Hi Lee Ann, Here is a quote from the The Merck Manual on some of the symptoms of dysautonomia. "A dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system can cause dizziness or light-headedness due to excessive decrease in blood pressure when a person stands (orthostatic hypotension). The autonomic nervous system conrols blood pressure, heart and breathing rates, body temerature, digestion, metabolism..."
The study I posted on CFS and autonomic dysfunction states, "Our data show a clear and significant association between CFS and the symptoms of autonomic dysfunction."
That is why I said these diseases are really just clusters of symptoms. They all share the common features of autonomic dysfunction and B12 deficiency for instance. They also share the same missing hormones and neurotransmitters. That is why they are all so similar.
Hi Rich, Here is a little more info on the B12 connection to other autoimmune diseases as well. This is a quote from my book.
"In patients with diabetes, the B12 connection has been established by researchers at the prestigious Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick. The University of Warwick researchers, led by Professor Thornalley, have shown conclusively that diabetic patients are thiamine (B1)deficient in blood plasma. In a paper entitled, "High prevalence of low plasma thiamine concentration in diabetes linked to a marker of vascular disease," published i Diabetologia, the team found that thiamine concentration in blood plasma was decreased 76% in type 1 diabetic patients and 75% in type 2 diabetic patients.
The paper states, "The researchers found that the decreased plasma thiamine concentration in clinical diabetes was not due to a deficiency of dietary input of thiamine. Rather, it was due to a PROFOUND increased rate of removal of thiamine from the blood into the urine." (Thornalley, 2007). As we discussed earlier, if you are deficient in B12, you will not be able to absorb B1. It will be excreted in your urine."
One of the most surprising things I have learned is that the symptoms of a disease are what tell you where it originates, not an autoimmune label. For instance, recently one of the members of an Internet fibromyalgia support group posted a Fibromyalgia Differential List. There were 45 conditions and diseases on this list that share many of the same symptoms as Fibromyalgia. Some of the diseases listed were Hashimoto's, mitochondrial dysfunction, vitamin toxicity or deficiency, diabetes, and Chrohn's disease. I realized that many of the conditions on the list were associated with the same pathway shared by the autoimmune diseases we have been discussing. (including CFS) To test my theory, I chose one of the diseases on the list that, on the surface, looked as if it could not possibly be associated. The disease was dysbarism, which can be seen in scuba divers.
Here is what Webster's Dictionary says about dysbarism. "Nitrogen narcosis-Nitrogen comprises 79% of the air breathed by aerobic organisms,but at surface pressures it has no sedating effect. At greater depths, however, nitrogen affects the brain in precisely the same way as Nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas)"
Here's what I discovered, "Nitrous oxide inactivates the cobalamin form of B12 by oxidation. Symptoms of B12 deficiency, including sensory neuropathy, myelopathy, and encephalopathy, can occur within days or weeks of exposure to nitrous oxide anesthesia in people with subclinical vitamin B deficiency. Symptoms are treated with high doses of vitamin B12, but recovery can be slow and incomplete. " (Wellness.com,2011)
B12 deficiency is just one component of these diseases. There are more, but they are all connected. It is a pathway, that every symptom, biological finding(such as the lack of dopamine and iron in fibromyalgia) and valid scientific finding in EVERY autoimmune disease can be traced directly back to.
