I've been sick for 24 years. I also have Fibromyalgia and Stage IV Lyme Disease. I believe I have had Fibro all my life, and got Lyme after the CFS. The CFS is what knocked me out of the work force and out of life.
I am one of those whose digestive system no longer works. This is called exocrine pancreatic failure and reduces life span by 20%, even when other illness is not present. More than 95% of my pancreas is not working, and as a result, I must take 240 pills per month to be able to eat, and the drug costs $900. The cheapest drug in this class costs about $700. A company rep is giving me all her free samples each month, through the Medical Assistant at my GI doc's office. Otherwise I would die slowly and horribly. I pray she never leaves her job!
Dr. Sarah Myhill and others think this pancreatic failure is the result of viral, parasitical and bacterial infections all present in the bowel at once, that somehow turn off the pancreas so it no longer makes enzymes. They offer a 6 week treatment: 2 weeks of quinine based anti-parasiticals, followed by two weeks of antibiotics in the Mycin family, followed by 2 weeks of antivirals. Since I am deathly allergic to the first two of those, I just keep taking the prescription enteric coated enzymes. OTC enzymes do not work on a serious problem like this, as 90% of them are destroyed by stomach acid. The enteric-coating, timed-release and Big Pharma's greed is what makes the drug so expensive.
I also have developed cervical degenerative disc disease with radiculopathy, lumbar stenosis, piriformus syndrome, osteopenia, nystagmus, hypothyroidism, vulvar vestibulitis, paroxysmal supraventricual tachycardia, occassional atrial fibrillation, 3 leaking heart valves, gastroparesis, gastric metaplasia, bile reflux gastritis, lost my gallbladder, rectocele, cystocele, reduced bladder capacity with an average of 16 urinations daily, extreme intolerance of temperatures both cold and hot. I am only functional at 77-78 degrees. I have no short term memory and am starting to get an altered long term memory, swollen legs and feet, hypermobile joints, adrenal fatigue, secondary depression, brain damage rated severe, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivities, severe insect and pollen allergy, irritable bowel and bladder, paraesthesias, costo-chondritis, metabolic syndrome, a torn left supraspinatus muscle in my shoulder, and shoulder bursitis on both sides, tennis elbow on the left side, obstructive sleep apnea, labile high blood pressure, and a permanent yeast infection on certain areas of my skin.
The only things on that list that may be genetic, not due to CFS, Fibro or Lyme, are the low HDL part of my metabolic syndrome diagnosis, since one side of my family all have very low HDL, and the hypermobile joints, which started when I had Rheumatic fever as a teenager.
I think if you look around, you should be able to find the research of Dr. Byron Hyde, who followed over 1,000 of his CFS patients for 25 yrs. and publishes a retrospective, noting the most common causes of death. His top 3 list was:
1. Suicide
2. Heart failure
3. cancer
Somewhere, I saw a similar list by Dr. Paul Cheney. His top 3 list was:
1. Heart failure
2. Suicide
3. Pancreatic failure
I also saw a list of cancers we are more likely to get by Dr. Peterson a long, long time ago. If I remember it correctly it went as follows:
1. Thyroid - 40,000 times more than the general population.
2. Non-Hodgkins lymphoma - 40 times more
3. Burkett's lymphoma - can't remember the numbers
4. Salivary gland cancer - can't remember the numbers, but I had one case in the support group I used to run.
This last list is deceptive in that thyroid cancer is very rare, and usually curable. A 40 times greater risk of non-Hodgkins lymphoma is really a much bigger risk than the 40,000 times greater risk of thyroid cancer, which amounts to only about 7% of us. Since non-Hodgkins lymphoma is widely thought to be an environmental cancer, this may possibly imply some things about CFS.
klutzo