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Difficulties with fingerprints anyone?

Sinclair

Senior Member
Messages
129
Everytime my identity is checked by a fingerprints machine, the device does not identify my fingerprints very quickly, sometimes not at all.

Is this a common symptom? Or an indicator of something else to check?

With this ME it is already difficult to recall the current me and the previous ME me are one and the same person... explaining this to others is harder... and when machines do not help... you are about to lose your full identity....:rolleyes:
 

Tammy

Senior Member
Messages
2,181
Location
New Mexico
I don't know how common this symptom is but I do know of others with ME who have talked about how their fingerprints have almost disappeared. A good friend of mine with ME has this.
 

Iquitos

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Colorado
Yes, this came up some time ago as something common to us. It happened to me. I had to get fingerprints as part of a job I was offered and the fingerprint person tried three times and never got what he was satisfied with. He asked me if I had hand lotion on my hands. I had just washed them with soap and hot water.
 

Sherlock

Boswellia for lungs and MC stabllizing
Messages
1,287
Location
k8518704 USA
I wonder if this is chicken/egg -- maybe it's a pre-existing connective tissue disorder (as is associated with CFS) that gets worse over time and seems to be caused by CFS
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Yes, this is very common. Paul Cheney has been taking about it for a long time.

He even had a police-person try to get fingerprints off his patients. They couldn't do it for about 50% of his patients.

If you do a google site search here, someone has given the science behind this.

Sushi
 

Sidereal

Senior Member
Messages
4,856
He even had a police-person try to get fingerprints off his patients. They couldn't do it for about 50% of his patients.

If you do a google site search here, someone has given the science behind this.

Sushi

He talks about it in a lecture that's on Youtube. If I recall correctly he says it's a process that also takes place in lupus.
 

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
Messages
1,691
Sometimes the fingerprint machine won't work if your fingers are cold. I lost my driver's license and went to the DMV to apply for a replacement. It took 5 minutes before the machine formed the image of my fingerprints. The agent told me that my fingers weren't generating enough warmth for the machine to work.

I had to keep rubbing my hands together, and the agent ended up mashing his hands hard against mine.
 

Iquitos

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Colorado
I wonder if this is chicken/egg -- maybe it's a pre-existing connective tissue disorder (as is associated with CFS) that gets worse over time and seems to be caused by CFS
I had my fingerprints taken before I got sick (a work-related requirement, done by the police department) and there was no problem. It was only after being sick for several years and trying to get fingerprints (from another police department) then that it became impossible.

And in no case were my hands "too cold."
 

Sinclair

Senior Member
Messages
129
Many Thanks for your replies!
Now I have something to respond at the bank when the device won't work: "this is me after ME"
 
Messages
15,786
I just had my fingerprints taken in the process of attempting to upgrade to permanent resident status here in the Netherlands. It had trouble, but only with certain fingers (the same ones each time), so it wasn't a circulation issue. One finger on each hand couldn't be read at all, and one thumb. Some of the others weren't great either.

It was worse on the fingerpads which had lots of vertical lines.
 

Chrisb

Senior Member
Messages
1,051
Don't tell the DWP. They will ask whether certain new career opportunities have been considered.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
My theory is that fingerprint changes in ME/CFS is likely caused by elevated connective tissue-degrading enzymes, such as neutrophil elastase, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) enzymes such as MMP-9.

MMP-9 is known to be elevated in coxsackievirus B infections.

I had a significant skin changes after catching the suspected Coxsackie B4 virus that I think triggered by ME/CFS, most notably a fine crêpe paper-like wrinkling, especially on the tops of my hands (pictures of the virally-induced skin wrinkles on my hands can bee seen at the bottom of this webpage of my website).

My skin wrinkles are not normal skin aging, because these wrinkles appeared rapidly within the first year or of catching my virus (agin happens more slowly over decades). The same skin wrinkles also appeared on many other people who caught my virus. In older people (60 or over) who caught my virus, the skin changes were body-wide, and my virus rapidly caused an overall sagging of the skin (much like the sagging skin pictures on the above webpage), as well as fine crêpe paper-like wrinkling.


Sagging skin and fine crêpe paper-like wrinkling are symptoms found in the dermatological condition called mid-dermal elastolysis (MDE), a disease where the MMP-9 destroys the elastin in the skin, causing these symptoms.

The skin changes caused by my virus look very much like MDE, although at present MDE has not been linked to any infectious causes (but I suspect that enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus B or echovirus could well be the cause of MDE).


MMP-9 also plays a role in receding gums (periodontal disease), which is another symptom my Coxsackie virus also rapidly induced in me, and in others who caught it.

One standard medical treatment for periodontitis is low dose doxycycline (20 mg daily), because doxycycline is an MMP-9 inhibitor. Another potent MMP-9 inhibitor is the Indian herbal formula triphala. Ref: 1

MMP-9 could be playing a role in the cognitive symptoms of ME/CFS, because firstly MMP-9 is neurotoxic, and secondly because MMP-9 regulates the NMDA receptor. Ref: 1

Dr Richie Shoemaker used to test for elevated MMP-9 in his patients.
 
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