CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME (ME/CFS): UNCOVERING A MYSTERY (article from health magazine)

[Kyla]

article from Healthy magazine:

http://healthy-magazines.com/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-mecfs-uncovering-mystery/


excerpt:

CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME (ME/CFS): UNCOVERING A MYSTERY

HEALTHY STAFF — MAY 6, 2016

Written by Michael Richardson
When the media talks about a mystery illness, it’s often in reference to some obscure disease with a horrific symptom. But there is an elusive, misunderstood illness that affects more than a million Americans of all ages, and researchers are hustling to get a grip on it, to create better pathways of care.

It goes by a few names. Outside the US many call it myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), but it is more commonly known here as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). But many researchers say the name CFS trivializes the disease and the term ME may overstate what we know about pathophysiology. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee charged with developing a clinical case definition for physicians has recommended that the name be changed to systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID). Most recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has adopted the term ME/CFS.

So What the Heck Is It?
ME/CFS is a chronic multi-system disease characterized by profound fatigue that impairs a person’s ability to function normally, symptoms that worsen drastically after exertion, and disordered sleep that doesn’t refresh. ME/CFS must also include cognitive dysfunction or autonomic manifestations, but patients may experience many other symptoms such as pain, inflammation and allergy, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Symptoms can persist for decades. The cause is unknown, though the latest research points to autoimmune conditions that impact the nervous system...

 

[me/cfs 27931]

Good article.

Not fond of the sleeping man picture. Especially after a neurologist this week tried to convince me I had hypersomnia and needed to get (yet another) sleep study. She didn't want to hear that I wasn't sleepy in the daytime, just fatigued.

 

[Snowdrop]

Good Article. Comments are welcome.

It may be that approaching 'Healthy magazine' about the picture and where to find more appropriate ones is an option.
It says that healthy magazine is distributed to many Dr offices/practices--so I wonder if this article is in the print edition--that would be brilliant.
Also, I think this is the young man responsible for the article: http://newsline.byu.edu/487/resume/MichaelRichardson.html

The magazine is based in Utah.

 

[Old Bones]

She didn't want to hear that I wasn't sleepy in the daytime, just fatigued.

Not once in the more than twenty-five years since my ME diagnosis have I felt sleepy. This is a change from my pre-illness experience. I've often wondered if it means something.

 

[me/cfs 27931]

Not once in the more than twenty-five years since my ME diagnosis have I felt sleepy. This is a change from my pre-illness experience. I've often wondered if it means something.

For me, daytime sleepiness usually means that 1) I exerted too much or 2) allergies interfered with my sleep or 3) random anxiety interfered with my sleep (usually a couple hours and then it spontaneously goes away).

However, I don't recall being substantially more or less sleepy prior to illness onset.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

huge difference between normal tiredness and enjoyable sleep

and having to sleep from ghastly draining fatigue from hell, then wake up worse