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Ballet star returns after beating secret illness

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
The above is a headline in the Sunday Times to the following short piece,

Lauren Cuthbertson a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet who was hailed as the next Darcy Bussell is now back working, 'it can now be disclosed' she had been suffering from glandular fever followed by ME also known as Chronic Fatigu Syndrome.................
What is it with all the secrecy surrounding this illness??
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
The above is a headline in the Sunday Times to the following short piece,

Lauren Cuthbertson a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet who was hailed as the next Darcy Bussell is now back working, 'it can now be disclosed' she had been suffering from glandular fever followed by ME also known as Chronic Fatigu Syndrome.................
What is it with all the secrecy surrounding this illness??

If I were in the public eye, the last thing I would want is people writing me off as a nutcase because I have ME, until such time as it becomes publicly recognised for the neuro-immune disease that it is. I keep my own illness a secret from people until I know I can trust them. Once one has recovered enough to function, it's easier to talk about what you've had; but hard to talk about it when you've got it.

Or maybe it's just shoddy reporting and they meant "mysterious" rather than "secret" - after all, ME still is mysterious, unfortunately for us.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
"It can now be disclosed" really does reflect attidues here since whoever called it just "yuppie flu" all that time ago. And the general disbelief in any illness certainly brought me to avoid my Doctor/Consultant. So it was go it alone. And I might add still is mostly until the arrival of the WPI.
 
Messages
5
Very impressive. Ballet is a very rigorous activity. I'd call it a sport, but it's too graceful... Add to the difficulty of dealing with ME while practicing and performing the stress of keeping it secret as a prominent figure in your field--man!
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
A lot of people develop a CFS-type illness after infectious mononucleosis (like this young woman) and get over it.

For example, in the study below, 2/3 of those who had CFS 6 months after infectious mononucleosis didn't have it 18 months later. A similar result was seen in the Dubbo studies (percentages may have been a bit different - not sure the figures were ever published for 2 years but I heard 98-99% of the initial group who got IM were well then).

Full free text: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/124/1/189

Pediatrics. 2009 Jul;124(1):189-93.

Chronic fatigue syndrome after infectious mononucleosis in adolescents.
Katz BZ, Shiraishi Y, Mears CJ, Binns HJ, Taylor R.

Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA. bkatz@northwestern.edu

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The goal was to characterize prospectively the course and outcome of chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents during a 2-year period after infectious mononucleosis.

METHODS: A total of 301 adolescents (12-18 years of age) with infectious mononucleosis were identified and screened for nonrecovery 6 months after infectious mononucleosis by using a telephone screening interview. Nonrecovered adolescents underwent a medical evaluation, with follow-up screening 12 and 24 months after infectious mononucleosis. After blind review, final diagnoses of chronic fatigue syndrome at 6, 12, and 24 months were made by using established pediatric criteria.

RESULTS: Six, 12, and 24 months after infectious mononucleosis, 13%, 7%, and 4% of adolescents, respectively, met the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. Most individuals recovered with time; only 2 adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome at 24 months seemed to have recovered or had an explanation for chronic fatigue at 12 months but then were reclassified as having chronic fatigue syndrome at 24 months. All 13 adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome 24 months after infectious mononucleosis were female and, on average, they reported greater fatigue severity at 12 months. Reported use of steroid therapy during the acute phase of infectious mononucleosis did not increase the risk of developing chronic fatigue syndrome.

CONCLUSIONS: Infectious mononucleosis may be a risk factor for chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents. Female gender and greater fatigue severity, but not reported steroid use during the acute illness, were associated with the development of chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents. Additional research is needed to determine other predictors of persistent fatigue after infectious mononucleosis.
 
Messages
2,565
Location
US
News about someone getting over it seems bad for us :( Unless it talks about how some don't get over it and how bad it is. Otherwise it's like, oh it was just a long drawn out yuppie flu and some people stay sick because they prefer to be sick and lazy :(
 

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,301
Location
Ashland, Oregon
whoever called it just "yuppie flu" all that time ago.

I heard once it was Johnny Carson who coined "yuppie flu". Whether accurate or not, I believe he took his share of pot shots at PWCs. Never underestimate how much influence celebrities have on public perceptions.

Wayne
 

lucy

Senior Member
Messages
102
Strange, because coming down with mononucleosis is very common among college sports news: google news for mononucleosis and there will be plenty of news of basketball players with mono.