Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Attacked Again

ScienceNOW Daily News ^ | 6 January 2010 | Sam Kean

[neverdem]

"We take no pleasure in finding colleagues wrong or dashing the hopes of patients, but it's imperative the truth gets out."

That's how science is supposed to work out contentious subjects, not by consensus.

[jessduntno]

I would craft a reply to this article, but I am just too tired...

[worst-case scenario]

I wonder if there is more than one viral cause, and that is why the same virus won’t show up in all the patients.

After all, we call it “cancer”, no matter what the form or the cause is.

It will be amazing to watch this research develop over the next ten or twenty years.

[MAexile]

Here's a thought. Perhaps what we have here is a bunch of lazy people.

[Jeff Chandler]

I am so tired of hearing about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

[Plutarch]

The science would be better with CFS, if a group of sufferers not applying for Social Security Disability Income could be found.

[No Socialist]

“Here’s a thought. Perhaps what we have here is a bunch of lazy people”

Ignorant statement. You obviously have never had your life robbed by chronic fatigue that no Dr. can figure out or really cares to bother to find out. 15 years later, I finally found a Dr. who is finding the cause and treating me. My ‘regular’ Dr. has done nothing but criticize him, however she didn’t do anything for me but put me on a lot of prescriptions. Thanksfully I have a husband who is supportive and a Saint. I hope you never have to deal with this.

[jessduntno]

“I am so tired of hearing about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”

Me too. I just can’t get too worked up over it...

[NewMexLurker]

Perhaps what we have here is a bunch of lazy people

That reminds me of a sketch on the old Tracey Ullman show. She had some recurring characters on her show; a gay couple. One time one of them refused to get out of bed. When asked why his answer was

"I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And there is no one who can prove I don't!"

[Sans-Culotte]

So are they going back to its original name-hypochondria?

[TheThirdRuffian]

“CFS is actually a suite of diseases that presents the same symptoms and so might have many causes”

FWIW, I was completly run down and almost unable to function in December. They were thinking CFS.

Doc decided I might have a deep-seated sinus (bacterial) infection and put me on two stout anti-biotics (one was the kind used for anthrax, highest dosage without going in the hospital) for 21 days, plus two shots the first day.

He was clearly correct, as I started feeling better about 4 days in and like a new man at 10. (And yes, I finished all 21 days.)

[rod1]

CFS features immune-inflammatory dysfunction. The immune system is revved up in the resting state but primaily for unhelpful responses (e.g. misdirected inflammation). Actual anti-viral responses are often blunted.

So many viruses show up in these patients including reactivation of latent viral infections (e.g. herpes).
It is useful to distinguish environmental risk factors which may cause CFS from the multitude of effects associated that can arise with the condition.

[AppyPappy]

I knew a woman with CFS. She could cure it by leaving her husband and going back to Louisiana where her family lived. While she was there, she was fine. She eventually left her husband and was cured.

Maybe he was making her sick. Maybe it was in her head. Maybe it was Depression. Maybe she just slept too much. Maybe she was paid to sleep too much. But she was always asleep when we stopped by.
Every person I have ever known with CFS got paid to have it.

[Fractal Trader]

Frankly, I view any retrovirus as suspect. When AIDS first arose, it was just coincidentally found to be a retrovirus, which had only just been invented. I think they should have looked a lot deeper rather than jumping to a conclusion of a radically different nature.

For example, it has been shown many times that HIV is orders of magnitude less communicable than standard sexually transmitted diseases. If it can’t be easily spread, then casting AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease resulting from the HIV virus is completely wrong.

[neverdem]

Mango effective in preventing, stopping certain colon, breast cancer cells

Wi-Fi Foe Sues Neighbor for Using Electronics (Electromagnetic Sensitivity )

STUDY REVEALS HOW ONE FORM OF NATURAL VITAMIN E PROTECTS BRAIN AFTER STROKE

Bypass the Doctor and Go Straight to the Lab

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[Cold Heart]

I’m going to go with suite of diseases that presents the same symptoms and may have many causes.

I had fatigue for about six months (in my twenties)which could not be diagnosed for a specific cause. Eventually it just went away. Pretty tough symptom for someone with a type A work ethic. I had a week of fatigue after a recent cold.

[Badabing Badablonde]

I don’t follow your last statement........can you explain further?

[TheThirdRuffian]

Since HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, maybe you should inject it into yourself to prove your claim to the world.

[editor-surveyor]

Looking for a single cause is never going to bear fruit; fatigue is a symptom, not a disease.

[Fractal Trader]

The concept of a retrovirus was invented around the same time that AIDS was discovered. At the time of the “AIDS” epidemic, there had been no significant discovery any where else where a retrovirus had been identified as a cuase of a disease.

Along comes “AIDS,” the discovery of which was based on a small sample of diseased homosexual men who shared many risk factors such as unprotected anal sex and the use of drugs, especially “popper” pills of amyl nitrate. Rather than make the simple diagnosis that the individuals suffered a multitude of opportunistic infections, eager beaver researches wanted to discover a new disease and earn a Nobel Prize along the way.

What happened was that AIDS was discovered to be caused by a retrovirus, HIV. So this is the situation: a brand new “disease” is discovered and, by the most amazing of chances, it happens to be caused by a retrovirus even though there had been no previously known example of a retrovirus-caused disease. There haven’t been many since, though I don’t have the number. I was immediately suspicious that these researchers claimed that CFS, which has been notoriously difficult to explain, was, all of a sudden, determined to be caused by a retrovirus.

There are many issues I have with the HIV-AIDS hypothesis. However, the most glaring thing about HIV is that it is virtually impossible to be transmitted through sexual contact or shared needles. The alleged infection rate of HIV are magnitudes less than syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea. In other words, HIV, which is supposed to be the “cause” of AIDS, can’t be transmitted it via sex or shared blood!

A good book on this, and many other problems with the HIV-AIDS hypothesis, is: The Origin, Persistence and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory by Henry Bauer. Despite being an academic text, it is mostly quite well-written and easy for the non-academic to read except for a few spots. To me, it is one of the most important books that I have read in the past decade.