Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a Biological Illness: Study
Scientists have found evidence that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a result of immunological dysfunction, meaning it is a biological illness and not a psychological disorder as commonly thought.
The condition, now generally referred to as ME/CFS, causes extreme and persistent tiredness, writes The Independent.
"Over 70 percent of patients have a delay in diagnosis of at least a year" and sometimes a decade, says Mady Hornig, lead author of the new study and an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. That's partially because diagnosing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-more properly known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME/CFS-is usually a matter of tracking specific symptoms and ruling out a variety of other, more easily identified disorders.
Suggested causes include viral infections, problems with the immune system, an imbalance of hormones and psychiatric problems such as trauma and stress.
"We now have evidence confirming what millions of people with this disease already know, that ME/CFS isn't psychological," states Hornig." Our results should accelerate the process of establishing the diagnosis after individuals first fall ill as well as discovery of new treatment strategies focusing on these early blood markers."
"We know that [the immune system] need to shut down" following battling off a virus or germs, but as an alternative the program that regulates cytokines on their own "goes off the rails" in the early phases of ME/CFS, Hornig says. That indicates physicians could use high cytokine amounts to help diagnose the ailment in its early phases.
