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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Imagine feeling horribly sick, day after day, yet doctors repeatedly tell you they can't find anything wrong. That typically happens to people with the mysterious illness commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Research findings from Stanford University released Monday could point the way to a long-sought diagnostic laboratory test for the condition, and possibly a first-ever treatment.
Believed to affect at least a million people in the U.S., the condition is now increasingly termed myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS for short.
Many patients see the name "chronic fatigue syndrome" as trivializing and misleading, giving the impression that they're simply tired or depressed. In fact, they're experiencing profound exhaustion that isn't relieved with sleep, flu-like symptoms, muscle pain, "brain fog" and various other physical symptoms, all of which characteristically worsen with even minor exertion. (A 2015 Institute of Medicine report proposed the name "systemic exertion intolerance disease," but it hasn't really stuck.)
The symptoms can range from mild to extremely severe, with about a quarter of patients so ill they're mostly or completely confined to bed. Now, the Stanford researchers have linked ME/CFS to variations in certain cytokines, immune-signaling proteins, that track with illness severity. The study results were published online Monday in the the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Tuesday August 01 2017, @10:10PM (5 children)
It wasn't that long ago that doctors were convinced it was a psychological illness or just plain malingering.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @10:56PM (2 children)
"Boss, I'm tired of being tired."
"Good news, you're also fired."
"But now how will I pay to see a doc?"
"Hell if I know, you lazy sack."
(Score: 5, Informative) by Spamalope on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:42PM (1 child)
This exactly.
"yet doctors repeatedly tell you they can't find anything wrong"
Then HR: 'You're lying and taking advantage. If you were really sick you'd go to the doctor and get well.' - that's a quote btw... :/
Story of my life. Also harmful and nearly fatal medical directives, basically either 'don't try finding the causes of increased inflamation for you' and 'treat this as a psychological problem' when I was there with symptoms of severe sleep deprivation and mal-nutrition. My inflammatory response includes my intestines, which were so damaged they didn't work properly leading to significant nutrition problems. The muscle and joint pain keeps me from sleeping, in addition to the direct fatigue symptoms. Gastro DR told me not to do the 'cut out everything but rice and water, then add things back' dietary way to find food allergies. That directive almost killed me.
In my case I've got labs showing pathological levels of tryptase which indicates mast cell disease. (they're the immune system volume knob - mine is stuck around 7x the normal range) No idea why though. The limited treatments for that don't work on me at all. I was supposed to go to NIH (national institute of health) to be tested. My employer required me to have written approval for a leave of absence to go, then wouldn't respond. (see, saying no would be a violation of FMLA - but not answering at all while requiring a response to approve care - why that's ok...) This was just before Obamacare, and the DRs wouldn't/couldn't sponsor me to go after that and won't tell me why.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @09:51PM
look into the ketogenic diet. get a qualified nutritionist who won't recommend you eat poison laced grains. profit!
(Score: 3, Informative) by mojo chan on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:34PM (1 child)
I have ME, and I can assure everyone that it's not psychological. There are psychological consequences of having it, sure, but they are not the cause.
It really sucks. I want to get up and do something, feel motivated... But then I get up and my body feels heavy and stiff and painful, and tells me I need to rest.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @12:53PM
It sounds like being very hung over[1]. If a drug can do it to you, your body can also end up in that state other ways. It wouldn't surprise me if these are the same phenomenon.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover [wikipedia.org]