Chronic fatigue may all be in the genes, US says
From Yahoo! News:
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Chronic fatigue syndrome, once dismissed by some medical experts as being all in the head, has a clear biological basis, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
A comprehensive study of 227 chronic fatigue syndrome patients shows several genetic differences, the CDC team found.
"It really is the first credible evidence for a biological basis for chronic fatigue syndrome," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"For the first time ever, we have documented that people with CFS have certain genes that are related to the parts of the brain activity that mediate the stress response," added Dr. William Reeves, who heads CDC's chronic fatigue syndrome public health research program.
"They have different gene activity levels that are related to the body's ability to adapt to stresses that occur through life." Such stresses may include aging and illness, he added.
Researchers have recently discarded theories that viruses like Epstein-Barr virus cause chronic fatigue syndrome, or that some immune system weakness might be involved.
"These findings are important because they will help to focus our research efforts to identify diagnostic tools and more effective treatments which ultimately could alleviate a lot of pain and suffering," Reeves said.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is defined by a range of symptoms, including fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, problems with memory and concentration and often pain.
AT LEAST 1 MILLION WITH CHRONIC FATIGUE IN US
"At least a million American suffer from CFS," Reeves said.
"The average family in which a member suffers from CFS forgoes an estimated $20,000 a year in lost earnings and savings."
Writing in the April issue of Pharmacogenomics, the CDC team said they extensively studied 227 volunteers with chronic fatigue syndrome who spent two days in a hospital ward. Their blood was studied, they were watched and monitored as they slept, and the activity of 20,000 genes was analyzed.
The journal also published more than a dozen papers by researchers asserting a biological basis for the syndrome.
The CDC used a new multidisciplinary approach, which it calls Computational Challenge. They created a molecular profile of each patient, said Dr. Suzanne Vernon, Molecular Epidemiology Team Leader for the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Laboratory.
"We put together four teams of different experts and challenged them to develop ways to integrate and analyze a wide range of medical data so as to identify those things that could improve the diagnosis, treatment, or understanding of CFS," Vernon said.
"Perhaps we are closest to being able to predict how someone will respond to medications, for instance," Vernon added.
Gerberding said the new approach, which uses genetics to look for causes of disease on a population-wide level, might also be applied to diseases such as autism, which many experts also believe may be caused by an underlying genetic susceptibility.
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Though the article doesn't mention FMS specifically, I'm willing to bet that the same thing is true of FMS as well.
--MorelaterZ--
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
From RemedyFind: Causes of Fibromyalgia-- Part 3 of 3
This is Part 3 of a three-part article discussing theories about the causes / triggers of Fibromyalgia. Please understand that most of these theories have yet to be tested, let alone proven.
LYME DISEASE
This disease is caused by a tick bite and symptoms are very similar to FMS/CFIDS. Accurately diagnosing Lyme Disease with blood tests can be problematic, especially if the infection happened a while ago. I heard from one lady who was treated (falsely) for Lyme Disease and now her FMS symptoms are far worse.
TYPE A PERSONALITY
I have yet to meet a person with fibromyalgia who was not intelligent, articulate, and high-achieving. It could be that we manufacture more stress chemicals than our "Type B" friends. We like to stay busy, achieve goals, and carry a lot of responsibility. Because of this, the disabilities that result from fibromyalgia can be devastating to us. Learning to pace ourselves and not saying "YES" to every opportunity is difficult. However, we can re-shape our lives into a more relaxed mode and learn that the world will not cave in if we do not participate in everything. Fibromyalgia does not get better by "pushing the envelope" of our endurance--in fact, it is a sure way to bring on a flare.
SPINAL STENOSIS
It may sound drastic, but a special kind of surgery is being used to successfully cure FMS/CFIDS in some cases. Spinal Stenosis is where the spinal cord is compressed by surrounding bone (such as a herniated disk). This can cause debilitating neurological symptoms throughout the entire body, including pain and weakness. Dr. Tim Johnson reported that a neurosurgical procedure being performed on sufferers of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue had improved their pain and fatigue. Dr. Banner of Dotham, Alabama found many of his patients with chronic pain syndromes had cervical spinal pathology. Some had compression of the spinal cord at the exit from the skull, known as Chiari malformation. Many of these patients had surgery at the University of Alabama by Dr. Michael Rosner and Dr. Dan Heffez. Many had good results and reported a reduction in pain and fatigue after the surgery.
GLUTEN INTOLERANCE
This is also known as celiac disease. People with this condition cannot eat grains such as wheat, barley and rye. Some people who thought they had fibromyalgia actually found out they have celiac disease.
SUBSTANCE P
There are abnormally low levels of blood flow in the parts of the brain that deal with pain in people with FMS. We have twice the level of a brain chemical called Substance P, which helps nervous system cells communicate with each other about painful stimuli. Elevated P levels may actually produce the higher levels of pain throughout the body.
BLOOD VOLUME
Dr. David S. Bell's study with endocrinologist Dr. David Streeten yielded a startling discovery: the vast majority of Bell's FMS/CFIDS patients had extraordinarily low circulating blood volume (a combination of plasma and the red blood cells via which the plasma delivers oxygen throughout the body).
HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE
Many of us with fibromyalgia sleep better if we take a mild antihistamine at bedtime. However, Dr. Felix Ravikovich says that histamine regulates vital functions such as hormonal production, production of neurotransmitters (including serotonin, endorphins and noradrenalin), vascular tone, bowel motility, pain, libido, thirst, and appetite. Because excessive release of histamine is the cause of allergies, doctors prescribe antihistamines to block histamine release. But Dr. Ravikovich says histamine is a self-remedy that can rectify its own production. (I have even heard from people with FMS who say that bee sting therapy has helped them!)
BLOOD THICKNESS
Dr. John Couvaras, while researching infertility in women, found a hypercoagulable state due to a coagulation protein defect that exists in women who were infertile and/or had recurrent spontaneous abortions. When Dr. Couvaras put women on low dose heparin in order to become pregnant, their CFS/FMS symptoms, pelvic pain, and migraine-like headaches diminished.
ANTIBIOTICS
Debra Simon has fascinating information on her site about the overuse of antibiotics in creating yeast-related illnesses, which have many of the same characteristics as fibromyalgia.
VACCINATIONS
Mandatory childhood vaccinations may be the cause of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and a lot of other illnesses, according to some medical experts. See Dr. Joseph Mercola’s site for more information.
This concludes the discussion about the possible causes of fibromyalgia.
LYME DISEASE
This disease is caused by a tick bite and symptoms are very similar to FMS/CFIDS. Accurately diagnosing Lyme Disease with blood tests can be problematic, especially if the infection happened a while ago. I heard from one lady who was treated (falsely) for Lyme Disease and now her FMS symptoms are far worse.
TYPE A PERSONALITY
I have yet to meet a person with fibromyalgia who was not intelligent, articulate, and high-achieving. It could be that we manufacture more stress chemicals than our "Type B" friends. We like to stay busy, achieve goals, and carry a lot of responsibility. Because of this, the disabilities that result from fibromyalgia can be devastating to us. Learning to pace ourselves and not saying "YES" to every opportunity is difficult. However, we can re-shape our lives into a more relaxed mode and learn that the world will not cave in if we do not participate in everything. Fibromyalgia does not get better by "pushing the envelope" of our endurance--in fact, it is a sure way to bring on a flare.
SPINAL STENOSIS
It may sound drastic, but a special kind of surgery is being used to successfully cure FMS/CFIDS in some cases. Spinal Stenosis is where the spinal cord is compressed by surrounding bone (such as a herniated disk). This can cause debilitating neurological symptoms throughout the entire body, including pain and weakness. Dr. Tim Johnson reported that a neurosurgical procedure being performed on sufferers of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue had improved their pain and fatigue. Dr. Banner of Dotham, Alabama found many of his patients with chronic pain syndromes had cervical spinal pathology. Some had compression of the spinal cord at the exit from the skull, known as Chiari malformation. Many of these patients had surgery at the University of Alabama by Dr. Michael Rosner and Dr. Dan Heffez. Many had good results and reported a reduction in pain and fatigue after the surgery.
GLUTEN INTOLERANCE
This is also known as celiac disease. People with this condition cannot eat grains such as wheat, barley and rye. Some people who thought they had fibromyalgia actually found out they have celiac disease.
SUBSTANCE P
There are abnormally low levels of blood flow in the parts of the brain that deal with pain in people with FMS. We have twice the level of a brain chemical called Substance P, which helps nervous system cells communicate with each other about painful stimuli. Elevated P levels may actually produce the higher levels of pain throughout the body.
BLOOD VOLUME
Dr. David S. Bell's study with endocrinologist Dr. David Streeten yielded a startling discovery: the vast majority of Bell's FMS/CFIDS patients had extraordinarily low circulating blood volume (a combination of plasma and the red blood cells via which the plasma delivers oxygen throughout the body).
HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE
Many of us with fibromyalgia sleep better if we take a mild antihistamine at bedtime. However, Dr. Felix Ravikovich says that histamine regulates vital functions such as hormonal production, production of neurotransmitters (including serotonin, endorphins and noradrenalin), vascular tone, bowel motility, pain, libido, thirst, and appetite. Because excessive release of histamine is the cause of allergies, doctors prescribe antihistamines to block histamine release. But Dr. Ravikovich says histamine is a self-remedy that can rectify its own production. (I have even heard from people with FMS who say that bee sting therapy has helped them!)
BLOOD THICKNESS
Dr. John Couvaras, while researching infertility in women, found a hypercoagulable state due to a coagulation protein defect that exists in women who were infertile and/or had recurrent spontaneous abortions. When Dr. Couvaras put women on low dose heparin in order to become pregnant, their CFS/FMS symptoms, pelvic pain, and migraine-like headaches diminished.
ANTIBIOTICS
Debra Simon has fascinating information on her site about the overuse of antibiotics in creating yeast-related illnesses, which have many of the same characteristics as fibromyalgia.
VACCINATIONS
Mandatory childhood vaccinations may be the cause of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and a lot of other illnesses, according to some medical experts. See Dr. Joseph Mercola’s site for more information.
This concludes the discussion about the possible causes of fibromyalgia.
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