Damaged Mitochondria – the Original Sin? The Recent Mitochondrial ME/CFS Studies - Cort Johnson, Health Rising, Nov. 2, 2024

[Mary]

https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2024/11/02/damaged-mitochondria-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

I've only skimmed this but found this section quite interesting because of its reference to "central fatigue":

• Next, a recent animal model explored how fatigue produced by the brain or “central fatigue” affects the mitochondria. The idea that central fatigue could be a big deal makes sense since ME/CFS symptoms are similar to the flu-like symptoms produced by the brain when we catch a cold.
• The study, which stressed mice but did not make them exercise harder found that the stress damaged the mitochondria both in the brain and the muscles in several ways. That suggested that changes in the brain could affect the mitochondria in the muscles (!).
• The authors proposed that the fatigue, reduced endurance, and cognitive problems found in the mice with central fatigue were related to mitochondrial damage, problems with energy metabolism, and oxidative stress. Once again, they believed that mitochondrial damage played a key role in producing these symptoms.

Here's a 2001 study which discusses tryptophan and branched chain amino acids and central fatigue, and which helped spur me to start taking BCAAs back in 2014, which did cut and have cut my PEM recovery time by more than half.

Amino acids and central fatigue​

Unfortunately, the BCAAs don't prevent PEM altogether, but would not be without them.

And here's another study about this:

A Role for Branched-Chain Amino Acids in Reducing Central Fatigue​

 

[Wishful]

Darn, the paper doesn't explain how the brain might affect mitochondria elsewhere. It implies a connection, but not cause vs effect. Will further study reveal an exosome, or hormone, or other signalling mechanism that is controlled by neurons and affects mitochondria elsewhere?

 

[Wishful]

I was thinking more about this paper, and I'm not sure I trust that the mice actually had central fatigue. Did someone prove that sleep deprivation combined with starvation actually caused central fatigue. Maybe the mice displayed some signs that were similar to signs of central fatigue, but that's hardly proof of the root cause. I'm imagining a cartoon mouse hanging from a wire by one paw, and thinking "You've starved me and zapped me every few minutes, and you expect me to keep hanging onto this wire as long as I usually do?" I don't know what the researchers were measuring, but I'm really skeptical that it was central fatigue, and that calls the rest of their conclusions into question.

I'm also imagining a cartoon of a researcher with a really evil grin torturing some mice, with the title of "It's for science!".