Allyson, your aim is true. I won't generalize a diagnosis on any other patients, but your doctor was probably right. And I think EDS is probably the main factor behind my situation, and many other CFS cases. I have the hypermobile joints and stretchy skin too. It's a case of the elephant sitting in the middle of the living room, and being ignored by everyone. It would be nice if CFS researchers would start with the simple explanations. They usually turn out to be the correct ones.
My mother always had low blood pressure, low energy, sensitivity to smells, unexplained malaise going back many decades (her mother had all of the same symptoms). She asked an ordinary internist about this back in the early 1960s, and he intuitively responded "of course, that's because you have flaccid veins." When she first told me that I thought, what a strange thing for a doctor to say. In retrospect, the doctor's intuition was probably right. They weren't all ignorant back then.
When the blood flow is not channelled properly around the body, the body responds immunologically and neurologically in all kinds of ways. I think that's the open door that allows all these crazy virus reactivations. Probably our blood brain barriers, muscosal barriers are thin and flimsy too. Resulting in cognitive problems, endless gut issues, constant sinus issues and so on. Also, more women than men tend to get this illness, and women are more likely to have hyper-flexibility, -mobility, connective tissue deficits.
Your comment about the continual shocks to the adrenal system, because of the body's panic about not having enough blood, seem especially true. Many folks with CFS like Klonopin or benzodiazopine drugs. I thought it was just because they are palliative drugs, and relieve the symptoms.
Now I wonder if we don't benefit from the relief of adrenal stress; and that's the big reason we tend to like them.
Thanks for your very interesting post.
