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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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What do you think? Is overstress a possible trigger of the immune deficiency?
I totally agree. I know people who endured severe stress for many years or got sick and ate crap and did not take care of their health and did not develop CFS/ME. I wonder too what that "factor" is which allows some to sail through and others capsize (for a rather clunky metaphor! ) under the same or similar circumstances.
I don't have time to analyse this study properly, but I certainly don't recognise myself in "People who are stressed over long periods tend to look haggard." I've been stressed for a large proportion of my life, but have always looked young, with good skin, good hair until recently, bright-eyed and well-looking! (I'm 62.)
Ooh, this ties in to one of my personal pet hypotheses re CFS/ME.
SOMETHING... SOMEHOW... Has led to an insensitivity or even outright intolerance to cortisol level fluctuations in the body (or perhaps one of the other stress hormones/HPA axis etc).
This does not depend on "high levels" of cortisol, but merely changes above some "base level" idiopathic to each patient. This explains why some patients have high levels of cortisol in their tests, some are low and some are normal. The effect is seen as marginal.
What do exercise, stress and illness behaviour all have in common? They have all been measured to increase cortisol (and other stress hormones).
That is why some of us can walk for an hour before the onset of PEM, but others can barely manage 5 minutes. At some point, a threshold is crossed and the body starts responding to the presence of raised cortisol as a pathogen rather than a normal response. Immune response ensues.
The real question is why? How did the body learn to get this way?
I found this report on tennis players.
Seems like Robin Soderling never played again but he remains active within the sport ( whatever that means )
Robin Soderling: Swede retires from tennis after glandular fever - http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/35170939
"In some periods I felt so bad that I was completely bed-ridden.
This past year, however, my health improved and I have been able to increase my exercise levels, but my recovery after exercise is unfortunately still not as I would like."
Loads of people are stressed and they don't get ill.
Lots of children get ME and they were having a fun old time charging around the playground until they got a virus or inoculation.
I don't buy into this stress and ME crap.
me tooI do however think intolerance of stress is a symptom of ME, regardless of stress levels before onset.
If stress played a large role in developing ME then subsections of people in various countries around the world would get it.
You would find higher incidences of ME in places where there are natural disasters, poverty, genocide etc.
Not necessarily. Stress comes in many forms. People get stressed for no reasons whilst other facing total adversity remain calm. Cortisol plays a part.Period.
Stress and cfs are close relations. Any survey done here reaffirms that.
If stress played a large role in developing ME then subsections of people in various countries around the world would get it.
You would find higher incidences of ME in places where there are natural disasters, poverty, genocide etc.