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THIS mysterious condition affects millions more than MS - but you probably don't know it
CHRONIC fatigue syndrome affects millions of people worldwide, but barely anything is known about it. A new documentary, Unrest, aims to shine a light on a condition that has been ignored for too long.
By LAUREN CLARK
PUBLISHED: 16:20, Mon, Oct 23, 2017 | UPDATED: 18:43, Tue, Oct 24, 2017
UNREST/ GETTY
Chronic fatigue syndrome: Unrest explores a very misunderstood condition
Chronic fatigue syndrome - or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and commonly shortened to CFS/ME- affects an estimated 15 to 30 million people globally, including 250,000 in the UK.
That’s more than the 100,000 sufferers of multiple sclerosis (MS), an equally devastating condition, but one that has a greater understanding and potential treatments in the pipeline.
Unkindly branded ‘yuppie flu’ in the not too distant past, CFS/ ME has been stigmatised and ignored over the decades, despite being first identified as an illness by the World Health Organization back in 1969.
Sufferers were commonly told that symptoms - which included extreme fatigue, severe muscle pain and debilitating cognitive problems - were psychological, and all in their head.
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My husband Omar and I both got sick with a virus when we were travelling. He recovered from the fever, but I began to develop strange flu-like symptoms.
Jen Brea, director of Unrest
However, the effects of CFS/ ME can be devastating - a quarter of patients are housebound or bed bound, meaning that they can often remain hidden to society.
Recent progress has been made after a ground-breaking Stanford study discovered the condition could be proved with a blood test.