M.E. Awareness Day, CFS and Long Covid
M.E. Awareness Day and it’s relation to CFS and Long Covid
“M.E. Awareness Day is May 15th : Uncover history, explore the 1982 CFS treatment and tell the world. Thankyou, Max Banfield.”
M.E. Awareness Day – Introduction
Did you have severe fatigue where your doctor sent you for an X-ray and said he couldn’t find anything physically wrong with you. Were you later referred to a psychologist who said it must be caused by your mind so you need psychotherapy. Were you sent to a physiotherapist who said that all you need to do is run faster and faster each week to get fit, but it made you worse.
If so you are not alone. I would therefore like you to read the following article. You will then see how I developed the modern method for treating chronic fatigue between 1975 and 1982. Chronic fatigue and it’s multiple associated symptoms has been given many labels before and since. They include The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Myalgic Encephalomyelites (M.E.) and Long Covid. Thankyou, Max Banfield
The theories and treatment methods before 1970
Between 1870 and 1970, there were probably over a million research papers that presented the idea that mental illness, such as chronic stress or anxiety, could strain the nervous system, causing chronic fatigue. The cure was believed to be psychotherapy. These illnesses were referred to as neuroses, for instance, Anxiety Neurosis.
The other main treatment methods were graded exercise and forced exercise programs where all patients dropped out of training. Their refusal to train was attributed to their fear of the normal symptoms of exertion. It was widely believed that if they forced themselves to continue they would become fit and find regular daily activities easy.
How I developed the modern set of treatment guidelines for CFS, M.E. and Long Covid
In 1975 I experienced severe fatigue that had accumulated since medical treatment was not effective so I decided to conduct my own research despite the extreme difficulty.
I soon enrolled in an exercise program at The South Australian Institute for Fitness Research and Training. A research cardiologist, two lab assistants, and a fitness instructor told me to pedal or run faster and faster to get fit so that my fatigue could be cured. However, it made me feel much worse. So, I slowed down and did everything at my own pace.
Nevertheless, there were some occasions where I ran too fast and once where I collapsed, which took a long time to recover from. Hence, I realised that I had physical limits and would have to stay within them to prevent problems.
I defined the world first successful treatment guidelines in 1982
Eight years later, I was put in charge of that research team, where I developed a set of guidelines for other patients to follow to gain the same benefits that I had experienced. The success of my method was reported in major newspapers throughout Australia between 1982 and 1983. It was even featured on Phillip Satchell’s ABC radio show. However, to protect my copyright, I did not publish all the details.
A Youtube Video on how the treatment for chronic fatigue was developed by Max Banfield in South Australia between 1975 and 1982. It is now regarded as the worlds best method for treating The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) and Long Covid.
The change of label to the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
In 1988, I noticed that the name of the illness had been changed to The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I therefore wondered why I had not become famous and wealthy from health care professionals who were using my method in exchange for fees to treat their patients. I soon realised that many people were using my method without mentioning my name. One of them was Tony Sedgwick, the head of the institute where I conducted my project. He sold his SA research institute in 1999 and moved interstate and sold my method to 30,000 customers. including universities, fitness centers, and physiotherapy clinics.
Wikipedia and their Ignore All Rules Policy WP:IAR
I later joined Wikipedia to add information about my research, including Da Costa’s Syndrome, which was one of more than 100 labels used prior to CFS. However, I was ridiculed by editors who called me a fringy kook and deleted my entries wherever they appeared. They even bribed another editor with a “barnstar” for banning me with their “Ignore All Rules” policy (WP:IAR).
In the meantime, I found a page called PACING, which was an attempted copy of my method. However, instead of mentioning my name as the author, they added a list of more than a dozen references, mostly research papers published in 2002. It was obvious that they were a team of trolls trying to hide my research and steal the credit for the benefit of copyright thieves.
M.E. Awareness Day – The 5 million pound PACE TRIAL
In 2008, the British Government awarded a psychiatrist named Peter White a five million pound research grant to do The Pace Trial. He found that PACING was better than medication, graded exercise programs, and psychotherapy. However, he did not mention my name and left the false impression that it was developed by many. His colleague Simon Wessely, another psychiatrist, had been stealing my method for many years and was awarded The John Maddox Prize for his work on The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Why my method is now used to treat Long Covid before and since M.E. Awareness Day
Other individuals, such as Richard Schloeffel, an interstate doctor, set up his clinic to specialise in my method to treat CFS. More recently organisations called Long Covid Clinics, use it to treat Long Covid which has the same range of symptoms, without giving me credit.
The World ME Alliance, Solve ME, and their change of wording on M.E. Awareness Day
Organisations called “The World ME Alliance” and “Solve ME” are another example of individuals copying my method but using different wording to reassure patients that it is a physical problem, not a mental illness. They use Pacing as the best treatment, recommend that patients “stay within their energy envelope” to “avoid post-exertional malaise,” and refer to patients as having “Energy-Limiting Disabilities”. They say that their aim is to “change the narrative” from ME to The Energy-Limited Community.
M.E. Awareness Day
They are calling May 12th, 2023, “ME Awareness Day” with the theme that ME is “the disease where pushing harder can make you sicker”, as if it is a new concept that they have recently discovered. They also say that their global awareness campaign is designed to raise awareness of the hallmark symptom being post-exertion malaise (PEM). They want you to believe that they solved the problem that I solved 41 years ago when I changed the narrative from mental illness to physical illness.
My recommendations to the Solve ME organisation after M.E. Awareness Day
However, other researchers have always been looking for medications as a treatment, but my method has been the only major improvement in the last 2,000 years. If the CEO, Oved Amitay, and the administrators of “Solve ME” have not planned this theft, I recommend that they investigate and find out which individuals have been stealing my method. They should then inform all concerned that they have a legal obligation to give me credit and pay royalties each time they use it in exchange for lecture or consultation fees, as required by copyright law.
The motives of the copyright thieves
To suggest that the method was collectively developed by thousands of individuals in order to evade copyright obligations would be an unethical act. While it may seem noble for individuals to seek to help the sick, the reality is that some may be envious of my accomplishments and harbor resentment towards me for proving them wrong. They may be driven by a desire to erase my contributions from history and to take credit for themselves, leaving me with nothing.
Max Banfield, Modbury, South Australia . . . Banfield Research. 23-4-23
Post Script: The Trolls Within
It’s possible that a group of trolls has infiltrated the “Solve M.E.” teams with the intention of integrating the individual elements of my 1982 method into them, in order to create the false impression that thousands of people have solved the problem collaboratively, so that no one owns the copyright. This way, it can be used for free by universities, doctors, and physiotherapists, who can then charge fees to their students and patients without paying me any royalties (and without acknowledging the mistakes of the past).
How different individuals added different aspects of my method for M.E. Awareness Day
One troll may suggest that the illness is physical, not mental, while another may propose that “Pacing is the best method.” Others may suggest that patients are part of the “energy-limited community” who “need to stay within their energy envelope” to “avoid post-exertional malaise,” and so on.
What I request the Solve ME CEO to do after M.E. Awareness Day
It’s important that the CEO, Oved Amitay, identifies these trolls and bans them from the organization. He should also ensure that anyone who uses my method in the future complies with copyright law, which was one of my motivations for conducting the research. The other, of course, was to relieve my own severe and relentless fatigue where my doctors and specialists couldn’t.
As for those who claim that CFS is still shrouded in controversy, frustration, and confusion, I find nothing about the illness to be confusing.
However I now know that if I was to publish anything useful about the cause, treatment or cure that it would be copied without any respect for my copyright so I will refrain until that changes.
What I would like all honest people to do
I would like the world population of eight billion honest people to check the facts and support my rights. Particularly all members of the public and all health care professionals, academics, lawyers and politicians. Also newspaper journalists and television newsreaders who recognise the value of solving major medical mysteries. Bear in mind that the cause and treatment of this illness had been a mystery for thousands of years. More importantly nobody else contributed to my 1982 method and no-one else has been able to improve it in the 41 years since.
In closing, it is far-fetched to believe that anyone else could produce the same complicated method in the same century. I would therefor appreciate your respect for knowing that copyright thieves who want you to believe that all I did was run slow, are liars and fools. Thankyou
Max Banfield, Banfield Research, Modbury, South Australia, ph. +61 (08) 82635735
M.E. Awareness Day : Two newspaper reports in “The News” of my world first research for neurasthenia being announced on August 5th 1982 p13, and then it’s report on my world first success on August11th 1983 p.13.