Do you look markedly younger than your age?

[klutzo]

Lily and fresh_eyes,
I also want to add quickly that your experiences are just as valid as mine.

fresh-eyes, you were dealing with a different population than what I dealt with. You were dealing with the homeless, whose compliance with medication is sporadic at best, and who have all sorts of stresses from being homeless. I was dealing with a well fed population, all of them living with their relatives, all of them getting regular treatment at a large University outpatient psychiatric unit, and all of them being watched carefully for compliance with medication. The psychiatrists I worked with, who taught me "the facts" about this were also seeing that patient group only. In addition, this all took place before inpatient units for the truly paranoid, catatonic, etc. were dismantled and closed down and homelessness became the problem it is now. Big difference!

klutzo

 

[thefreeprisoner]

To all those who guessed, I'm 31. Pretty good guesses, but yes, definitely younger.
Who said 38?? I think that's probably the age I'd like to be

 

[kurt]

Schizophrenia is a bit OT though and I am sorry I went OT. We were talking about neurasthenia and how some people used to say this is what CFS used to be called. I sincerely hope we are past that now, since neurasthenia is strictly a psychological disorder, or at least it was in my days in school. I am almost 59. Please correct me if I am wrong, but there is so little research pinning down what neurasthenia actually is/was that one could just as easily make a case that it is due to Rheumatic heart disease or some other illness with similar symptoms. I read a whole paper once about how neurasthenia was also known as "the vapors" and was caused by the too tight corsets they used to wear to make their waists look small, which resulted in not being able to breathe properly!

That is an interesting comment, particularly the thought about heart disease being part of neurasthenia. This reminds me of all the historical 'post-war syndromes.' After the US Civil War, there was a post-war syndrome and it was called 'soldier's heart'. It was a type of CFS and how interesting they attributed that to the heart. Nurses would get this too, not just soldiers. Florence Nightingale and also Louise May Alcott, both famous and both nurses in the Civil War and both having a type of CFS in their last years. Think of all the germs they were exposed to in that dreadful war.

 

[starryeyes]

Hi Free- I guessed 7 years too high. But I've looked so young myself my whole life and now I'm 45 and maybe because of that, I'm not very good at guessing ages.

I forgot.. duh! We have low Adult Human Growth Hormone in CFS. That would account for us looking younger. I bet a lot of other illnesses mentioned here do too. Unfortunately, supplementing with adult HGH has not been ultimately helpful for PWC.

 

[kurt]

Hi Free- I guessed 7 years too high. But I've looked so young myself my whole life and now I'm 45 and maybe because of that, I'm not very good at guessing ages.

I forgot.. duh! We have low Adult Human Growth Hormone in CFS. That would account for us looking younger. I bet a lot of other illnesses mentioned here do too. Unfortunately, supplementing with adult HGH has not been ultimately helpful for PWC.

Good connection! The HPA meltdown in CFS, of course that lowers HGH, given that HGH is produced in the pituitary. Also don't forget the poor digestive status with CFS. When the body is starved for resources it is less likely to allow proper growth and development. Too bad this young look is a sign of pathology and not an indictor of vigor. I would rather look my age and be healthy.

 

[starryeyes]

Thanks Kurt, your explanation makes perfect sense.

I've heard that some PWC look way older than they are too. I think it's very common for us to have too much of some chemicals and/or not enough of others. We never seem to get the proper balance.

I'd like to look older than I do too. I hear you all on not getting respect or taken seriously out there. I hate it. Dealt with it all my life after the age of 18.

I even Googled for this problem. There are many people with stories about looking too young and what a problem it is. People who respond that don't have this problem never get it either, "Oh what a problem! You look too young. Poor Baby." People are so clueless when they haven't experienced something. It's human nature. I'm the same way.:innocent1:

 

[kurt]

Thanks Kurt, your explanation makes perfect sense.

I've heard that some PWC look way older than they are too. I think it's very common for us to have too much of some chemicals and/or not enough of others. We never seem to get the proper balance.

I'd like to look older than I do too. I hear you all on not getting respect or taken seriously out there. I hate it. Dealt with it all my life after the age of 18.

Unfortunately for some PWC looking older CFS is probably from deterioration and not from sudden growth or HGH levels being normal.

Probably this is one of the reasons doctors do not take CFS seriously, they look at a patient who looks young for their age and presume that is an indicator of robust health. We really need to get CFS redefined into something the doctors will understand. If they realized immediately CFS involves pituitary problems they would probably be able to see past the way we look. For some of us looking young is probably part of the pathology!

I should enter myself in the inquiry here, anyone guess my age from my profile picture? (it is not showing up on my posts for some reason but is on my profile page).

 

[starryeyes]

You look about 32 to me. But see, I have this skewed vision. Look how different my response was to freeprisoner from everyone else's. I see past youngness I guess because I look past it in myself. I've always guessed way too high for most people.

Looking at people my own age that are normal, I often think they are 20 years older than me.

 

[camas]

I'm often mistaken for being a good 10 years younger than I am (although it didn't keep AARP from hunting me down). I do have far fewer wrinkles than my kid sister even though we both live in the Pacific NW and neither of us gets much sun. My theory is that the extreme muscle weakness all over my body includes my facial muscles. I think being unable to frown, squint, or smile easily has had kind of a botox effect over the last 20 years. That's my theory anyway.

 

[kurt]

You look about 32 to me. But see, I have this skewed vision. Look how different my response was to freeprisoner from everyone else's. I see past youngness I guess because I look past it in myself. I've always guessed way too high for most people.

Looking at people my own age that are normal, I often think they are 20 years older than me.

Well, you are about 20 years too low. Honest! I'll be 52 in a few months. And that picture was taken this past summer. I wish it were a good sign but as discussed above, probably this means the HPA system has not been working properly for a long time.

Also, heritage may play a small role in this. My heritage is part British (mostly Welsh) and part Danish with a little Swedish, so a lot of Scandinavian genetics, and they do often seem to age more gently.

 

[Jody]

Kurt,

No way do you look 51. No way. From your pic, I'd say mid-30s. Maybe.

To get your picture to show with your posts, go to your control panel ... hmmm ... doing this from memory here ... you should see something about editing avatar. Something like that.

 

[Jody]

Just went to check out my own advice and realized, that was with the old forums.

With the new package, it is different somewhat. Go to the top right to Settings, beside My Profile. Click on Settings and you'll see on the left side of page where you can edit your avatar.

 

[kurt]

Just went to check out my own advice and realized, that was with the old forums.

With the new package, it is different somewhat. Go to the top right to Settings, beside My Profile. Click on Settings and you'll see on the left side of page where you can edit your avatar.

Thanks Jody!

 

[Martlet]

Well, you are about 20 years too low. Honest! I'll be 52 in a few months.

Woah! I'm always told I look younger than my age (even my kids think so) but my goodness, nothing like that!!!

Welsh eh? I'm English, Irish, Scots and Welsh, which is probably why I argue with myself so much.

 

[Victoria]

Of course I do (look younger than my age)

Hang on a minute............... I'll get that 18 yr old photo back up as my Avatar & we can all pretend I look like that in 2010

PS I think I browsed the wrong photo collection - I'll have another go tomorrow to see if I can load the correct photo.

This photo is from my Tibetan nomad collection.......

 

[Dr. Yes]

Victoria you are the funniest bird in this zoo

 

[starryeyes]

Oh Victoria -- lol!! You are hilarious!

Wow Kurt. That's amazing. How funny that so many of us here are in a similar boat. I'm of northern European descent and Scandinavian too. That is so interesting. Now that you mention it, I think it is common for those cultures to look younger.

 

[Victoria]

Oh Victoria -- lol!! You are hilarious!

Wow Kurt. That's amazing. How funny that so many of us here are in a similar boat. I'm of northern European descent and Scandinavian too. That is so interesting. Now that you mention it, I think it is common for those cultures to look younger.

On a serious note, Teejkay,

up until about 5 years ago, I looked at least 7-8 years or more younger than my real age. When I was a teenager, I always looked older (comes of having a thin face & no puppy fat back in those days).

Since I've stopped dyeing my hair, never get enough restful sleep & constant pain & stress, I believe I am really starting to look my age now.

I couldn't load my original Avatar photo earlier today, & this Tibetan one seemed to be the next best one I COULD load, besides I do faintly resemble one of the Tibetan nomads shown in the film Blessings (The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet) I was telling Koan about.

Wonder whether I'll lose a few years (& wrinkles/kilos) when I stop work?

PPS This time I've got the right photo......



Sh*t, damn, *#!!&%@,

I still can't get this bl***y home compter to work............

I meant to copy the OTHER photo.......

(& boy, will i have a strong word with my dentist, he charged me $228 for work on my two front teeth after Christmas. He PROMISED me I would finally have a perfect mouth).

 

[DysautonomiaXMRV]

Nice photo there!

In my 20's I looked a lot younger, now I look pretty bad.
I remember back then it was a running joke with CFS people I knew on the Internet that
CFS people look remarkably young, compared to others the same age. 20 to 30 yrs old....

One theory I have is if you're stuck INDOORS 24/7 you're going to get very little sun exposure.
Sun ages the skin, badly. Another theory I had, is if you have a relatively calm smoke/alcohol
free life, again youre' going to initially wear pretty well.

Being housebound and rather sick, will certainly mean we rarely smoke, drink and party hard.
(By logic).

Having said that, I feel time plays a big role here. And that 20 years with severe CFS is going to mess
you up pretty bad compared to 5yrs.

I'm sure chronic stress and the disease process itself (oxidate stress and free radical formation) known to be high in CFS - causes
us to 'age' faster, at least in terms of 'rusting' our vascular system (endothelial tissue).

This in turn would/could lead to premature grey/white hair, poor dry skin (low thyroid type symptoms), brittle dry hair (lack of shine/gloss),
thining of eye-brows, and dark shadows under the eyes. A lot of people who've been ill for decade with this illness, look terrible.
Conversely despite being really sick, I initialy didn't look too bad at first and certainly looked 'young' compared to other people my age.

I think having someone to love, and avoiding stress as much as possible will help reduce how old we are, but genes are most important.
Maybe as we get older, we can fight this stress (physical/psychological) off less as so the youthful CFS look, soon drops off in our 30's and 40's, possibly.

 

[Dr. Yes]

Maybe as we get older, we can fight this stress (physical/psychological) off less as so the youthful CFS look, soon drops off in our 30's and 40's, possibly.

You are SO not invited to my next birthday party. :Retro mad:


--He who just turned 39
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