reality of my limitation and restrictions.. I know many of us want to accomplish what our bodies are simply not capable of, so we have to adjust our outlook and re-evaluate our priorities. The holidays are all about spending time with those we love most – keeping time and energy for what we hold most precious and dear. Doing so will help reduce the stress and thus the pain and emotional issues that crop up at Christmas.

Pace Yourself..
When you think “I’ll just visit 1or 2 more shops, go up 1 or 2 more aisles, wrap 1 or 2 more presents, bake 1 or 2 more trays of cookies or do that 1 or 2 more things.” – Don’t! Stop before you get to that tired or hurt point. Don’t deal with a fibro or cfs flare, prevent one.

Decorate, but not too much..

Have a smaller tree with few decorations. I have invited over the nieces in past and we made an afternoon of putting up the tree.

Have someone put up the outdoor lights.

Get a nativity scene that is pre-made as one unit and/or lightweight, so you don’t have to lug many pieces. I have a smaller plastic Precious Memories one (which the kids love to play with) and a small water fountain of Joseph, Mary & baby Jesus.

Celebrate

Choose carefully to go only to 1 or 2 holiday parties, don’t accept every invite.

If you can, spend time with those you hold dear, not those who will cause stress.

Plan ahead how long you plan to stay and stick to it.

Always keep a supply of regular meds on hand, in case.

Delegate

Pass on some of the holiday chores to others so that while everyone shares the joy, they also share responsibility.

Cooking

Share these responsibilities or making an easier selection.

Do a pot luck dinner.

Choose a one dish dinner to limit the number of dishes.

Choose easier recipies.

Prep or make whatever can be done beforehand and refridgerate or freeze.

Keep to your normal eating habits as much as possible & do not overdo it on sweets and other foods.

Baking

Do a holiday cookie/snack exchange.

Bake cookies in stages – many recipes require overnight in the fridge.

Cheat – buy your cookies.. I know, not the same, but nothing’s the same anymore, is it?

Shopping

Online/catalogs/mail order gifts.

Gift cards & gift certificates.

Plan ahead, make a list & write it down.

Organize your trips into several short shopping trips.

Shop in the morning, or later in the evening when the crowds are thinner.

Start early – once I started on Dec 26th.

Take regular breaks to rest.

if you use a mobility device (cane, crutches, walker), take it with you even if you don’t need it yet

Use a shopping cart for stability, to carry parcals & outterwear.

Use a coat check if your mall has one so you don’t have to worry about your jacket.

Get salespeople for help if you can find them.

Always keep a supply of regular meds on hand, in case.

Wrapping Presents

Wrap using gift bags & tissue paper.

Take advantage of on-site wrapping services – many are for charity.

Holiday Cards

Do them well ahead of time like October or November,

Make labels so you’re not writing address after address, if even it’s ony the return address.

Above all – KISS! Keep It Sweet and Simple!

Prescription Painkiller Addiction: 7 Myths

Prescription Painkiller Addiction: 7 Myths
Experts Debunk Myths About Prescription Pain Medication Addiction
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Prescription pain medicine addiction grabs headlines when it sends celebrities spinning out of control. It also plagues many people out of the spotlight who grapple with painkiller addiction behind closed doors.
But although widespread, addiction to prescription painkillers is also widely misunderstood — and those misunderstandings can be dangerous and frightening for patients dealing with pain.
Where is the line between appropriate use and addiction to prescription pain medicines? And how can patients stay on the right side of that line, without suffering needlessly?
For answers, WebMD spoke with two pain medicine doctors, an expert from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and a psychiatrist who treats addictions.

Here are seven myths they identified about addiction to prescription pain medication.

1. Myth: If I need higher doses or have withdrawal symptoms when I quit, I’m addicted.

Reality: That might sound like addiction to you, but it’s not how doctors and addiction specialists define addiction.
“Everybody can become tolerant and dependent to a medication, and that does not mean that they are addicted,” says Christopher Gharibo, MD, director of pain medicine at the NYU Langone Medical School and NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases.
Tolerance and dependence don’t just happen with prescription pain drugs, notes Scott Fishman, MD, professor of anesthesiology and chief of the division of pain medicine at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.
“They occur in drugs that aren’t addictive at all, and they occur in drugs that are addictive. So it’s independent of addiction,” says Fishman, who is the president and chairman of the American Pain Foundation and a past president of the American Academy of Pain Medication.
Many people mistakenly use the term “addiction” to refer to physical dependence. That includes doctors. “Probably not a week goes by that I don’t hear from a doctor who wants me to see their patient because they think they’re addicted, but really they’re just physically dependent,” Fishman says.
Fishman defines addiction as a “chronic disease … that’s typically defined by causing the compulsive use of a drug that produces harm or dysfunction, and the continued use despite that dysfunction.”
For instance, someone who’s addicted might have symptoms such as “having drugs interfere with your ability to function in your role [or] spending most of your time trying to procure a drug and take the drug,” says Susan Weiss, PhD, chief of the science policy branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“Physical dependence, which can include tolerance and withdrawal, is different,” says Weiss. “It’s a part of addiction but it can happen without someone being addicted.”
She adds that if people have withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking their painkiller, “it means that they need to be under a doctor’s care to stop taking the drugs, but not necessarily that they’re addicted.”

2. Myth: Everyone gets addicted to pain drugs if they take them long enough.

Reality: “The vast majority of people, when prescribed these medications, use them correctly without developing addiction,” says Marvin Seppala, MD, chief medical officer at the Hazelden Foundation, an addiction treatment center in Center City, Minn.
Fishman agrees. “In a program where these prescription drugs are used with responsible management, the signs of addiction or abuse would become evident over time and therefore would be acted on,” says Fishman.
Some warning signs, according to Seppala, could include raising your dose without consulting your doctor, or going to several doctors to get prescriptions without telling them about the prescriptions you already have. And as Weiss points out, being addicted means that your drug use is causing problems in your life but you keep doing it anyway.
But trying to diagnose early signs of addiction in yourself or a loved one can be tricky.
“Unless you really find out what’s going on, you’d be surprised by the individual facts behind any patient’s behavior. And again, at the end of the day, we’re here to treat suffering,” says Fishman.
Likewise, Weiss says it can be “very, very hard” to identify patients who are becoming addicted.
“When it comes to people who don’t have chronic pain and they’re addicted, it’s more straightforward because they’re using some of these drugs as party drugs, things like that and the criteria for addiction are pretty clear,” says Weiss.
“I think where it gets really complicated is when you’ve got somebody that’s in chronic pain and they wind up needing higher and higher doses, and you don’t know if this is a sign that they’re developing problems of addiction because something is really happening in their brain that’s … getting them more compulsively involved in taking the drug, or if their pain is getting worse because their disease is getting worse, or because they’re developing tolerance to the painkiller,” Weiss says.
“We know that drugs have risk, and what we’re good at in medicine is recognizing risk and managing it, as long as we’re willing to rise to that occasion,” says Fishman. “The key is that one has to manage the risks.”

3. Myth: Because most people don’t get addicted to painkillers, I can use them as I please.

Reality: You need to use prescription painkillers (and any other drug) properly. It’s not something patients should tinker with themselves.
“They definitely have an addiction potential,” says Gharibo. His advice: Use prescription pain medicines as prescribed by your doctor and report your responses — positive and negative — to your doctor.
Gharibo also says that he doesn’t encourage using opioids alone, but as part of a plan that also includes other treatment — including other types of drugs, as well as physical therapy and psychotherapy, when needed.
Gharibo says he tells patients about drugs’ risks and benefits, and if he thinks an opioid is appropriate for the patient, he prescribes it on a trial basis to see how the patient responds.
And although you may find that you need a higher dose, you shouldn’t take matters into your own hands. Overdosing is a risk, so setting your dose isn’t a do-it-yourself task.
“I think the escalation of the dosage is key,” says Seppala. “If people find that they just keep adding to the dose, whether it’s legitimate for pain or not, it’s worth taking a look at what’s going on, especially if they’re not talking with the caregiver as they do that.”

4. Myth: It’s better to bear the pain than to risk addiction.

Reality: Undertreating pain can cause needless suffering. If you have pain, talk to your doctor about it, and if you’re afraid about addiction, talk with them about that, too.
“People have a right to have their pain addressed,” says Fishman. “When someone’s in pain, there’s no risk-free option, including doing nothing.”
Fishman remembers a man who came to his emergency room with pain from prostate cancer that had spread throughout his body. “He was on no pain medicine at all,” Fishman recalls.
Fishman wrote the man a prescription for morphine, and the next day, the man was out golfing. “But a week later, he was back in the emergency room with pain out of control,” says Fishman. “He stopped taking his morphine because he thought anyone who took morphine for more than a week was an addict. And he was afraid that he was going to start robbing liquor stores and stealing lottery tickets. So these are very pervasive beliefs.”
Weiss, who has seen her mother-in-law resist taking opioids to treat chronic pain, notes that some people suffer pain because they fear addiction, while others are too casual about using painkillers.
“We don’t want to make people afraid of taking a medication that they need,” says Weiss. “At the same time, we want people to take these drugs seriously.”

5. Myth: All that matters is easing my pain.

Reality: Pain relief is key, but it’s not the only goal.
“We’re focusing on functional restoration when we prescribe analgesics or any intervention to control the patient’s pain,” says Gharibo.
He explains that functional restoration means “being autonomous, being able to attend to their activities of daily living, as well as forming friendships and an appropriate social environment.”
In other words, pain relief isn’t enough.
“If there is pain reduction without improved function, that may not be sufficient to continue opioid pharmacotherapy,” says Gharibo. “If we’re faced with a situation where we continue to increase the doses and we’re not getting any functional improvement, we’re not just going to go up and up on the dose. We’re going to change the plan.”

6. Myth: I’m a strong person. I won’t get addicted.

Reality: Addiction isn’t about willpower, and it’s not a moral failure. It’s a chronic disease, and some people are genetically more vulnerable than others, notes Fishman.
“The main risk factor for addiction is genetic predisposition,” Seppala agrees. “Do you have a family history of alcohol or addiction? Or do you have a history yourself and now you’re in recovery from that? That genetic history would potentially place you at higher risk of addiction for any substance, and in particular, you should be careful using the opioids for any length of time.”
Seppala says prescription painkiller abuse was “rare” when his career began, but is now second only to marijuana in terms of illicit use.
Exactly how many people are addicted to prescription painkillers isn’t clear. But 1.7 million people age 12 and older in the U.S. abused or were addicted to pain relievers in 2007, according to government data.
And in a 2007 government survey, about 57% of people who reported taking pain relievers for “nonmedical” uses in the previous month said they’d gotten pain pills for free from someone they knew; only 18% said they’d gotten it from a doctor.
Don’t share prescription pain pills and don’t leave them somewhere that people could help themselves. “These are not something that you should hand out to your friends or relatives or leave around so that people can take a few from you without your even noticing it,” says Weiss.

7. Myth: My doctor will steer me clear of addiction.

Reality: Doctors certainly don’t want their patients to get addicted. But they may not have much training in addiction, or in pain management.
Most doctors don’t get much training in either topic, says Seppala. “We’ve got a naive physician population providing pain care and not knowing much about addiction. That’s a bad combination.”
Fishman agrees and urges patients to educate themselves about their prescriptions and to work with their doctors. “The best relationships are the ones where you’re partnering with your clinicians and exchanging ideas.”

Source: http://www.webmd.com

to acknowledge my first massive cfs flare..

New CFS Blog…

http://standup2me.blogspot.com/

9 Pain Pill Mistakes

9 Pain Pill Mistakes
Prescription or Over the Counter, Pain Pill Mistakes Common
Written By Daniel J. DeNoon
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

It’s been a hard day, and Joe’s back is killing him.
His wife has some Percocet left over from a trip to the dentist, and there’s that big bottle of Tylenol under the sink, so Joe grabs a couple of each and washes them down with a slug of beer.
Luckily for Joe, he’s a fictional character invented for this article. But there are a lot of real-life Joes out there making big mistakes with over-the-counter and prescription pain pills.
Can you spot Joe’s mistakes? Joe didn’t make every mistake in the book. But he made quite a few.

Here’s WebMD’s list of common pain pill mistakes, compiled with the help of pharmacist Kristen A. Binaso, RPh, spokeswoman for the American Pharmacists Association; and pain specialist Eric R. Haynes, MD, founder of Comprehensive Pain Management Partners in Trinity, Fla.

Pain Medications Mistake No.1: If 1 Is Good, 2 Must Be Better

Doctors prescribe pain pills at the doses they believe will offer the greatest benefit at the least risk. Doubling or tripling that dose won’t speed relief. But it can easily speed the onset of harmful side effects.

“The first dose of a pain medication may not work in five minutes the way you want. But this does not mean you should take five more,” Binaso says. “With some pain drugs, if you take additional doses, it makes the first dose not work as well. And with others, you end up in the emergency room.”

If you’ve given your pain medication time to work, and it still does not control your pain, don’t double down. See your doctor about why you’re still hurting.

“This ‘one is good so two must be better’ thing is a common problem,” Haynes says. “Patients should follow the instructions their doctor gives. Ask before leaving the office: Can I take an extra pill if I still hurt? What is the upper limit for this medication?”

Another bad idea is trying to boost the effect of one kind of pain pill by taking another.

“There may be Advil, Tylenol, Aleve, and ibuprofen in the house, and a person may take them all,” Binaso says.

This can escalate into a very bad situation, Haynes says.

Pain Medications Mistake No. 2: Duplication Overdose

People often take over-the-counter pain drugs — and even prescription pain drugs — without reading the label. That means they often don’t know which drugs they’re taking. That’s never a good idea.

And if they take another over-the-counter drug — either for extra pain relief or for other reasons — they may be getting an overdose. That’s because many OTC drugs are combination pills that carry a full dose of pain pill ingredients.

In Joe’s case, he’s taken a prescription pain pill that contains acetaminophen along with a second full dose of acetaminophen from Tylenol, putting him at risk of injury.

Pain Medications Mistake No. 3: Drinking While Taking Pain Drugs

Pain medications and alcohol generally enhance each other’s effect. That’s why many of these prescription medications carry a “no alcohol” sticker.

That sticker shows a martini glass-covered by the international “No” sign of a circle with a slash. But it applies to wine and beer just as much as it does to spirits.

“A common misperception is people see that sticker and think, ‘I’m OK as long as I don’t drink liquor — I can have a beer.’ But no alcohol means no alcohol,” Binaso says.

“The patient should heed that alcohol warning, because it can be a major problem if they do not,” Haynes says. “Alcohol can make you inebriated, and some pain medications can make you have that feeling as well. You can easily get yourself into trouble.”

Drinking alcohol can be a problem even with over-the-counter pain drugs.

“Drinking is an issue with ibuprofen. It can lead to bleeding ulcers,” Binaso says. “And the FDA is looking into acetaminophen. It is very safe, but we have reports of people who had more than one drink and took more than one daily dose of acetaminophen for a long time, and ended up with liver damage.”

Pain Medications Mistake No. 4: Drug Interactions

Before taking any pain pill, think about what other medicines, herbal remedies, and supplements you are taking. Some of these drugs and supplements may interact with pain medications or increase the risk of side effects.

For example, aspirin can affect the action of some non-insulin diabetes drugs; codeine and oxycodone can interfere with antidepressants.

You should give your doctor a complete list of all the drugs, herbs, and supplements you take — before getting any prescription.

If buying over-the-counter medications, Binaso recommends showing a list of everything else you’re taking to the pharmacist.

Pain Medications Mistake No. 5: Drugged Driving

Pain medications can make you drowsy. Different people react differently to different drugs.

“How I react to a pain medication is different from how you react,” Binaso says. “It may not make me drowsy, but may make you drowsy. So I recommend trying it at home first, and see how you feel. Don’t take two pills and go out driving.”

Pain Medications Mistake No. 6: Sharing Prescription Medicines

Unfortunately, it’s very common for people to share prescription medications with friends, relatives, and co-workers. Not smart, Haynes and Binaso say — particularly when it comes to pain medications.

“If a fairly healthy person is taking a medicine because she is in pain, and wants to give some pills to Uncle Joe because he is hurting — well, this is a potential problem,” Haynes says. “Uncle Joe may have a problem that keeps his body from eliminating the drug, or he may have an allergic reaction, or the drug may interact with a medication he is taking, with life-threatening results.”

Pain Medications Mistake No. 7: Not Talking to the Pharmacist

It’s not easy to read drug labels, even if you can make out the small print. If you have a question about either a prescription or OTC drug, ask the pharmacist.

“That’s why I’m in the store,” Binaso says. “You may have to wait a couple of minutes for me to finish what I’m doing. But you’ll get the information you need to take the right medicine the right way. Just say, ‘Tell me about this medicine; what should I be on the lookout for?’”

Pain Medications Mistake No. 8: Hoarding Dead Drugs

Joe’s wife is actually to blame for one of his mistakes. She should have disposed of those extra pain pills once she was over her dental pain.

Why? One reason is that pills stored at home start breaking down soon after their expiration date. That’s especially true of drugs kept in the moist environment of the bathroom medicine cabinet.

“People say, “That drug is only a year past its expiration date; isn’t it good?” But if you take a pill that’s broken down, it may not work — or you may end up in the emergency room because of reaction to a breakdown product. That is really common,” Binaso says.

Another reason that it’s dangerous to hoard is that the drugs may tempt someone else into making a very bad choice.

“Teen drug abuse is really up, especially with pain medications,” Binaso says. “It is not uncommon for kids to go to their parents’ or grandparents’ medicine cabinet and then go to a party and put the drugs in a bowl.”

Pain Medications Mistake No. 9: Breaking Unbreakable Pills

Pills are actually little drug-delivery machines. They don’t work the way they’re supposed to when taken apart the wrong way.

Scored pills should be cut only across the line, Binaso says. Those without scoring should not be cut at all, unless you’re specifically instructed to do so.

“When you start chopping up pills like that, the pill may not work,” she says. “We find more and more people are doing this. And then they say, “Oh, that pill had a really bad taste. That is because they cut away the coating.”

Source: http://www.webmd.com

Let’s Help a Dying Child with his Final Wish!

Kathy Secky (friend of a friend of a friend) has a 5 yr old son Noah. He is in the last stages of a 2 1/2 yr battle with Neuroblastoma Cancer. The family is celebrating Christmas next week and Noahs request is to get lots of Christmas cards. Lets get him some, please send cards to:

Noah Biorkman
1141 Fountian Viewcircle
South Lyon,MI USA
48178

Lets see how many cards we can get to this little guy. Please pass this on!

Top 10 Memory Hacks

Top 10 Memory Hacks

By Kevin Purdy

Writing things down, on paper or on-screen, is the best way to make sure you remember important info and tasks, but sometimes you’ve got to rely on your plain old brain to keep essential data sorted and handy. Whether it’s a client’s name, a password or combination you want stored only in your head, or answers for an upcoming test, there are plenty of techniques and tools to help you lock in important stuff and pull it out when needed. After the jump, we round up some memorable memory-boosting hacks.

10.Nap to improve memory and learning
It may not seem like you’re learning anything when you close your eyes and doze off, but taking a daytime nap can help you reduce interference—the brain’s resistance to learning new material, rather than what it already learned earlier—and help your recall, as suggested in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The key number in a study on nap-learning was 90 minutes, but it seems like general how-to knowledge sinks in better whenever you take any kind of siesta.

9. Boost learning power with strategic “distractions”
This doesn’t mean switching from your GRE prep to Nintendo Wii, but switching up your studying from one subject to a slightly different one—moving, say, from one CSS function and then back—forces your brain to try and hold onto the first thing you were focusing on, according to researchers. The momentary distraction might also help reduce your stress level, helping your concentration even further. (Original post). Photo by Sam Pullara.

8. Visualize reminders with the Palace Technique
Whether it’s your home, an office, or some other place, there’s a space most of us can walk through in our minds. Turn that mental space into a list organizer by using the “Palace Technique.” The LiteMind Blog has a good overview of the technique, which has you associating each thing you need to remember with objects you’d see in a walk-through—milk at the front door, printer paper on the floor mat, paper towels on the kitchen table, etc. When you need to remember, just stroll through your (mental) home, and you should recall the associations.

7. Draw a name map
Got a meeting with the higher-ups and want to make a positive impression? Bring a notepad or just an index card and map out the players’ names, or just seating positions, as soon as you sit down, along with some identifiers (“Jim/beard, #4/glasses,” and the like). From covering my fair share of board meetings for newspapers, I can attest to the benefits of writing notes and quotes from mapped numbers and later follow-up, rather than hoping your overwhelmed mind can juggle it all at once.

6. Recall lists using dramatic imagery
You’re heading out the door, and you’re absolutely sure you’re going to forget to drop off the mail, or buy the milk, or both. Blogger Bert Webb might suggest focusing on an image of dropping letters into a mailbox that looks like a giant milk jug, or perhaps a mailman made entirely of liquid milk. In other words, anything that pushes your list items past your brain’s boring/mundane filter is far likelier to stick.

5. Never have to write down countless, unique passwords with a single master pattern
The safest place to store your passwords is in your head, and you don’t want to use one password for all your logins. This isn’t so much a “memory” hack as an efficiency tip, but it only forces your noggin to come up with one really great password system rather than lots of highly forgettable variations. Choose a base password, like an abbreviated or acronym version of a favorite phrase or song, then create a system for changing it up site to site, like using the first three letters of the site name, the first four consonants or first two vowels, whatever fits for you. Clicking “Forgot your password?” and waiting on verification emails will be a distant memory, one you can feel just fine about forgetting.

4. Remember names with repetition techniques
Networking does you no good if you can’t remember what to call the person you’ve already schmoozed the next time you meet them. How-to web site eHow recommends simply saying the person’s name multiple times after you’re introduced, as in: “Hi, Bob, it’s nice to meet you. So, Bob, where do you ….” But other tips from CareerBuilder/CNN might work better with the visual-learning crowd, such as writing the person’s name on their forehead in your mind or associating them with a linked image, like imagining someone named Leonard as, say, Leonard Nimoy.

3. Convert long numbers to words
Whether it’s a hardcore software password or your car’s VIN, long strings of numbers are hard to keep straight. Using a technique like the Major system or its modified cousin, the Red Table, the long string of disconnected digits become a lot easier to grok. Check out this conversion helper, which even has its own convenient Firefox extension.

2. Make your own memory devices with mnemonics
Many of the tips and techniques we’ve posted stem from the science of mnemonics, which utilizes all the senses to aid learning. If number-to-word methods or vivid images don’t work for you, browse this great introduction and learn how to use three-dimensional images, symbols, and your own sense of humor to encode must-not-forget items and happenings. The most important tip? Make your memory device something funny or positive—we all have enough negative reminders, and have gotten pretty good at channeling them out.

1. Train your brain with SuperMemo
Free Windows application SuperMemo helps you remember concepts using spaced repetition. SuperMemo is based on years of research by learning expert Piotr Wozniak, who sought to find the exact moments when one is just about to forget something they just learned. Available in several versions for Windows, Pocket PC and Ye Olde Palm Pilots, SuperMemo is a serious tool for super remembrance.

Additional tips are included in the comments of the original post by Kevin. It can be found here at http://www.lifehacker.com.

Top 10 Reminder Tools

Top 10 Reminder Tools for Forgetful Minds

By Kevin Purdy

Tweak your workflow and inboxes all you want, but your mental memory might always be the weakest link in your day-to-day life. These 10 tools take some of the workload off your brain, and prevent a few forehead slaps. This list is geared at smaller-scale tips for remembering those little things that you’ll regret forgetting just as soon as it’s too late.

10. Remember that thing you’re trying to think of,
Oh, shoot, what was that show? The one with the dad who worked at a robotics firm and created his own little robot girl, and she had super-strength, and it had really cheesy effects but catchy theme music? Anyways, if you’re trying to remember something that seems like it’s right there, but just out of reach, a pair of Canadian researchers suggest you stop, and either look it up right away or send yourself a note for later. The harder your brain cranks on trying to pin down that barely-there memory, the less likely you are to get it, even if you come back two days later and try running down the same mental path. In other words, your mental efforts are best spent elsewhere, and on other things, rather than tryin—Small Wonder! I knew it!

9. Automatic thumb drive reminder
At best, you leave your thumb drive plugged in at work or home. At worst, the easy-to-lose memory sticks get left in a computer lab, a far-away friend’s place, or somewhere it can be easily pocketed. Grab the Flash Drive Reminder, make sure AutoPlay is enabled on the Windows system you’re working with, and you’ll be reminded when you go to log off or shut down that you’ve still got your drive plugged in. If you’re doubtful you’ll actually respond to that kind of prompting, you could label your drive with a name and number to pop up in the “My Computer” view. For more anti-leave-behind tools, check out the comments on our original post—they’re chock full of carabiners, cap hacks, and other suggestions.

8. Do Not Forget doorhanger
You can find a retail version of the Do Not Forget doorhanger design gem at a few different places, but it’s not that hard to knock off for yourself. Put the things you need to do when you’re heading out on one of the pull-off paper tabs—like mailing a package or picking up bread—and you’ll hopefully catch it when you’re heading out the door. Since our brains can tend to get used to sights and ignore them, make sure to pull your reminder off the doorknob when there’s nothing to do. Next time you see that bright-colored hanger, you’ll know there’s something worth dropping the keys and thinking about. (Original post)

7. Always attach the file you meant to
Sending out an email promising to offer correspondents an attached document or file without that file attached is akin to showing up at a pot luck with just a plastic fork. If you’re a Gmail user, you can enable the attachment detector in Labs that’ll pop up a notification when it looks like you’ve forgotten to include your attachments. Working on Outlook? Reader Troy whipped together a little Outlook Attachment Reminder macro from a previously posted script, and Troy’s can work with signatures that demand mandatory attachments.

6. Keep your lawn and garden watered
Don’t let your faulty memory, dry weather, or a week’s vacation ruin your perfectly green lawn or your burgeoning vegetable garden. Do what Matt Haughey did and install your own automated drip system to give gardens and plants enough water at all times to get by. If it’s mostly grass you want to keep green, and you don’t relish the idea of waking up at 6 a.m. to do so, you could take a cue from Jason and assemble a DIY automatic sprinkler system.

5. Create fall-back birthday greetings
Seriously? It’s already Oct. 11, and you don’t have a card for your sister already? If you’ve got a Mac, there’s no reason to let the entire day go by without at least an email that says you’re thinking of them (even though you totally weren’t). Check out the Unofficial Apple Weblog’s how-to, and you’ll never be caught entirely off-guard. If you’d rather just get the reminders, you can have fbCal export your Facebook friends’ birthdays to an iCal feed, or enable Google Calendars’ “Birthdays” calendar (in your Settings), which pulls in whatever birthdays you’ve noted in Google Contacts. .
Personal Notes: I just pop people’s birthday inot my reegular calander asn an all day even, with the name & year of birth so I know exactly how old he or she is. Same Idea tho

4. Don’t let rebates pass you by
Retailers love rebates because a lot of people seemingly love to forget about them after the purchase. Tools that keep you from letting them pass into expiration, or sit incomplete at a service center, range from the simple to the sublime. Consumer Reports suggests immediately printing online forms and sending them in, as they can be removed from web sites after a very short period. Lifehacker reader Evan Fredericks suggests using Gina’s Trusted Trio with an old Gmail trick to keep rebates high on your to-do list. Finally, if you traffic mostly in online rebates, do as Consumerist recommends and set up a free online account at Backpack, where you can have specific rebate links emailed to you at a time of your choosing. (Original post)

3. Pack without fear
The worst part about forgetting to pack something on a long trip is that you’ll likely remember exactly what you forgot when you’re 10,000 feet in the air. Guard against your most forgetful tendencies with packing utilities that anticipate what you might need and print out helpful lists. We’ve dug on the Universal Packing List for its minimal but functional interface, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush for comprehensive coverage of necessities, and PackWhiz as a nice alternative that sits between those extremes. Rather craft your own list? Feel free to create a reusable packing list, and peruse Adam’s Power Traveler’s Checklist, part one and part two.

2. Capture gift ideas with Evernote
Your spouse, your parents and siblings, your friends—they tell you about neat things they’ve heard about, considered buying, or just can’t find anywhere all the time, but never when you’re looking to actually buy gifts. We consider Evernote to be a fairly universal, go-anywhere capture system, since you can send it cameraphone pics, text or email messages, or more advanced web uploads at any time. It’s also got a tagging system that’s perfect for gift ideas. As soon as someone’s done telling you about something you might want to gift them, and you can be sly about it, upload a camera pic or text note about it to your account, and add both “gifts” and a separate tag for their name. When the holidays and birthdays roll around, head to your note stash, perform a search for everything tagged both “gifts” and “Diane,” for example, and you’ve got a list that seemingly traveled forward in time. For a beginner’s primer on Evernote, check out Adam’s walkthrough, or dig on Jason’s OneNote power user’s guide if the desktop suite is more your style.
Personal note: Evernotesis great for keep track of lost os stuff on your pc.. I’ve been switching from using bits of pieces of paper here & there as reminder notes to Evernote notes that can be organized by topic. Unfortunately, Evernotes can’t so sub folders or sub-notesbooks but still very usefull!

1. Keep track of strong passwords
We’ve hit upon this tactic a few times in a few different contexts, but until webmail users stop using 123456 and other terrible passwords, we will continue to suggest this technique. Build a secure base password that isn’t in the dictionary, one that mixes up letters, numbers, and special characters. Adapt it to fit different sites and uses—use the first three letters of the site name, or only the vowels, or some other rule. You’ve now got a strong password, you can remember it for all your sites. Even better? Offload the effort altogether and securely track your passwords with KeePass. If you do go the KeePass route, do yourself a favor and check out these eight must-have plug-ins to get the most from your password manager.
Personal Note: I’ve already shared this tip IRL to someone without fms.

Additional tips are included in the comments of the original post by Kevin. It can be found here at http://www.lifehacker.com.

A Case of Chronic Denial

A Case of Chronic Denial- The Story of CFS and XMRV
by Hillary Johnson

That would have been news enough, but there was more. XMRV had been discovered in people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, a malady whose very existence has been a subject of debate for 25 years. For sufferers of this disease, the news has offered enormous hope. Being seriously ill for years, even decades, is nightmarish enough, but patients are also the targets of ridicule and hostility that stem from the perception that it is all in their heads. In the study, 67 percent of the 101 patients with the disease were found to have XMRV in their cells. If further study finds that XMRV actually causes their condition, it may open the door to useful treatments. At least, it will be time to jettison the stigmatizing name chronic fatigue syndrome

XMRV linked to CFS

Retrovirus Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Could Aid in Diagnosis

By Katherine Harmon
October 8, 2009

Recently implicated in some severe prostate cancer patients, the retrovirus XMRV has now been found in many with chronic fatigue – - changing the landscape for diagnosis and possible treatment

OVERTAKING CHRONIC FATIGUE: An electron micrograph shows the XMRV retrovrius in the blood of a patient with cfs. Source: WHITTENMORE PETERSON INSTITUTE

More so than many illnesses, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) frustrates those who suffer from it and those close to them, due to its nebulous assembly of symptoms, along with continued controversies over its etiology, diagnosis, treatment and even its nomenclature. Now, the discovery of a familiar retrovirus in many CFS patients could bring new energy to the field—and fresh hope for more specific medical care.
Chronic fatigue is in part a misnomer. The syndrome often has more to do with immune system abnormalities than pervasive tiredness—although the two can go hand in hand. The symptoms range from exhaustion to muscle pain, giving CFS a reputation among some as a “wastebasket diagnosis”. The slipperiness of the syndrome is in part because “it’s diagnosed based on exclusion,” says Judy Mikovits, director of research at the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, Nev., and co-author of research on the retrovirus findings published online today in Science. Doctors often apply the label if no other explanation can be found for a patient’s symptoms, which may be part of the reason it seems to pop up in everyone from overworked career women to continually sick children.
Roughly 17 million people worldwide are thought to have CFS, but given current diagnosis methods, the true number could be much higher or lower. Having a specific virus to look for would make for much more robust tests and possibly even be a step toward treatment. Mikovits’s team thinks they have found just such a candidate.
The xenotropic murine leukemia virus–related virus (XMRV) has recently been linked to strong cases of prostate cancer. Like CFS, this cancer involves changes in an antiviral enzyme (RNase L). The prostate cancer discovery got Mikovits and her team thinking: Would they find the same retrovirus in people with CFS?
After analyzing biological samples from more than 100 CFS patients for the retrovirus, two thirds of them were found to test positive for the virus—compared with 3.7 percent of 218 healthy volunteers who were screened.
Precisely how this virus is related to chronic fatigue, however, remains a mystery. One of the problems with tracking down CFS is that it may not be a single ailment. “We think that the problem is that CFS is a collection of many, many different diseases even though it has similar symptoms,” says Brigitte Huber, a professor of pathology at Tufts University’s Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences in Boston. She and others suspect that the retrovirus may be unleashing other underlying conditions and viruses in the body.
“This new retrovirus may be able, through infecting human cells, [to] induce a transcription of an endogenous virus,” says Huber, who has been studying the presence of an ancient retrovirus (HERV-K18) dormant in most people but active in patients with CFS and multiple sclerosis. “We’ve already shown that Epstein-Barr virus can do exactly this.”
Even in their testing for the XMRV retrovirus, Mikovits says, “We could see a human endogenous virus at the same time” as XMRV. “There are a number of old diseases that seem to be rising at an infectious rate,” she says. Although this background noise of various viruses may be difficult to sort though, it brings clues to help researchers find the root cause of CFS. “It’s possible, downstream, that this will all feed into the same mechanism,” Huber says.

*** Note: This post has been modified from the original for space & the excessive unnecessary extra scientific jargon included that was not necessary the express my point in this blog. The original in it’s entirety can be found here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chronic-fatigue-syndrome-retrovirus ***