I've been absent from here for a long time. My energy -- well, energy: what is that?
Still, I wanted to report on recent research. I imagine several of you are keeping up with this, but -- I haven't been reading you lately.
As usual, a lot on the differences between healthy folk and those of us with these mysterious illnesses; little on how to help us.
So here is what my Google Alerts are bringing me:
From American Chronicle: Study Shows Exercise May Not Be What the Doctor Ordered for Your Fatigued Friend
Researchers in Japan noted that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) report substantial symptom worsening after exercise and took an interest in the specific time course of the worsening. They investigated the influence of exercise on the subjective symptoms and cognitive function of 9 female CFS patients and compared them with 9 healthy women. An exercise test was conducted and monitoring of vital signs, cognitive function, and psychological status was performed from one week prior to exercise until two weeks after exercise.
Physical symptoms in the CFS patients did get worse on the fifth day. However cognitive and psychological status remained constant. There was no cognitive or psychological benefit to the exercise, yet patients became more fatigued and suffered physical decline...
From PakTribune: Chronic Fatigue Differs from Depression
Chronic fatigue syndrome and depression have distinct biological features, researchers in Canada report, suggesting that the two conditions have unique causes. Unlike patients with depression, those with chronic fatigue syndrome have lower skin conductance levels and higher skin temperatures in the arms and legs...
People with common chronic pain condition have less availability of a pain-deadening receptor in the brain, UMHS study finds
ANN ARBOR, MI – People who have the common chronic pain condition fibromyalgia often report that they don’t respond to the types of medication that relieve other people’s pain. New research from the University of Michigan Health System helps to explain why that might be: Patients with fibromyalgia were found to have reduced binding ability of a type of receptor in the brain that is the target of opioid painkiller drugs such as morphine...
From ScienceDaily: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Linked To Stomach Virus
...Most of the biopsy specimens from patients with gut problems showed evidence of mild long term inflammation, although few were infected with Helicobacter pylori, a common bacterial infection associated with inflammation.
But more than 80% of the specimens from the ME patients tested positive for enteroviral particles compared with only seven of the 34 specimens from healthy people.
In a significant proportion of patients, the initial infection had occurred many years earlier.
Maybe, someday, someone will put all this together and come up with treatment and prevention strategies. Those of us who are not scientists can only hope.