Is M.E. a misogynist?

[markmc20001]

I offered a hypothesis for the higher prevalence of ME/CFS in women than in men at the 2007 IACFS conference. The paper is available in the files section of the Yahoo cfs_yasko group's website. Essentially, the hypothesis is that some women (as well as men, but it doesn't have the same effect in men) have a combination of genetic polymorphism in genes that code for enzymes involved in estrogen metabolism: CYP1B1, COMT, the GST enzymes, and the SOD enzymes. This combination, which I have seen in the Genovations Detoxigenomic profile results for several women with ME/CFS, will promote what is called redox cycling, which contributes to oxidative stress. In the GD-MCB hypothesis, oxidative stress depletes glutathione, and that leads to the onset of ME/CFS in people who are genetically predisposed to developing a partial methylation cycle block. So the gist of it is that many women have an additional bias toward the development of oxidative stress because of the need to metabolize estrogens, and the presence of these polymorphisms.

Best regards,

Rich

Can Rich or somebody else answer a question? Can we become "genetically Predisposed" to a partial methylation block by being infected with a retrovirus?

Thanks

 

[fla]

markmc20001, interesting question about becoming "genetically predisposed" through a retrovirus. Anyone???

I'm also curious if childbearing affects the odds of women contracting ME. For example are the ME rates of women who have not had children comparable to ME rates in men or are they significantly lower than ME rates in women who have had children?

 

[SaveMe]

dont let anyone tell you otherwise, this illness does affect several hundred percent more women than men.

I am the only male i know with this illness. (in real life)

Some people will come up with some bogus argument like "women are more likely to report their symptoms" but thats just a load.


To answer your question though, this illness strikes significantly more women due to hormones. Also, nurses (predominantly a womens profession) and teachers (predominantly a womens profession) are the ones most at risk.

 

[fla]

Attended a Dr Denis Phaneuf presentation Sunday and he mentioned that he has not seen a convincing study about the distribution of men vs women in this syndrome but for what it's worth in the two to three thousand patients he has treated over the last couple decades he's seen two women for every man. He believes that women have a more hyperactive immune system for unknown evolutionary reasons.

 

[richvank]

Can Rich or somebody else answer a question? Can we become "genetically Predisposed" to a partial methylation block by being infected with a retrovirus?

Thanks

Hi, markmc.

I'm not sure I would characterize it as "genetically" predisposed (though I guess you are referring to the fact that the retroviruses integrate their DNA into the human DNA and can affect the expression of the normal human genes as well as expressing their own genes). I do think it's possible that being infected with a retrovirus could make a person more susceptible to developing a partial methylation cycle block.

How would this happen? Well, I don't know yet which are the genes for which the retroviruses would affect the expression, but if it affected genes that impacted the glutathione system so as to lower glutathione, that could predispose the person, I think. Also, if it impacted genes associated with vitamin B12 metabolism, or with genes that code for enzymes in the methylation cycle or related pathways, or the antioxidant system, I think any of these could cause a predisposition toward a partial methylation cycle block.

The other possible unhappy aspect is that once a partial methylation cycle block had developed, the deficit in methylation of DNA that resulted might remove the "silencing" from the expression of the retroviral DNA, so that it would tend to be more expressed and thus the retrovirus would be more active. So this can work both ways, I think.

We still have a lot to learn about these retroviruses, but I expect that there will turn out to be a connection between them and the partial methylation cycle block, in one direction or the other, or perhaps both.

Best regards,

Rich

 

[Mya Symons]

I don't know the answer of course, but i would disagree with some of this (no offense meant though).

I don't think that it just seems women have ME/CFS more often than men. Unless you have a very mild case, i can hardly imagine it's possible to keep it to yourself that you have this. If you can't work normally anymore etc. people will realize it wheter you like it or not. So i think those statistics are basically correct.

And i don't think it would make sense for men to be "constructed" in such a way that they are less likely to survive, because the presence of men certainly enhance the chance for women to survive, so it would be an advantage if the men survive. But if some don't survive it's no problem for the rest of course :tongue:

There is another theory about women and autoimmune diseases. It is that when women are pregnant their immune systems start becoming more active to help protect them and the baby. Sometimes this does not get shut off. Thus, women's immune systems tend to be more reactive to things they are and are not suppossed to react too. Perhaps a virus isn't the direct cause of ME/CFS, but it is the reaction to that virus by the immune system that is the cause? There are also some researchers who believe that even if a woman does not get pregnant, their immune systems overreact because they are able to get pregnant and; thus, need a more reactive immune system (genetically).

 

[Mya Symons]

markmc20001, interesting question about becoming "genetically predisposed" through a retrovirus. Anyone???

I'm also curious if childbearing affects the odds of women contracting ME. For example are the ME rates of women who have not had children comparable to ME rates in men or are they significantly lower than ME rates in women who have had children?

I have to read where I get stuff better. I just realized this site is a white suppremisist site. Sorry, if you already read this. However, they got the summary from government sites. Sorry, it definately was not intentional. I am also Native American and would definately not frequent such a site.

20- 25% of Europeans have the HIV immunity

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/Biol...ebe/resist.htm
About 20% of Caucasians have one copy of the gene, about 10% have two copies. Among Caucasian Europeans the gene is more common in Northern Europeans. The gene is virtually absent in Africans, Native Americans and Asians.

It is hypothesized that a devastating epidemic swept through Europe may
thousands of years ago that, like HIV, used a normal CKR-5 protein. Those survivors with a mutant gene survived and reproduced. Natural selection favors the survival and reproduction of the fittest and the gene consequently became more abundant in these populations over time.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
Ott Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Recently, it was shown that a 32-bp deletion in the CKR5 macrophage chemokine receptor gene produced resistance to HIV infection. Frequencies of the CKR5 mutant allele in Russians, Tatars, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Azerbaijanis, Uigurts, Tuvinians, and Georgians estimated by means of the PCR technique were equal to 0.13, 0.12, 0.85, 0.06, 0.05, 0.04, 0.03, and 0.00, respectively. While the theoretically expected frequency of deletion homozygotes in Russians and Tatars was 1.7%, none of such homozygotes were detected among the 90 persons examined. The data suggested that about 25% of the population in northwestern Russia is highly resistant to HIV infection.


I was reading an article the other day (which now I can't find) that stated people with Native American Ancestors are more likely to get Fibromyalgia and CFS. Weird. I have objibway anscestory on my dad's side of the family (my grandmother).

 

[Nielk]

Can we take a poll here on the forum to see the distribution of males vs females?