Posts from — September 2008

All Fibromyalgia/ CFS/GWS patients do have one major factor in common; pre and post trigger infection. They also are/were suffering from chronic toxic stress.

All humans have a different genetic make up.

Most will also have the musculoskeletal issues that prevent them from effective detox.

Basically every human being has a different level of stress/toxic stress which they can cope with while remaining well. This is best illustrated using an extreme example.

Gulf War Syndrome (GWS)

In the first gulf war, thousands of highly trained soldiers, mostly fit young men, were all exposed to massive programmes of vaccination in advance of entering the theatre.

Shortly afterwards while in the field, they were exposed to uranium tipped warheads, biological and chemical agents.

To finish them off, massive oil fields were set alight around them by the fleeing Iraqis.

It is a less documented fact that during tour of duty, soldiers ration packs contained insufficient nutrients to provide for many essential body function over an extended period. They concentrate mostly on refined simple carbohydrates with protein.

It is also the case that some of the food products delivered to the soldiers were in unsuitable packaging and stored in excessively hot conditions which may have released excessive quantities of heavy metals into their diet.

Naturally it is reasonable to assume the extraordinary levels of stress that are created in all individuals in difficult war scenarios.

A staggering 15% of these soldiers went onto develop Gulf War Syndrome which is basically a chronic version of fibromyalgia/CFS.

Most of these soldiers were fit and strong at the time, so we can see that simply their genetic ability to detoxify in one of the most severe toxic environments on earth, varies to such an extent that 1 in 8 were so susceptible that they developed these long term conditions.

This of course is an extreme example of toxic stress.

The first gulf war represented the most toxic war in history and lessons have been learned.

Factors that are particularly relevant to this example would include genetic make up, state of health and lifestyle prior to going to war, health of the immune system to withstand toxic insult.

Age is a factor, fitness and even fat content are all relevant factors, but the biggest determinant for the Gulf War victims appears to be simple genetic make up.

So what would we consider are the external lifestyle factors that could affect an individuals level of toxicity, and insult the blood brain barrier to such a degree that one could develop Fibromyalgia/CFS.

Published With Permission From The Mellington Clinic. Copyright 2008

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Hi fibro-cfs friends,

I am finding that quite a few doctors, even entire populations are confusing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.  In Fact, many of the articles I read actually combine the two as one syndrome/disease! For example, I’ve read too many articles that begin with the definition (CFS/ME). I am not a doctor, so this of course is my opinion, but I think updated reasoning is required here. 

I pulled the following paragraph directly from Wikipedia.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS), and various other names, is a syndrome(or group of syndromes) of unknown and possibly multiple, affecting the central nervous sytem(CNS), immune, and many other systems and organs. There is no simple diagnostic test; CFS is a diagnosis of exclusion, although recent research indicates biological hallmarks of the syndrome, and a diagnostic test is predicted soon.

I did locate from ahummingsbirdsguide established by Jodi Bassett, the following paragraphs which brought some relief.  Thank you Jodi and *Dr. Hyde. 

It is important to be aware that the disease Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which has had a World Health Organizational classification since 1969, is not the same illness as the subsequently-named ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’ definitions, although they are sometimes treated as similar.

In contrast to many of the ‘CFS’ definitions, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis is not a diagnosis of exclusion. Lack of knowledge of this has led both to people being incorrectly diagnosed with the illness, and also to the stigma that sufferers are complaining of an invisible disease, and must hence have a psychosomatic illness.

Adding to the confusion, some research ostensibly done on CFS population samples has in fact been done on sufferers of M.E., and some research ostensibly done on M.E. has in fact been done using test subjects diagnosed with one of the types of CFS which are quite different from M.E. (for instance the Fukuda criteria), or with those who simply have some sort of fatigue, due to the mistaken belief that M.E. is synonymous with chronic fatigue some definitions of CFS. 

It should not necessarily be concluded that those diagnosed with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” have, in contrast to those with M.E., a psychosomatic disorder or problems. Part of the problem of the extremely broad criteria of some CFS definitions is that they can incorporate both those whose fatigue is primarily related to depression and emotional stressors in their lives, and those who have fatigue and other physical symptoms which are caused by undiagnosed physical disorders or diseases. Thus the definition CFS is, as Dr Byron Hyde has written, unhelpful to those with M.E., and unhelpful to those who have been diagnosed with CFS. Dr Hyde advocates that the concept of CFS should be abandoned, as in practice it leads to stigmatizing those with physically-caused illnesses as psychosomatic or hypochondriacs, and is often used as an excuse not to conduct proper testing and treatment of the genuinely ill (by doctors who assume the diagnosis of  CFS means that there is no point in conducting more than rudimentary physical tests).

It would be extremely helpful to MANY if a reader of this blog who is or knows someone who is suffering with either Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis would post a comment indicating their understanding regarding these conditions.

*Dr. Hyde founded the Nightingale Research Foundation  in 1988. Nightingale is dedicated to explore, understand and treat the patients disabled with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (M.E. and CFS), fibromyalgia-type illnesses and post-immunization injuries. 

Care Tip:  Disease is challenging to say the least.  But taking action to understand one’s own body and the numerous attacks from disease, syndromes, virus’s etc. will reduce fear and stress, and increase the proper protocol to help relieve pain and suffering.