Posted on 12/03/2014 11:08:37 AM PST by Seizethecarp
Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are accustomed to disappointment. The cause of the disorder remains unknown; it can be difficult to diagnose, and treatment options are few.
Many patients are still told to seek psychiatric help. But two recent studies — one from investigators at Stanford a few weeks ago and another from a Japanese research team published earlier this year — have found that the brains of people with chronic fatigue syndrome differ from those of healthy people, strengthening the argument that serious physiological dysfunctions are at the root of the condition.
Both studies were small, however, and their results must be replicated before firm conclusions can be drawn. Still, other studies presented at scientific conferences this year also have demonstrated physiological dysfunctions in these patients.
In the most recent study, published by the journal Radiology, researchers at Stanford University compared brain images of 15 patients with the condition to those of 14 healthy people. The scientists found differences in both the white matter, the long, cablelike nerve structures that transmit signals between parts of the brain, and the gray matter, the regions where these signals are processed and interpreted.
The most striking finding was that in people with the disorder, one neural tract in the white matter of the right hemisphere appeared to be abnormally shaped, as if the cablelike nerve structures had crisscrossed or changed in some other way. Furthermore, the most seriously ill patients exhibited the greatest levels of this abnormality.
The researchers also found in M.E./C.F.S. patients a thickening of the gray matter at the two points of the right hemisphere connected by this particular neural tract. And the overall volume of white matter in the brains of patients was reduced, compared with the brains of people without the disorder.
(Excerpt) Read more at well.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Fibro bump for when I get off work at 4:30AM. My wife had a great day yesterday, she’s paying for it today.
Sorry you had a bad experience. My daughter was diagnosed at age 4. Wanna tell me my 4 year old was faking the 103 fever, severe fatigue, vomiting, Horner’s Syndrome, off the charts viral titers, and other symptoms that were there for more than 2 months? She never let it rule her life. She did gymnastics and cheerleading in elementary and high school. Still had episodes. She still has episodes. Holds down a full time job, is a wife, and pursues numerous hobbies. She is determined this disease will not define who she is or how she lives her life.
I've had this. You have my sympathy. It's excruciating. Doctors in the ER thought I was having a heart attack. I was 24.
When I was told I had fibro, I joined a support group online. They had it so much worse than I did that I quit. Their stories of being in wheelchairs made me depressed. I did not need that. So, God and I have handled it! He is the answer.
That is exactly the feeling I have. God bless you. It is an awful feeling.
Mark for after my nap.
Sorry fro your loss.
Disregard the “MUD” comments on this thread. CFS is real and can be very debilitating.
I'm fully aware of the effects of fibro and CFS. Your comment should have been directed to dainbramaged. with that being said, I sympathize for you........
I got chronic F*in fatigue cause I been goin to work every F*in day since 1971 and sharing my earnings with worthless pieces of s**t who hate me because I go to work every F*in day so the govment can give them my money! THAT WILL F*IN FATIGUE YOUR ASS MY FRIEND!
Merry Christmas!
I do have many days just like that but fortunately the hypersomnia can act as a protective mechanism - it certainly does with me. Don’t mean that I wake up all refreshed and ready to go but at least it is a break from the dreadful rumination that would occur otherwise. On a cheerier note, Merry Christmas!
“It is likely to be a mixed herpes/CMV/Epstein-Barr viral infection that is intra-neuronal and exceedingly difficult to diagnose.”
After suffering for 15 years and having my PCP tell me this year that “you are depressed” I finally got my highly sensitive blood test results back from Dr. Nancy Klimas’ NOVA ME/CFS neuroimmune clinic in Ft.Lauderdale (one of the few and most advanced in the nation and it was confirmed that I have reactivated Epstein Barr Virus (HHV-4) aka mononucleosis.
In other words, I have a chronic case of mononucleosis like we used to have back in college, only I don’t get over it, it just keeps going on and on and on.
But that is not what is called ME/CFS...that is ON TOP OF my ME/CFS and is an opportunistic infection taking advantage of my underlying ME/CFS, as best as I can understand the research and my condition.
I also have severe orthostatic intolerance and vestibular migraine, both, IMO as a result of ME/CFS as an underlying condition for the past 15 years as a neuro-inflammatory condition.
The trolling scoffers may mock, but let them walk a mile in my shoes and pray that they never have this condition!
PS: The NOVA ME/CFS clinic has put me on the antiviral Valtrex for the reactivated EBV/mono (well actually the generic valacyclovir)
The Valtrex has kept the mono from killing me a couple of months ago (it was really taking me down) but it hasn’t knocked out the mono yet.
I consider my self lucky not to be co-infected with MULTIPLE herpes family viruses and other viruses that other s with ME/CFS are found to be co-infected with when tested at NOVA and Stanford.
“Exercise cured it. But non-exercise causes relapse, in which there is no energy to do anything.”
You have this exactly backwards. Exercise causes people with ME/CFS to have relapses called “post-exertional malaise”...yes a really stupid name which greatly under-stated that degree of extreme incapacitation that is experienced by ME/CFS sufferers.
If what you say about your ex-wife is true, i.e., when she exercised she was fine and when she stopped exercising she suffered from lack of exercise, then she DID NOT HAVE CFS!
So please stop trolling ME/CFS threads and posting drivel!
On the other hand, if your ex-wife actually DID have ME/CFS and did meet the 1994 Fukuda Criteria used by the Stanford MD’s in selecting the research subjects whose brains revealed the permanent damage indicated in the MRI’s in the thread article for example, THEN, you may have possibly done your ex-wife and marriage a serious injury which is between you and her and your God.
Could you have been drawn to this thread possibly out of a bit of subconscious doubt as to your self-righteous condemnation of your wife on seeing a thread title that would undercut the basis of your divorce if it were true that CFS is a REAL disease and your ex-wife was NOT FAKING?
Hang in there. Those valtrex 1 gram tablets are big and a challenge to get down. Stay hydrated as thats the only risk with valacyclovir - it forms crystals in your kidneys if you get dehydrated. May you get relief soon.
Thank you and you are right about the Valtrex!
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