• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    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 (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Poll: In What Month Did You First Become Ill?

In what month did you first get sick?


  • Total voters
    115

Never Give Up

Collecting improvements, until there's a cure.
Messages
971
It's probably just a coincidence, but many of the people we know with ME/CFS first became ill in September. So I thought a poll was in order.
 

Chrisb

Senior Member
Messages
1,051
This is a very interesting idea, but now that a few posts have been made has it become clear that there need to be two polls, for northern and southern hemispheres to ascertain whether there is seasonal correlation?

I put my start down to a July virus (Northern) which might or might not relate to other people's January starts.
 

Forbin

Senior Member
Messages
966
Well, it would be a long shot, but Ian Lipkin was an author on a paper that associated the outbreak of Kawasaki Disease in Japan with the arrival of tropospheric (low level) winds from China carrying candida. So, conceivably, some kind of etiological element could be carried on seasonal winds. http://www.pnas.org/content/111/22/7952

[I have kind of wondered if you could pick up an enterovirus by being downwind from a waste treatment plant.]

Of course, you'd probably be much more likely to see a seasonal association with seasonal influenza, since that seems to be a fairly common ME/CFS "trigger."

[Onset in April]
 
Last edited:
Messages
2,087
The trend I see so far is change of seasons and mid winter ( winter assuming northern hem ). Anecdotally do most people get colds and flus during these times periods ?
 

Old Bones

Senior Member
Messages
808
It's probably just a coincidence, but many of the people we know with ME/CFS first became ill in September. So I thought a poll was in order.

The first time I became ill with ME (at age 12) was in September. With almost complete bed rest, I seemingly made a full recovery. The second time (at age 32) was in October -- the month I chose in the poll since I wasn't so fortunate as an adult.