“As a consequence of cervical & thoracic instability, & discopathy in EDS, there is loss of the normal cervical lordosis and an increasing kyphosis, rendering #EDS patients prone to progressive myelopathy, & mechanical neck & chest pain.” h/t Jodi Ettenberg onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aj…

Previous research on fibro: “some patients who carry the diagnosis of #fibromyalgia have both signs & symptoms consistent with cervical myelopathy, most likely resulting from spinal cord compression” MRI/CT study: -46% had spinal canal stenosis -20% had Chiari 1 malformation

Great thread on PEM and research on #MECFS 👇

“SARS-CoV-2 is widely distributed, predominantly among patients who died w severe COVID-19..virus replication is present in multiple respiratory & non-respiratory tissues, inc the brain, early in infection..SARS-CoV-2 can cause systemic infection & persist in the body for months”

@ales_frost @danahaff I think if generalist neurologists were trained in body biomechanics, the mechanics (physics) of the skeleton as it relates to connective tissue disorders, and their impacts on the central and peripheral nervous systems, it would obviate A LOT of FND misdiagnoses.

“According to the National Disability Institute, disabled people pay an additional $17,690 each yr to maintain the same standard of living "as a similar household without a member with a disability." At least 7 million people have long COVID. - ABC News abcnews.go.com/Health/7-milli…

This chart shows the proportion of #LongCovid affected by various diagnoses according to 4 types of disability degree. #POTS was 2nd most common at all disabilities and #MEcfs was the 3rd most common diagnosis caused by SARS-CoV-2 ME/CFS & POTS = more pw severe disabilities

Even #mild #COVID #infection increases risk of #blood #clots and #death A study in the UK found that mild (non-hospitalized) infections led to a 2.7x higher risk of blood clots and 10.2x higher risk of death compared to controls ( heart.bmj.com/node/174901.fu… ). H/T: Laura Miers 🧵1/

This autonomic study found that 73%❗️of #LongCovid patients have #POTS or at least 1 cardiovascular autonomic abnormality. Hospitalized vs. non-hospitalized patients had similar frequencies of abnormalities. (Note: ME/CFS also has a very high prevalence of autonomic dysfunction)

Collagen is exposed during endothelial damage and 1st trigger for platelets to attach to damaged endothelium (or even simply when you cut yourself).Next,fibrinogen, the clotting protein forms a gel in the area of damage.Wind back to LongCOVID=exposed collagen=microclots will form

I’ve got to say, when you feel really *really* low and crushed, kindness goes a long way. You might not know who is silently giving it their all to stay above the surface🏊🏻‍♀️. This week has been very hard 😓, and a reminder to me of how kindness means the 🌎

“With a growing body of evidence that #POTS is an autoimmune disease and having elevations of the innate immune system, our results suggest a potential T-cell-mediated autoimmunity in POTS characteristic of a mixed-pattern inflammatory disease similar to rheumatoid arthritis”