A bit of news to make everyone aware that Jarred Younger is posting weekly videos on his YouTube channel about the work being done in his research lab. (There are advertisements.) The channel is called Neuroinflammation, Pain, and Fatigue Lab at UAB. (UAB stands for University of Alabama in Birmingham)
The channel is described as follows:
“Here you will find videos and live-stream broadcasts telling about UAB's Neuroinflammation Pain and Fatigue Lab research activities. Under the leadership of Jarred Younger, PhD, the lab is looking into markers and scans that can possibly be used to measure chronic pain and fatigue-- and possibly be explanations of the cause. As this research continues to discover the brain's influence on disease, through state-of-the-art scanning techniques, targets for treatment trials are being identified.
The primary conditions studied in our lab are fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (aka myalgic encephalomyelitis, CFIDS, systemic exertion intolerance disease and ME/CFS), and Gulf War illnesses. We expect our discoveries of the neuroinflammation role in these diseases will also benefit patients who have depression, Alzheimer's or other diseases where chronic pain and/or chronic pain is a feature.”
A benefit of watching via YouTube is having closed captions and speed control. I often have to slow down videos to be able to watch. Fortunately, the videos are a reasonable length and presented in a very understandable format.
![Auditorium with people viewing presentation. Auditorium with people viewing presentation.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F90e46734-fe98-42b5-b45f-0dcfc650cb5a_600x360.png)
So far there have been three videos. I wanted to share a bit about each one.
The first video explains Dr. Younger’s plans to share weekly videos about what his lab and other labs are doing.
From the explanation on the first video:
“Welcome to the Neuroinflammation, Pain, and Fatigue series! This is video #1. I'll be releasing videos every week on the newest brain imaging and clinical trial studies, including the most exciting things coming out of my lab. This series is for people with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, long-COVID, Gulf War illness, and related chronic pain, fatigue, and cognitive issues. - Jarred Younger”
Video #2 is about trialing psilocybin to reduce pain in fibromyalgia. The write up for the video states:
“...I am discussing a new clinical trial using psilocybin for chronic pain. This study will be running throughout 2024.”
Depending on the outcome of this study, they may expand to other conditions.
If anyone is interested in participating in this study, see contact email on the video’s info. Because it requires travel to Birmingham, they are looking for people in that area. If the email link is no longer there, they have fulfilled recruitment.
The video talks about their approach to try psilocybin in a one day trial to see if it has lasting effect on fibromyalgia pain. Younger explained that he is doing this study based on enough anecdotal evidence that he felt it was worth pursuing as soon as possible. It is a double blind study. 10 subjects will get an active placebo and 10 will get psilocybin. The researchers won’t know who gets which substance. This is a good way to make sure there is no influence by researchers on the outcome.
Video #3 is about Tracking Leukocytes Infiltrating the Brain. Jarred Younger posted the following with this video:
“I'm excited to present a new neuroimaging scan that allows us to follow leukocytes (immune cells) that penetrate the blood-brain barrier and infiltrate the brain. I believe this abnormal infiltration of the brain is initiating brain inflammation and causing chronic fatigue, pain, cognitive disorders, mood disorders, and other issues.”
Their testing has already shown that the leukocytes are not crossing the blood-brain barrier in healthy subjects. They plan to start testing this hypothesis in ME/CFS patients in the next couple months. He does a good job of explaining the blood-brain barrier.
Since my onset of ME in 1989, I have experienced terrible headaches from things that others easily tolerate like MSG, alcohol, food additives, etc. I have suspected that ME has seriously impacted my blood-brain barrier.
I look forward to learning whether everyone with ME as defined by the International Consensus Criteria (ME-ICC) have blood-brain barrier issues or maybe this applies only to a subset of patients. (To understand how ME/CFS is an umbrella term see my previous article HERE.)
I hope the lab is able to incorporate severe ME patients into the research.
I am very grateful for the work at the Neuroinflammation, Pain, and Fatigue Lab at UAB. I met Dr. Younger at the April 2019 NIH’s “Accelerating Research on ME/CFS” conference and was impressed with his ability to communicate information and his obvious compassion for the patients who are suffering. MEadvocacy.org has an article about that trip I did HERE.
I look forward to more videos from Jarred Younger in the future.
Colleen
P.S.: Links to more of his videos with brief synopsis can be found at ME Global Chronicle HERE.
Information provided here or in comments is not to be considered medical advice
I've had a headache of varying degrees for 37 years. It never goes away. Never. During a relapse (like now) it is almost unbearable. All I know to do is to take ibuprofen and ice the back of my neck and forehead. Also the base of my spine... Migraine runs in my family, but I never see auras or anything like that.
I am sorry to hear that. They make it harder for me to cope. I didn't use to have headaches but they are more frequent after decades of ME. I find ice helps... and avoiding food additives like MSG, preservatives & food coloring & alcohol...