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EBV and M/E

roxie60

Senior Member
Messages
1,791
Location
Central Illinois, USA
RE: Antiviral Response and People with SLEEP DISORDERS:

One thing comes to mind in particular about Antivirals from my own experience and what I have read from others:

People who have long term complicated SLEEP PROBLEMS (insomnia, DSPS, non 24 hr sleep wake disorder, lack of stage 3/4 sleep, frequent awakenings...) as part of their illness don't seem to do as well in achieving complete or near complete remission on Antivirals.

Many still achieve great improvement- but it seems whenever I run across another person with severe sleep dysfunction, it is a great hindrance to their AV treatment. AV's can make sleep problems worse for some (although also can make them better if viral load is lowered and that is one of the reasons for their sleep problems) and we all know, when we are lacking sleep, ANY type of healing is much, much more difficult......and maybe progress is even stopped?

I also think that people who have HORMONAL problems seem to have issues as well, especially females with severe PMS problems.

Also: Severity of illness at start of treatment I think is a major player. I am not really sure how much difference length of illness plays. Because a person could be sick 15 years and be functioning at 70% or a person could be sick 2 years and functioning at 10%, who will respond better to AV's if for example EBV turns out to be a major culprit in their illness?

----------------SOC: I am wondering if you daughter has or had any major sleep problems, or hormonal problems? (if you don't mind my asking) Or your other family member who responded to long term AV treatment?

You just described a lot that I deal with....and all your assumptions, been sick for yrs, PMDD, Mono in 95, sick majority of life but functional 60-70% except for what I call flare ups that keep me nearly bedridden (work a day, in bed two days to recover), extreme sleep disturbed (2-3 hrs at a time), frequent sinus infections, yada yada