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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a mysterious and maddening condition, with no cure or known cause. But researchers, using a variety of techniques to identify and assess targeted metabolites in blood plasma, have identified a characteristic chemical signature for the debilitating ailment and an unexpected underlying biology: It is similar to the state of dauer, and other hypometabolic syndromes like caloric restriction, diapause and hibernation. Dauer is the German word for persistence or long-lived. It is a type of stasis in the development in some invertebrates that is prompted by harsh environmental conditions. The findings are published online in the...

If your doctor diagnoses you with chronic fatigue syndrome, you’ll probably get two pieces of advice: Go to a psychotherapist and get some exercise. Your doctor might tell you that either of those treatments will give you a 60 percent chance of getting better and a 20 percent chance of recovering outright. After all, that’s what researchers concluded in a 2011 study published in the prestigious medical journal the Lancet, along with later analyses. Problem is, the study was bad science. And we’re now finding out exactly how bad. Under court order, the study’s authors for the first time released...

“Our work demonstrates that the gut bacterial microbiome in chronic fatigue syndrome patients isn’t normal, perhaps leading to gastrointestinal and inflammatory symptoms in victims of the disease,” said Maureen Hanson, a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell. “Furthermore, our detection of a biological abnormality provides further evidence against the ridiculous concept that the disease is psychological in origin.” In a study published this month in the journal Microbiome, Cornell University researchers looked at stool and blood samples of 48 people diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (or more formally, myalgic encephalomyelitis) and at 39 healthy volunteers. They found two...

In response to requests by U.S. patient organizations and advocates, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has issued an Addendum to its 2014 ME/CFS evidence review. This Addendum downgrades the conclusions on the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET), and this has tremendous implications for medical education and treatment recommendations. GET is Ineffective for ME Patients. CBT Is Barely Effective.

Before he got sick, Whitney Dafoe was an award-winning photographer and a world traveler. But now, at 31, Whitney lies in bed in a darkened room in his parents’ home, unable to talk, walk or eat. This isn’t the picture that people imagine when they hear “chronic fatigue syndrome,” which is often viewed by the public and the health-care community as a trivial or primarily psychological complaint.In a February report, the Institute of Medicine gave the illness a new name — systemic exertion intolerance disease. Many patients have long criticized the name “chronic fatigue syndrome” for not reflecting the seriousness...

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a "serious, debilitating" condition with a cluster of clear physical symptoms — not a psychological illness — a panel of experts reported Tuesday as it called for more research into a disease that may affect as many as 2.5 million Americans. "We just needed to put to rest, once and for all, the idea that this is just psychosomatic or that people were making this up, or that they were just lazy," said Ellen Wright Clayton, a professor of pediatrics and law at Vanderbilt University, who chaired the committee of the Institute of Medicine, the health...

Distinct changes in the immune systems of patients with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome have been found, say scientists. Increased levels of immune molecules called cytokines were found in people during the early stages of the disease, a Columbia University study reported. The US research team, who published their findings in the journal Science Advances, tested blood samples from nearly 300 ME patients and around 350 healthy people. They found specific patterns of immune molecules in patients who had the disease for up to three years. These patients had higher levels of of cytokines, particularly one called interferon gamma, which...

Suffer from fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue? Light and noise sensitivity, panic attacks, anxiety, pain, and fatigue can make shopping difficult. After thirty plus years of fighting with fibromyalgia, I'm going to share how to go shopping!

A study published on Oct. 19, 2011, in PLoS ONE reports on results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the drug rituximab in CFS. The results of this study showing that two infusions of rituximab may provide durable relief from CFS are extremely encouraging. The most exciting news from the study is the possibility of disease-modifying treatment for at least some people with CFS. This study also provides support for other possible approaches to repair immune abnormalities that have been identified in CFS patients. The authors state that the results support the concept of CFS as an autoimmune disease. They...

Scientists have discovered proteins in spinal fluid that can distinguish people with two mysterious illnesses that mimic each other — chronic fatigue syndrome and a kind of chronic Lyme disease. Wednesday's study is small and needs verification. But specialists called it a promising start at clearing some of the confusion surrounding two illnesses with similar symptoms and no good means of diagnosis. "It's a very important first step," said Dr. Suzanne Vernon of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Association of America.

U.K. Study Overturns Previous Research Citing Virus as Cause of CFS Reviewed by Rob Hicks, MD Chronic fatigue syndrome is not caused by the virus XMRV, according to new research. A team from University College London, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and University of Oxford, all in England, says previous research linking the virus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was flawed because of contamination of mouse cell DNA samples in the laboratory. CFS is a disorder characterized by chronic fatigue lasting six months or longer, with several additional symptoms that may include impaired memory, unrefreshing sleep, muscle pain, sore throat,...

For decades, people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have struggled to convince doctors, employers, friends and even family members that they were not imagining their debilitating symptoms. Skeptics called the illness “yuppie flu” and “shirker syndrome.” --snip-- Dr. Reeves responded that understanding of the disease and of some newer research technologies is still in its infancy, so methodological disagreements were to be expected. He defended the population-based approach as necessary for obtaining a broad picture and replicable results. “To me, this is the usual scientific dialogue,” he said. Dr. Jose G. Montoya, a Stanford infectious disease specialist pursuing the kind...

For decades, people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have struggled to convince doctors, employers, friends and even family members that they were not imagining their debilitating symptoms. Skeptics called the illness “yuppie flu” and “shirker syndrome.” But the syndrome is now finally gaining some official respect. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in 1999 acknowledged that it had diverted millions of dollars allocated by Congress for chronic fatigue syndrome research to other programs, has released studies that linked the condition to genetic mutations and abnormalities in gene expression involved in key physiological processes. The centers have also sponsored...

Chronic fatigue syndrome has been given as an official cause of death – apparently for the first time in the world. On Tuesday, coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley of Brighton and Hove Coroners Court, UK, recorded the cause of death of a 32-year-old woman as acute aneuric renal failure (failure to produce urine) due to dehydration as a result of CFS. The deceased woman, Sophia Mirza, had suffered from CFS for six years. CFS, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), has a variety of devastating symptoms ranging from extreme weakness, inability to concentrate and persistent headache. Sufferers can have the...

PATRICIA PRATTIS JENNINGS, 63, FIRST TOOK PROVIGIL during a 2003 trip to Europe. Her doctor thought the drug—meant to help users suffering from a lack of sleep stay awake without jittery side effects—might counteract the jet lag that had plagued her throughout four globe-hopping decades as a pianist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Her first morning in Switzerland, she popped half a pill. Her usual fatigue disappeared almost instantly. "I felt great all day and for a number of days after that," she says. The drug worked so well that she gave her husband some when he complained of feeling...

Sleepy soldiers face serious dangers in Iraq 03/26/2003 By BRIAN ANDERSON / Dallas Web staff “Nap early. Nap often.” For Col. Gregory Belenky, it’s his battle cry. As the top sleep researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., Col. Belenky preaches the importance of a well-rested fighting force. “We like to think of sleep as a logistical element of re-supply,” he said, calling a little shut-eye as important a commodity to troops as fuel for their tanks and ammo for their rifles. So when news images from Iraq show bleary-eyed troops barreling through the...

Chronic fatigue syndrome or ME may be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, according to doctors. They have also suggested that taking certain fish oil supplements may help to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with the condition. Chronic fatigue syndrome affects an estimated 243,000 people of all ages in the UK. It causes a wide range of symptoms including muscle pain, memory loss, and severe exhaustion which can last many years and leave victims bed-ridden. Dr Basant Puri and colleagues at Hammersmith Hospital in London used state-of-the-art scanning technology to assess chemical activity in the brain. They...