Interesting & Mysterious

 

From Forbes, of all places (& be warned, popups!):

Flexible Joints a Curious Clue to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

SUNDAY, Sept. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Chronic fatigue syndrome has been accepted as a medical condition for almost 20 years. Once passed off as a series of sometimes ambiguous complaints about pain in the joints and a general malaise -- primarily by females -- the condition was confirmed by medical researchers as  bona fide in 1988. . .

What he and other researchers found was puzzling, to say the least.

Sixty percent of the 60 children and teens they treated for chronic fatigue syndrome also had hypermobility in at least four of their joints. Only 20 percent of the general public has a single hyperflexible joint, such as being able to bend a pinkie 90 degrees backward, touch the thumb to the forearm, or bend at the waist and rest both hands flat on the ground. . .

Their findings, which appeared in  The Journal of Pediatrics, added a vexing wrinkle to the current thinking on chronic fatigue syndrome. . .

Rowe emphasized that having hyperflexible joints doesn't mean a person will have the syndrome. Just how the two are related is little more than a guess, Rowe and Jason agreed. . .

I'm intrigued, partly because I have hyperflexible joints -- always have. Even at my age and weight, I can still bend at the waist and put my hands flat on the floor, and nearly touch my thumbs to my forearms. The latter is less flexible than it used to be, though; a bit of arthritis, I think.

Odd, isn't it?