Chronic fatigue syndrome

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Feb-March, 2004 by Charles Weber

Introduction

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disease characterized by symptoms of extreme, long lasting fatigue, loss of memory [Marcel], impaired sleep, sore throat, muscle and joint aches, headache, cough, photophobia, night sweats [Evengard], depression that has much lower ACTH and cortisol secretion than typical depression [Demitrack], lymph node pain, eye pain and fibromyalgia (muscle pain) [Bell DS], as well as white spots on MRI brain scans [Buchwald 1992] and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans [Schwartz], loss of fingerprints in a third of the patients [Johnson p345], and a chronic low level activation of the immune system [Cannon] which may be accounting for many of the non-neurological symptoms, but all very variable, perhaps because different parts of the brain are attacked.

Women are much more often affected than men. No one has been able to assign a definitive cause to it with certainty, although it has been proposed to be a hypochondria from misdiagnosis [Johnson p 126] or mass hysteria from reading newspaper articles proposed by the Center for Disease Control in the USA [Johnson p 135-138, 339, 342] (both very unlikely), an Epstein-Barr virus [Holmes] (because that virus antigen is often found in it as an opportunistic infection, but refuted [Buchwald 1988]), poor nutrition compounded by lack of exercise [Johnson p685], a poison [Racciatti], or a retrovirus (because fragments were detected in some of its victims similar to retrovirus) [DeFreitas]. (The retrovirus work has ended because DeFreitas has become very sick and no one else has been competent to continue her work.)

That it is caused by a virus which damages the immune system is highly probable since it comes on suddenly with flu-like symptoms and shows up in clusters associated with social groups [Buchwald 1992]. Fragments of mycoplasma pathogen species have been found in CFS and fibromyalgia but they are probably opportunistic infections because when multiple species are found in the same patient it correlates with the length of time CFS was present [Nasralla].

The hypothesis that CFS is a psychosomatic illness has resulted in thousands of ruined and destitute lives. There probably has not been so ruinous a result from a failed hypothesis since governor Phips ended the Salem witchcraft trials. Even the blood letting of the 18th century was fairly minor After all, how much harm can you do removing a few drops of blood? The hypothesis by medical doctors that it was not necessary to wash hands for childbirth caused many deaths, but at least these mothers were given a fairly quick end. The CFS victims could not collect insurance support or disability and descended into poverty.

That hypothesis was probably an important part of the chief cause of death, suicide. It is not only in the USA that the physical nature of this disease was denied. A young girl was taken away from her mother until the age of 18 because the mother dared to disagree with a doctor that the girl was faking her symptoms.

A poison cannot be ruled out as at least a contributing factor [Bell IR], and may have been involved in the Gulf war syndrome. Anthrax vaccine has been proposed as triggering Gulf war syndrome with some convincing statistical evidence [http://www.house.gov/reform/hearings/healthcare/99.10.12/bates.htm].

However, I believe there may have been other medical procedures at the same time. These brave men were denied support also.

There have been other names for the syndrome proposed. "Yuppie flu" was proposed because at first only higher income people had enough money saved to hire doctors or lobby officials. Chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome (CFIDS) was proposed because the immune system was distorted and it was hoped that this name would gain the victims some support and research funds. It would be too bad if the early cavalier attitude toward CFS resulted in adopting such a cumbersome name. Fibromyalgia, which is widespread muscular pain, was proposed as a variant of CFS and probably is. The name "myalgic encephalomyelitis" (ME) was assigned to a similar disease by medical researchers in the British Commonwealth. Post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) and post-infectious neuromyasthenia were also used.

Discussion

So the cause is unknown. This leaves us with the problem of what to do about the disease currently while we wait for researchers to figure out what direction research should take and what causes it.

It has been proposed that poor nutrition and lack of exercise are contributing factors [Johnson p 685]. It certainly is plausible that a poorly nourished body would be more at risk. A vegetarian diet using lots of raw vegetables has significantly improved the symptoms of fibromyalgia with 19 out of 30 subjects reporting considerable improvement of all symptoms after a few weeks [Donaldson]. It would be a good idea to find out what in raw vegetables was responsible. That diet gave five to 6,000 milligrams of potassium per day and 460 milligrams of magnesium. It has been discovered that magnesium injections mute the symptoms significantly [Takahasha] [Cox]. So magnesium supplements may be in order for CFS people who eat junk food and maybe for everyone with CFS. However, magnesium was found to be normal in the red cells in CFS patients [Hinds] and magnesium is normal in blood cells during a magnesium deficiency as well, so red cell content cannot be used in diagnosis.