Dr
Feelgood Sunday 19th January 2003
DISEASE
OF THE WEEK
CHRONIC
FATIGUE SYNDROME
I
receive many emails from people asking me to cover topics of interest. A lot of
these are from people who have conditions that are poorly understood not only by
the general public but also sometimes by the health professionals. Either the
condition is rare or research has yet to find a cause or reliable treatment.
Many of them have no diagnostic tests and rely on history and symptom clusters
to make the diagnosis.
We
talked about RSD yesterday and spoke of the problems sufferers have getting
their problems taken seriously by many and today I thought it was important to
talk about anther condition which attracts debate and even scepticism from
people. One notable thing these conditions share is frequent name changes – I
cant help thinking this adds to the difficulties some people have with grasping
that these are genuine conditions.
When
the symptoms of a condition are pain or tiredness there are no tangible signs
that other people can see, so this together with poor understanding of
the pathological process makes Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome, or Myalgic Encephalitis a montie for Stigma. The trouble with
that , as we found out yesterday, is that people try to go it alone, and often
don’t seek help for fear of being labelled a hypochondriac and consequently
they find recovery difficult especially when one of the recognised complications
of conditions like this is depression. Depression, in my opinion can very easily
amplify and prolong symptoms like tiredness
Dr
Michael Oldmeadow is a specialist physician who has had an interest in the
management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for over a decade.
He takes the condition and its sufferers seriously and has success. He
will join us today to explain about this ill-understood and debilitating
disease.
The
following link has an enormous amount of information on Chronic fatigue Syndrome
and Fibromyalgia and is well worth reading
Click
HERE to visit ABOUT.com and read
more about CFS
click
HERE to visit the Australian ME and CFS
support group home page
click
HERE to visit a site with many links to
CFS info
click
HERE for another CFS support
group page
click
HERE to visit the Alison Hunter Memorial
Foundation – a young woman who had CFS and died aged 19
click HERE to read the Medical Journal of Australia Supplement on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
We
all love a good bargain and there is nothing like haggling at an open air
market. Whether its for fresh produce or craft strolling round amongst
colourful stalls with equally
colourful spruikers is entertainment in itself.
Jim
Monahan is the Managing Director of Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market which is
over 120 years old and the largest remaining open air market in the southern
hemisphere. Interestingly is was
built on the site of the Original Melbourne Cemetery ,and I understand from time to time night tours of the area are conducted !
The
Market is adjacent to Melbourne’s CBD but retains the charm and vigour of its
19th century roots. If you’ve travelled overseas you will know of
the fabulous markets in many asian cities but it might surprise you to know that
on occasion some of these great markets of the world call upon Australian
expertise and consultancy from people like Jim ! Jim will join us today and tell
us about some of the great markets around the world
Click
HERE to visit the Queen Victoria
Market
LOVE
YOUR WORK
MAKING
MONEY
Richard
Patterson can truthfully say his occupation is making money! He is the
operations manager at Note Printing Australia. They are responsible for printing
of our bills. The Australian polymer notes were invented in Australia in 1988 by
Note Printing Australia but it took
20 years to get them into circulation.
These
days they make money not only for us but also PA
has also produced polymer notes for Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka,
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Kuwait, Western Samoa, New Zealand and
Romania.
(I
will have to ask Richard if they ever have any free samples !!)
Read
all about Note Printing Australia by clicking HERE
Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service is legendary in service and
innovation. With our expansive and 
sparsely
populated rural areas medical treatment had to be rethought and John Flynn was
the person with the vision in 1928 to
start the first comprehensive aerial medical service and to this day it remains
unique for the range of primary health care and emergency services it
provides and the land mass it covers
– and it covers it 24 hours a day every day of every year !
The
late Sir Robert Menzies, Former Prime Minister of Australia 1939-41 &
1949-66, once very aptly said that the Flying Doctor Service represented the
"greatest single contribution to the effective settlement of the far
distant back country that we have witnessed in our time..."
David
Zerman is the CEO of the Royal
Flying Doctor Service and he will be joining us to tell us of their work in 2003
as well as their fabulous achievements todate.
Click
HERE to visit the RFDS home page
In
this weeks THE BULLETIN magazine Jackie Dent has written an article
called “Heavy Petting “ all about
the modern trend towards humans seeking animal companions – after all ,
why not …..they give unconditional love, and don’t mind if your house is not
tidy or you are wearing an old trackkie and having a bad hair day. Besides ,
Medical Science has evidence to prove that having furry friends is usually good for our health and we have
embraced them !
But has it all gone a bit too
far ? I recently saw one of my radio colleagues come into the studio with a
medium sized bag slung over her
shoulder from which peeked
pocket handkerchief sized white fluffy dog . I know I have found myself
talking to my cats – my daughter looks at me, shakes her head and says
- “I hope you are not expecting them to answer you ! ”
Click
HERE to visit the Bulletin
Click
HERE
to visit the Bulletin home page and read Jackie Dent's article in the
Bulletin magazine
LOVE YOUR WORK
SPEECH PATHOLOGY
OK
you win ! All my life people have told me I talk quickly. I have to say I cant
tell when I do it …..consequently I don’t know to slow down ! So this week I
thought I would invite a Speech Pathologist into the studio to tell me what to
do ……mind you no one else has even been able to help me ……oh dear
……… ( by the way thank you to all the people who wrote to me telling me
the virtues of speaking quickly ----mote info per minute etc hehe)
Brenda Carey is a Speech Pathologist and she will be joining me for my consultation today - and also give us insight into the work done by speech pathologists
Click
HERE to go to Speech
Pathology Australia home page
Sheridan
Rogers is a regular presenter on Mike Carlton’s 
Drive
Program on 2UE and she will join us today to give us some tips on food for Next
Sunday which is of course Australia
Day !
One
of Sheridan’s Latest specialties for Celebrating is her Waltzing Matilda Cake
!
Click
HERE to visit Sheridan Rogers Home
Page (and check out her Waltzing Matilda Cake!)
Click
HERE to visit the National
Australia Day Committee Home page to find out what’s on next Sunday
GENEALOGY
YOUR
AUSTRALIAN ROOTS
Our
ever popular genial genealogist Sue
Macbeth joins us again this afternoon
I
have been snooping about family history sites lately coming up with various
things. One site that is well worth a visit is the Australian war memorial site
– they have a huge searchable data base with names of service men and photos
as well as scanned copies of original documents. If you have a relative who
served in WW2 you can actually create a certificate with their details on it and
print it out ! ( go to biographical databases – then to nominal rolls
then choose the war you are after )
For
more links see links page
Click
HERE to visit the Australian War Memorial
Site
Click
HERE to visit Sue Macbeths Site