David Bell

David S. Bell, MD, is a retired American doctor who had a practice in General Medicine and Pediatrics. He was at the center of the 1985 Lyndonville outbreak of the disease in upper New York state in the United States. Dr. Bell serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Open Medicine Foundation and is a member of the Working Group which offers their expertise and resources to the ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University.

Dr. Bell has been involved in numerous studies and was one of the authors of the International Consensus Criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). He also developed a pediatric case definition for ME/CFS and has written guidance for ME/CFS in children.

He has given several talks and interviews throughout the years and has also written articles for the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Health Rising as well as authoring/co-authoring several books on ME/CFS.

International Consensus Criteria
Dr. Bell is one of the authors of the 2011 case definition, International Consensus Criteria.

Pediatric case definition

 * 2006, A Pediatric Case Definition for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)

Notable studies

 * 1997, Illness Onset Characteristics in Children with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Idiopathic Chronic Fatigue
 * 1998, Circulating Blood Volume in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * 2000, The roles of orthostatic hypotension, orthostatic tachycardia, and subnormal erythrocyte volume in the pathogenesis of the chronic fatigue syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2001, Thirteen-Year Follow-Up of Children and Adolescents With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2003, Predictive immunophenotypes: Disease-related profile in chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2006, Guidelines for the Diagnosis of Pediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Things Parents Need to Know (Abstract)
 * 2009, Severe versus Moderate criteria for the new pediatric case definition for ME/CFS (Abstract)
 * 2012, Understanding long-term outcomes of chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)

Talks and interviews

 * 1996 - Primetime Live TV Show - Sick and Tired - Incline Village Outbreak
 * 2000 - Documentary, I Remember Me, directed by Kim A. Snyder
 * January 2010 - Q & A After XMRV Lecture By Dr David Bell part 1
 * January 2010 - Q & A After XMRV Lecture By Dr David Bell part 2
 * May 2011 - Speaker at the 6th Invest in ME International ME Conference - Speech Title: 25 Year Follow-up of ME Patients
 * 2011 Conference DVD


 * October, 2011 - Dr. Bell on Norwegian ME chemotherapy drug trial. [English with Norwegian subtitles]
 * June 2015 - Dr. David S. Bell, ME/CFS Presentation, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle Washington
 * December 2015 - Dr. David Bell, Tunstin, California

Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

 * 1995, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Children (Abstract)

Open Medicine Foundation

 * Aug 1, 2016, Prognosis of ME/CFS
 * 2016, ME/CFS in Children - By David S. Bell, MD
 * Dr. Bell has noted that in children and adolescents, noting that symptoms can be different and that the ME/CFS hallmark symptom of post-exertional malaise may not be described by them and instead exertion, such as taking a school bus, can cause a relapse needing prolonged periods in bed. If an adolescent spent three months in bed due to ME/CFS they will still be ill at age 35 even if their symptoms were mild in their adult years. Becoming increasing ill with activity and symptom severity is expected 15-20 years later. "One study of young adults followed for fifteen years demonstrated clear improvement in activity, but not illness resolution8. The same group of patients continued to do relatively well for a further five to ten years and then became worse in both activity limitation and symptom severity12. It is rare for an adolescent to become completely free of the disease13."

Health Rising

 * Aug 18, 2015, Dr. Bell's Home Orthostatic Intolerance (OI) Test
 * Sept 30, 2015, Dr. David Bell on Low Blood Volume in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * Oct 2, 2015, When Panic Isn't: Dr. Bell on Maggie's ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia Story
 * Oct 4, 2015, Dr. Bell on Understanding Orthostatic Intolerance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Books

 * 1991, The disease of a thousand names: CFIDS--chronic fatigue/immune dysfunction syndrome, David Bell - Unknown Binding
 * 1993, Curing fatigue: a step-by-step plan to uncover and eliminate the causes of chronic fatigue, David Bell - Stef Donev - Rodale Press
 * 1994, The doctor's guide to chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding, treating, and living with CFIDS, David Bell - Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
 * 1999, A parents' guide to CFIDS: how to be an advocate for your child with chronic fatigue immune dysfunction, David Bell - Haworth Medical Press
 * 2000, Faces of CFS: case studies of chronic fatigue syndrome, David Bell - The Author
 * 2007, Neuro-immune fatigue ME/CFS/FM and cellular hypoxia, David Bell - WingSpan Press

Open Letter to The Lancet
Two open letters to the editor of The Lancet urged the editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial, which the journal had published in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Bell, along with 41 colleagues in the ME/CFS field, signed the second letter.
 * 10 February 2016, An open letter to The Lancet, again - Virology blog

Online presence

 * PubMed - DS Bell

Learn more

 * Wikipedia - David Sheffield Bell
 * 1990, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * 2016, Dr. David Bell Joins OMF Scientific Advisory Board