Some of you may have noticed that certain posts following others turn a whole thread into italics, or strike through or some other odd formating. The culprit turns out to be the signature: if the end of your signature includes any formating other than plain text, it applies it to all following comments. The solution:

Please don't include any special formating in the final words of your signature.

That's all.

Well, we finally are upgraded to the newest software, better security and a cleaned up database so page loading should be much faster. And the TinyMCE rich text editor is working too! Phase Two is a complete redesign to render a much more usable and less confusing site for newbies. Since the switchover lost a lot of the work I had done to get a head start on this, it will be a while until you can test out the new design.

In the mean time, use this page to post any problems, missing pages, etc. that have come up from the upgrade.

Reactivation of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection in mice by cortisone treatment.
K Laitinen, A L Laurila, M Leinonen, and P Saikku
National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.

Infect Immun. 1996 April; 64(4): 1488–1490

Reactivation of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection was studied by inducing immunosuppression by cortisone acetate treatment given every other day for 14 days in intranasally infected NIH/s mice. The treatment started 2 or 4 weeks after primary infection, when no C. pneumoniae was detected. C. pneumoniae could be recovered from the lung cultures on days 7 and 9 in 10 and 60% of the mice, respectively, when cortisone treatment was begun 30 days after infection. These results confirm the persistent nature of C. pneumoniae infection.

Trying to sort out what reactions might be due to for Daisy's husband in a recent thread made me think: "We've never gathered any data for reactions from time of dosing."

So I threw together a quick survey to see if we get any patterns.

Click on the Reactions By Hour survey.

It asks that you have observed for two days, so take a look at what's being asked but don't fill out the survey until you have your 2 days of observations!

Yes, yes, I know that there will be things wrong with it, and some questions missing, etc., etc.. Just do it to the best of your ability.

Thanks to Red (Dan) we have a PDF file of the TWAR slide show by Dr. Stratton. Good intro to Cpni. You'll find the link at: http://www.cpnhelp.org/slides

Although this news item is not specifically about Cpni, it certainly is in the ball park. Most of us are focused on getting help via the antibiotic protocol for one disease or another, but it may turn out that we are nipping some other problems in the bud...

This may have been noted before, but a nice summary of Balin's work on Chlamydia pneumoniae and Alzheimer's. Note his discussion of the need for using multple measures (up to 15) and different methodologies in trying to detect a very difficult to detect organism:

http://www.tangledneuron.info/the_tangled_neuron/2007/06/chlamydia-pneum.html

The same thing for MSi CAPi users. Please don't take the survey if you have not been diagnosed with MS, and only take once!

http://www.cpnhelp.org/UCCASSv1.8.1/index.php

It's #7 on the list.

Results are public, and can be filtered to see responses of subsets of users. No personal identifying info is taken or required.

Direct link to current results.

For those currently on or completed a CAPi who have been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Disorder or Myalgic Encephalitisi:

Take the survey #6 on this page: http://www.cpnhelp.org/UCCASSv1.8.1/index.php

It's open, and shouldn't require a password. This will only be around for a week, so get to it you tired and slow friends!

Once we accumulate the results, you can use the filtering system on the results page to look at subsets of the data, eg filter for only those on CAP for 1 year or more, etc.

Current results link 

In response to a request for a private place to store notes and such, or drafts of posts prior to posting them, I've initiated a new link called "my private space" under the "create content" menu. Your private space page has two text boxes you can use up to their assigned limit (to minimize load on the site).

Thanks to a request by Garcia I found a little module that allows you to bookmark any pages you'd like so you can access them easily from our page. It should be on the right sidebar of this page, and all pages.

If you are on a page on Cpnhelp that you want to easily return to, click "quick link" and confirm it in the next window, then it's on your list. You can also add bookmarks manually using the "manage" button.

If you don't want a link you've made, just click the trash icon. Simple! Oh, and if you don't want to clutter your page you can go to "my account/edit" and uncheck it.

Finally, figured out how to get links in our posts to automatically work. No more fuss. Enjoy!

Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(2):278-80. Epub 2006 Oct 11. Role of Tryptophan supplementation in the treatment of Chlamydia.Singla M. Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois, 840 S. Wood St., CSB Chicago, IL 60612, USA. msingla@uic.edu

We have been preparing this for an eventual overhaul of the Handbook, but there have been a number of requests, especially by new folks, to help clear up confusion.

Those of you who have read Marie Rhode's previous scientific review and discussion of the fault-lines in the existing autoimmune model in MSi, and the arguments for infectious causes, especially Cpni, have appreciated the dedicated and rigorous analysis she has brought to the topic. Her discussion has made a real difference for people who have been given the standard medical schtick about MS as if it is fact, not theory.