chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) - retro virus

[gmccormack]

I saw this in the WSJ today and upon further research the CFS world is very into this. We all know that some sort of fatigue is sometimes accompanied with CPPS, however, I do not know if it is technically CFS. Incidentally, there is a link between prostate cancer and a retro virus.

New Hope in Fatigue Fight ( about the XMRV virus )

[webslave]

I'm sceptical. I've had CFS, and it hit me at a point in my life when I was under a lot of stress. I think it far more likely that an adrenally exhausted patient is easy prey for any number of infectious agents. So that even if CFS patients do have more traces of this infection, there is the question of what came first, the cart or the horse. In other words, does CFS make you more susceptible to the virus, or more likely to suffer a brief infection by any number of viruses that leave a fingerprint in your body (as found by nested PCR).

Note that some of the studies do not find this new virus in CFS patients.

[gmccormack]

This article was in today's Chicago Tribune. I actually posted a study I think from the NYT stating that XMRV was the cause of CFS, now it looks like that study was wrong. Another condition completely shrouded in mystery...

[robertpagen]

how does a person become adrenally exhausted?

Be well

[webslave]

Constant stress can overwork the HPA axis, studies say, eg:
http://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17420440

[neis]

I've had CFS for long periods, and thankfully has been in *remission* for a while. It all started in 1993 while staying at a camp ground in South Lake Tahoe. I was there to participate in a triathlon, but on the morning of the event I could barely walk. People said I looked spacey, and I felt very confused. The trip home was followed by 5 weeks in bed where sleep provided no rest. Each attempt to get out of bed was unsuccessful. The fatigue was the deepest I've ever felt. The symptoms slowly abated, but each year for the next 10 years I'd have 2 episodes of the same type of fatigue that would land me in bed for 2 weeks. I had one episode in 2010. For me, there wasn't a stress component. I believe the bug I caught at Tahoe is responsible for the onset. My anecdote.

[gmccormack]

Neis,

so are you saying that you were not adrenally fatigued? Did you have any blood tests?

[neis]

Had a battery of tests. They thought I'd be positive for EBV, I believe confirming mono, but it was negative. I'd been training for years, and was not over trained at all, as I was just the running leg in the tri.
Believe me, I know the fatigue from over training...totally different, and responds to rest. Same with overwork/overstress fatigue.

[webslave]

Neis, the other suspect in my CFS was chemical exposure. Were you exposed to a pesticide treated environment, or a heavy dose of chlorine fumes, etc?

[neis]

Not that I know of webslave. It was all a mystery at the time...and now. Never had anything similar to it before, but experienced many smaller episodes after. It always interested me since one of the first known outbreaks was in S. Tahoe in 1984. I swam competitively as a kid in heavily chlorinated pools, and was into a engine re-build phase at the time of the incident. I do know there's been a number of cancer incidents in other kids I swam with...don't know the exact number, or if it's statistically odd.

[webslave]

2011 update: Mouse virus doesn't cause chronic fatigue: reports

[webslave]

Another update: Study linking virus and chronic fatigue retracted

[robertpagen]

As a teen I swam competition in stunningly heavily chlorinated pools. I would stink of chlorine constantly. Overlaps with the times that CFS symptoms would happen. What is the connection?

[webslave]

Well, chlorine can induce asthma. It seems to attack the immune system at some level.