Melissa Kaplan's
Chronic Neuroimmune Diseases
Information on CFS, FM, MCS, Lyme Disease, Thyroid, and more...
Last updated March 13, 2015

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About This Site
This site is a personal site. I have no affiliation with any health care company, organization, provider, or product manufacturer, or pet supplies manufacturer or vendor. I sell no products and I do not have any advertising arrangements for products or services at my site. There are some books I may personally recommend to those interested in additional reading material; some of these are linked to bookseller sites with whom I have affiliate arrangements. Any income derived from these booksellers or others with whom I have affiliate arrangements, derived by site visitors purchasing books or other materials from these sellers through the links at my Support This Site page, site, goes towards the ongoing financial support of my site.

Any products or services referred to in the articles on my site are personal recommendations by the authors of those articles. Links to businesses that sell products, such as vitamins and testing labs, are provided as information only for use (or not) by site visitors who are looking for additional information and online resources for products and services they may not be able to find locally or may not have previously come across. Other than as stated above, I have no relationship with these entities and link to them only to provide visitors to my site with sources that may be useful to them.

I have compiled and, in some cases, written the information included in this site. When known, the actual author, copyright date, and original source are included in all articles.

Through the years, the correspondence and feedback I have received from site visitors reflects that patients, patient advocates, family members of patients, and some health care providers routinely use of the information at my site. The information at my site is in no way meant to replace the doctor-patient relationship. The information is offered to help support site visitors' search for more information, information that will enable them, along with their physicians, make the best decisions for themselves in regard to their health care. Information on the care and behavior of herptiles is for educational use; all herp and other pet keepers are strongly advised to establish a good working relationship with a local vetereinarian trained in the diagnoses and care of the species kept.

Why This Site Was Created
In December 1991, when I was first diagnosed with CFS, FM and MCS, there was little information readily available, with information scattered through a myriad of brochures, small publications discovered through word-of-mouth, and support group newsletters. I created this site to try to help others find that information faster, tp enable visitors to begin accessing the resources availableon the Internet, and to help them become a partner with their physicians in their own care and treatment.

This site is for use by patients, their families, and caregivers. The information here is not meant to diagnose, treat, or in any other way supplant information from your health care providers.

About Melissa Kaplan
I am not a health care provider for humans or other animals. I spent 18 years working in the health claims management field before falling ill in 1990. One of the things I learned on the job was that for the most part, patients saw themselves as passive recipients of their doctor's knowledge and orders. Long before I became ill, I realized that doctors do not know everything and that to ensure the best possible care and decision-making, patients must be pro-active in their discussions with their health care providers. The only way to be a partner in one's own health care is to research a wide range of information related to one's health issues.

The information and resources I have compiled at my site reflect some of my own journey through the maze of research and information I have read and compiled through the years. Some of the material at my site may be useful to you in your own quest for information and knowledge, some may not. Through the links to other health information sites, you will find still more information and resources that may be useful in your research. The only constant, when it comes to disorders such as CFS, FM, MCS, Lyme, etc., is that our knowledge is continually undergoing change and expansion as new research is completed and new factors are identified.

Using This Site
It is important to remember that every patient is different; other people's experiences will vary due to differences in how their illnesses affect them and how they react to substances and other treatment protocols. Any treatment decisions you make for yourself, including the use of over-the-counter medications, vitamins, herb and supplements, should be carefully researched and discussed with your physician or other appropriate health care provider. The more types of substances you take, the greater the risk for harmful interactions.

In addition, when considering taking substances, especially any that may alter your neurochemistry, immune or endocrine systems, or gut constituents, you should not do so without first undergoing appropriate testing to make sure that the changes you want to make are indeed necessary.

Privacy
Site visitors do not need to register or provide any personal information to use this site. I do not capture any information from site visitors. Those wishing to visit the site with their cookies turned off will have access to the exact same information as those browsing with their cookies fully activated and automated.

Occasionally, a site visitor will email me with questions, comments or feedback. I treat all such correspondence from individuals as private, confidential correspondence between individuals. I do not divulge, transmit or in any other way collect any of the information that may come to me via personal correspondence to any other person or entity unless first discussed with the correspondent, regardless of the country in which the correspondent lives.

I maintain a listing of CFS and FMS support group listings across the United States. From time to time, support group leaders will contact me requesting to be added to the listing. The information they provide about their group is information they authorize to be shared publicly in their group's listing. Any personal information they may include in their correspondence with me is treated as private, confidential correspondence between individuals.

Site Updates and Dates
As I myself am ill, I do not do a great deal of site modifications. This site was last completely reorganized and uploaded at this server in the Fall of 2001.

Individual Articles
The last date that an individual article page was updated will appear at the top of the page. Once an article written by another author is uploaded for the first time, the only changes made to that page will be corrections of typographical errors, updating the web address for existing hypertext links, and adding additional information source links to the bottom of the page. On some of my own articles, I may append an update to the original article. That update, and the date the update is made, is included as part of the text of the article (for example, see Estrogen Dominance)

Site Sponsorship
In return for use of my articles dealing with reptile and amphibian health, natural history and captive care, Veterinary Information Network provides me web space.

Costs I incur to maintain the domain name (www.anapsid.org), and for health-related research are paid for out of my own funds, with some of those funds coming from income from book and other online sellers with whom I have an affiliate agreement, such as Amazon.com. For more information, see Tracking.

Advertising
There is no advertising at my site. I have links on my Support Site page to the online sellers with whom I have affiliate agreements. I also have links to specific books in my Books page; these reflect books I recommend to those seeking more information. In a few instances, there are bookseller links in some of the articles at my site.

Tracking
Neither I nor Veterinary Information Network track or monitor individual users in any personally identifyable way. VIN as a matter of course collects general page access information to compile aggregate site usage statistics. We use Google Analytics to collect general page access information to compile aggregate site usage statistics. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. For further information on the privacy policy concerning Google Analytics, please see Google Analytics Overview and Privacy Policy (link opens in new page/tab).

As my site does not require registration to use, no personally identifyable information is requested or captured. If Anapsid.org/Melissa-Kaplan.com visitors choose to visit the company websites of those companies with whom I have affiliate arrangements, those companies, or their designated affiliate manager (i.e., CommissionJunction.Com, LinkSynergy/LinkShare.com) will use the tracking cookies necessary to track purchases made by visitors coming from my site so the companies or their affiliate managers can compile and make affiliate payments, which in my case are used to help support my sites.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

  

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