Hi Sherlock! I finally looked up DOMS and found this on wikipedia -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness - is that the DOMS you're talking about? I hope I've got that right or else the rest of this won't make sense, LOL!
Anyway, I think that's the same thing as what I would call ordinary muscle soreness. It's what happens the day or two after an extra hard workout, right? I never knew that there was a medical name for it but I'm happy to use DOMS to save typing.
I'm curious about your theory so I'll just add my two cents in case they are helpful.
Let's say that the PEM in patients with ME is just a slightly different type of DOMS. Something is broken in people with ME and so this same muscle problem happens in people with ME after only minimal effort.
First of all, wouldn't the pain feel quite similar? As someone who used to be very active, and who would occasionally get DOMS after an extra hard workout (raised the weight level, did a new exercise which used different muscles, or anything like that), I can tell you that my current muscle pain from PEM feels
very different from DOMS. The PEM muscle pain feels more like a tetanus shot kind of ache. Or maybe even a typhoid shot, which hurts even more. It does not feel at all like the muscle soreness that I used to have.
I was 29 when I got sick. I had lifted weights, hiked, done aerobics classes, used the stairmaster, etc. I even climbed Mt. Hood twice. I was used to "normal" muscle soreness. The muscle pain that I have now (less now than at my initial onset, but that's partly from knowing/avoiding what hurts) feels quite different.
Second of all, with DOMS, the muscles mostly do not ache when they are at rest. From the wikipedia entry (see link above) for DOMS:
This agrees with my experience of muscle soreness back when I was healthy. My muscles would ache when I'd get up but as long as I was sitting down, not moving around, then they didn't hurt.
But with PEM the muscle ache is constant. The muscle ache is about the same whether I'm using the muscle or resting the muscle.
So, if there is some theory that links DOMS and PEMS, then it should account for not only muscle pain after much less activity but also the different type of pain and the fact that the muscles hurt even at rest, not just when in use. At least, in my own situation (not sure what type of muscle aches others get).
So does the NK cell response that you posted about cover these issues? (sorry but I'm not able to connect all the dots...)