lydiajen at LiveJournal's CFIDS and M.E. Support Community points to a very interesting CDC press briefing on their recent CFS research. I've selected some comprehensible to non-scientist me excerpts [all emphases mine]:
With us today is the director of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, and two of our principle chronic fatigue syndrome researchers here at CDC, Dr. William Reeves and Dr. Suzanne Vernon.
DR. GERBERDING: . . . It really is the first credible evidence of a biological basis for chronic fatigue syndrome, that's come out in 14 articles, simultaneously, in the journal Pharmacogenomics. And I think it really reflects a remarkable confluence of a number of scientific advances really coming to bear on a problem of great importance to many people around the United States and one that's had controversies in the past...
. . . by identifying specific genes and gene activities associated with people who have chronic fatigue syndrome, we're really beginning to tease out the biological foundations of the manifestation of a disease in the population, not just at the individual level
DR. REEVES: . . For the first time ever, we have documented that people with CFS have certain genes that are related to those parts of brain activity that mediate the stress response.
And that they have different gene activity levels, this is outside which genes are there, that are related to their body's ability to adapt to challenges and stresses that occur throughout life, such as infections, injury, trauma or various adverse events.
Why is it important? Well, knowing that there is now a biologic basis for CFS will help us identify better ways to more effectively diagnose the illness and to come up with more effective treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy, medications or a combination of both....
DR. VERNON: I think what we've been able to show is that CFS is very heterogeneous, it's not just one thing, so there's probably not just one diagnostic marker.
We've actually demonstrated that there are probably at least four or five molecular profiles or groups of people that make up this complex of CFS, implicating perhaps subtle alterations in the system, that person's, that is affected, more or less. . .
QUESTION: So is the idea here then that people who are susceptible to CFS encounter stresses in their everyday lives, like an infection, and they are less able to fight off that stress?
DR. REEVES: That is correct, and one of the things we have not mentioned in this, we've mainly focused this talk on the gene activity. One of the groups approached this through the concept of allostatic load, which is a physiologic marker, it's a complex one, it's put together of accumulated wear and tear on the body through continued adaptation to stress.
Those people with chronic fatigue syndrome have significantly increased allostatic load indices and there is a significantly increasing risk of that with normal medium level and high-level allostatic load indices. . .
QUESTION: Thanks. I was curious whether you know anything about how this particular genetic makeup that you identified as being associated with the disease occurs.
Is this something that can occur through, you know, environmental factors?
DR. REEVES: The genetic makeup--no. Our hypothesis that the HPA axis is involved in this, which is very clear in this allostatic load, is a physiologic marker of one's accumulated adaptation to stress.
The working hypothesis is that the HPA axis and the brain is a plastic organ which changes its actual physical architecture depending on stresses that are accumulated over the lifetime.
So as people experience stress, and that can be childhood abuse, it can be childhood infections, it can be multiple injuries--all the stresses that we experience as these are experienced throughout the lifespan, to some extent the genetics determine how you are going to react to them, they determine how your allostatic load may accumulate, and more importantly, they actually determine your subsequent reaction to stress applied at a later time during the lifespan. . .
It's well worth going to read the entire transcript (especially, I expect, if you have some scientific training) -- and there is also an audio file that's about 45 minutes long.
Just one observation -- while it's certainly true that I'm now highly reactive to stress, before I was ill I could manage high-stress situations without (it seemed) consequence. Could, and did.
Are they just saying we are worn out, like that tired old bear?
