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Is XMRV Causing finger print problems in CFS?

VillageLife

Senior Member
Messages
674
Location
United Kingdom
I've heard a lot of CFS sufferers have a loss of finger prints. From what I've read its to do with immune system problems.

Do you think this problem with finger prints could be connected to XMRV ?

also here is a link to a news article about cancer sufferers who are having finger print problems due to a side effect from a cancer drug. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8064332.stm

(Please add in your finger prints if you can, Your need some ink! :tongue: I'll try and add mine in later!)

[Here is a NORMAL finger print, I found this image on google.]
fingerprint-10101-1.jpg
 

gu3vara

Senior Member
Messages
339
It's called psychosomatically induced finger prints loss if I remember correctly, the power of the mind strikes again! ;)
 

Athene

ihateticks.me
Messages
1,143
Location
Italy
Very interesting.
My fingerprints look pretty normal. I was fingerprinted by the FBI about six years ago and they came up normal... after 20 years of CFS.
I'd be really interested to know what percentage of us have lost fingerprints.
 

JAS

Messages
70
Location
UK
At the IiME 2010 it was brought up, people who have had ME/CFS for a long time can lose their fingerprints. I think it was by Dr Cheney...sorry cant quite remember.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Hi

I never used to have this problem but looking at my fingerprints now (I have had CFS for possibly 42 years) I notice some shiny spots where the whirls disappear. I might have trouble getting into the US - I am aware that some patients have been held up because missing fingerprints is often a sign of deliberate removal by criminals. If your fingerprints are missing or damaged then you should get a letter from your doctor before trying international travel.

Bye
Alex
 

kat0465

Senior Member
Messages
230
Location
Texas
it's no Joke, there are some of us that have missing fingerprints. the tips of my fingers are as smoothe as a babys Butt! ive ben sick for 20+ years

Kat
 

gu3vara

Senior Member
Messages
339
Mine are still perfect, would have been nice to show doctors a sign of the disease, no luck!
 

Forebearance

Senior Member
Messages
568
Location
Great Plains, US
My fingerprints are pretty faint.
Interestingly, my mom also has very faint fingerprints. She is not sick, but she does have low thyroid function. Could it be related to low thyroid function, or lack of microcirculation, which many of us have?
 

usedtobeperkytina

Senior Member
Messages
1,479
Location
Clay, Alabama
It was Cheney who noticed. It was in Osler's Web. He worked with local police station on it.

If I remember correct, it was one of the symptoms that happens in a few patients, but not majority.

Tina
 

anciendaze

Senior Member
Messages
1,841
Paul Cheney would be the source to estimate the percentage of people he sees who lose fingerprints. Mine are there, but not real strong after decades of illness. I know two people who have had trouble being fingerprinted. Neither one would qualify as a serious CFS/ME patient, though both have weird symptoms.

If we had an overall estimate for the number nationwide, this, plus the percentage above, might give us a proxy measure for the number of CFS-affected people in the general population. The advantage is that this is completely independent of a medical diagnosis which tends to be highly subjective.

Fingerprinting was standardized before WWII, so the fundamental technology should not have changed. There are biometric scanners which have trouble with some people, but if we go back to ink on paper, as police do if biometrics fail, we should be able to compare current rates with old ones.
 

SunnyGal

Senior Member
Messages
147
They were unable to get my fingerprints on the fingerprint scanner at the DMV 4 years ago. It was definitely hard to see the swirls as they were very faint at the time. Couldn't see some of the swirls anymore. I'd heard that the missing fingerprints things was common in Lyme patients, supposedly because Lyme likes collagen. I've done a lot of Lyme treatment over the past year and have few if any Lyme symptoms and the swirls in my fingerprints are definitely more defined now.

Sunny
 

xchocoholic

Senior Member
Messages
2,947
Location
Florida
Mine were missing at least 5 years before I came down CFS/ME ... I just figured it was from being too dumb not to touch a hot pan ... lol ... X

PS ... I was being fingerprinted for a security clearance at work when I found out about my missing fingerprints.
 

beesknees

Senior Member
Messages
117
Even if you can see the lines in your fingers they still might not get picked up. I was at an interactive museum last week that had a fingerprint station. Since I had heard about people with CFS losing fingerprints I was curious to try it out. My thumb fingerprint was just normal. But my other fingers came out as just a black spot with no lines. The funny things is when I look at my fingers I can see the lines clearly. I also did a heart rate monitor and my heart rate was 125-155. Once making it up to 174. The other two people with me heatrate's was 50-70. Then, there was, no joke, a machine that measured electricty in your body. The other two people with me that tried it the line that measured it barely moved. But when I tried it the line that measured it, shot off the chart. I have no idea what that means but I feel like I get better medical test at a local museum than at the doctors. LOL
 

xchocoholic

Senior Member
Messages
2,947
Location
Florida
Even if you can see the lines in your fingers they still might not get picked up. I was at an interactive museum last week that had a fingerprint station. Since I had heard about people with CFS losing fingerprints I was curious to try it out. My thumb fingerprint was just normal. But my other fingers came out as just a black spot with no lines. The funny things is when I look at my fingers I can see the lines clearly. I also did a heart rate monitor and my heart rate was 125-155. Once making it up to 174. The other two people with me heatrate's was 50-70. Then, there was, no joke, a machine that measured electricty in your body. The other two people with me that tried it the line that measured it barely moved. But when I tried it the line that measured it, shot off the chart. I have no idea what that means but I feel like I get better medical test at a local museum than at the doctors. LOL

This sounds promising ... lol ... I'm one of those who gets shocked real easily too. My last car used to shock me everytime I put the key in the ignition ... just me though and no one else. I won't touch a door handle without brushing my hand past it first to interupt the static electricity either ... I wonder what causes that ... x
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Here is a quote (from somewhere--not sure where--probably someone's post--sorry!) re: Dr. Cheney and loss of fingerprints:

"Dr. Cheney told him that 10% of his CFS patients can not be fingerprinted at all. 50% have some loss of fingerprints. He biopsied fingerprint tissue to study what might be causing the lost prints. The tissue had Perivascular Lymphoid Infiltrates causing nonspecific immune activiation---exactly the same lesion profile as in Lupus, but in Lupus the endophelia (sp?) lining gets destroyed and is the pathology signal that leads to destroying internal organs....which does NOT happen in CFS. However, if he said if this exact same pathology happened in the lungs it would produce pulmonary hypertension just like it does in Lupus."

Tis interesting. My fingerprints are about half-way faded away.

Sushi

********
 
Messages
52
Location
FL, PA
hi! interesting thread.
ive had cfs many yrs now. i just tried to fingerprint myself (using black watercolor paint- tried thick, medium, thin, etc) could not get any readable fingerprints whatsoever. but i will need to try again using proper ink or ink pad. when i look at fingertips i see very very faint "fingerprints". now i want to know if mine are normal or not.

but i do know of something that is not normal at all on my hands. they occaisionally break out in crazy red polka dots on both palms and fingers. it is crazy. i have no idea why it happens. they dont hurt or itch or anything at all- they just look absurd. next time it happens i will have to take a photo! and post it on here.

bigmama2