Beyond Tired: Is chronic fatigue syndrome a real medical condition? (Neurology Now)

[jimells]

One of the most damaging lifestyle choices here is probably following the government recommendations on diet for the last four decades. Its almost out of a "how to gain weight fast" booklet.

Amen to that. Somehow the medical industry doesn't seem to notice that their standard "cure" for obesity - eat less and exercise more - almost never works. It's just a fortuitous (for them!) coincidence that their recommendations results in lots of highly-profitable chronic disease.

 

[alex3619]

Amen to that. Somehow the medical industry doesn't seem to notice that their standard "cure" for obesity - eat less and exercise more - almost never works. It's just a fortuitous (for them!) coincidence that their recommendations results in lots of highly-profitable chronic disease.

I had in mind the eat more carbs and avoid fat mantra, aside from (often chemically modified) high omega 6 oils, but its known that dieting is a huge issue and usually does not work. Indeed, repeat dieting often results in gaining more and more weight. Exercise, for most (not us), is very good though. Many of the negative consequences, aside from things like knee and hip wear, benefit from exercise. Sumo wrestlers are overweight, but they have excellent cardiovascular systems. The difference is they exercise and eat very very healthy.

 

[snowathlete]

Do we have any current or former CBT therapists here? Maybe we could market a CBT course to correct false therapist beliefs? It doesn't even have to be real, though if it were it would be even more ironic and useful.

interesting idea Alex. My parents both use CBT for therapy. They think it is ludicrous that it is used in ME/CFS (as well as a whole bunch of other inappropriate diseases).

 

[jimells]

Dr. Sabin understands the skepticism. For many years, he referred to himself as a “CFS agnostic,” but after decades of seeing patients and hearing similar stories of sudden symptoms, he is now convinced that the condition is real and devastating.

Of course, he could've saved decades of work by reading decades of biomedical research or, heaven forbid, believing his patients...

 

[jimells]

The panel identified five major symptoms: profound fatigue, exhaustion after exertion, unrefreshing sleep, cognitive impairment, and orthostatic intolerance (feeling lightheaded upon standing).

This is such a strange article for a professional journal. What audience did the author have in mind? Personally, I would have very little confidence in any doctor that doesn't know what "orthostatic intolerance" means.

 

[Bob]

This is such a strange article for a professional journal. What audience did the author have in mind? Personally, I would have very little confidence in any doctor that doesn't know what "orthostatic intolerance" means.

I agree with you but, at the same time, our experience of doctors suggests that many of them need things to be explained in very simple lay terms! And even then they don't get it!

 

[Gijs]

These types of doctors suffer from the illusion of knowledge what is more dangerous than ignorance.