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Potential treatments for CFS

SA2

Messages
20
Assuming the MLVs are to CFS as HIV is to AIDS, the most straight forward treatments for CFS would seem to be anti-retrovirals. However, I think that CFS is much more complicated than that. For one, it seems that CFS often follows another type of infection such as EBV or herpes virus. Also, there are some people with CFS that achieve complete remission of their symptoms. Also, CFS improves then relapses. Finally, some people with MLVs don't have CFS symptoms and may never get CFS. This may indicate that viral load itself may not be directly correlated with CFS symptoms.

These attributes may indicate that there is something else necessary for MLVs to cause CFS symptoms. If this "something else" is treated directly, then the symptoms of CFS may go away, in spite of continued viral replication. It would still be necessary to ensure that other effects of the virus do no harm, such as prostate cancer, but this would be true even for those patients (from 4% to 7% of the population), who have MLVs and who do not suffer from CFS.

The fact that some people with CFS achieve complete remission of their symptoms is particularly interesting. It indicates that CFS is not a one way street. That somehow the cause of CFS has not permanently damaged something vital to health, such as the immune system, or something in the endocrine system. The improvement-relapse cycle also indicate this. It also indicates that the symptoms of CFS can completely remit in spite of a permanent retro-viral infection.

Identifying what it is about those CFS patients that achieve complete remission without treatment may provide a way for the rest of us to achieve the same results. My guess is that it has something to do with the ability of some people to repair the damage done (either to the anti-viral pathway or to something else).
 

heapsreal

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10,089
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australia (brisbane)
i think remission gets thrown around to easy. alot of spontaneous remmissions are from people who function within their energy envelope and lucky enough to improve, but if they were to work fulltime with a family, go to the gym 3 times a week etc like a normal person, they would be back to square one. maybe they are lucky enough to rest their immune systems so that they can keep down opportunistic infections.

like u said its complicated, maybe mlv's with another viral infection is what causes cfs, maybe the initial infection is what 'breaks' our immune systems. its also possibe that people who recover never actually had cfs as we know it because doctors dont or wont test us fully. i think the treatment is going to be from a few different angles, treat the mlv's, opportunistic infections like ebv etc, strengthen the immune system with things like immunovir, ampligen, immunoglobulins and keep treating symptoms like sleep and pain.

time will tell