| (CFS) is one of those obscure medical problems | | | | the immune system is debilitated by other |
| upon which researchers and physicians seem | | | | illnesses, whether diagnosed or not. |
| unable to agree. Some say it is caused by a virus, | | | | The reason nobody can fully explain how people |
| others say it is allergy-related or a symptom of | | | | get chronic fatigue syndrome is because so many |
| depression, and others, not knowing what to think | | | | things cause chronic fatigue. Many, many |
| or say, suggest it is all in the head. One thing is | | | | situations, deficiencies and illnesses wear down and |
| for sure; it severely debilitates its victims. | | | | impair the immune system. The symptoms of |
| Sometimes, as medical knowledge progresses, | | | | chronic fatigue syndrome are the signals of a |
| the understanding of a series of symptoms | | | | poorly functioning immune system. That is why, |
| changes. Infectious mononucleosis, termed the | | | | of none of the suggestions I make here work, |
| "kissing disease," was the first illness recognized as | | | | your best bet is to consult a nutritionally-oriented |
| causing chronic fatigue. The symptoms were | | | | physician or alternative medicine physician for the |
| flu-like: low-grade fever, muscular aches and pains, | | | | proper tests to detect, to determine what |
| headache and fatigue. The most discouraging part | | | | exactly is causing your immune system to break |
| of the illness was that even if the person felt | | | | down, and get on a personal program to fill in |
| better for a while, the symptoms returned. It | | | | your nutritional blanks. |
| was not unusual to have recurring episodes of the | | | | A report in the New England Journal of Medicine |
| illness for two to three years. | | | | quotes Dr. Stephen Straus of the National |
| In the mid 1980s as the AIDS epidemic spurred | | | | Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says |
| extensive research into viruses, more became | | | | that chronic fatigue may represent an abnormal |
| known about the mononucleosis syndrome. | | | | response to infection. Scientists thin some patients |
| Mononucleosis became Chronic Epstein-Barr virus. | | | | never completely recover from the flu, but |
| A March 1988 report by a Center for Disease | | | | instead develop long-standing symptoms of |
| Control (CDC) working group renamed it CFS. The | | | | chronic fatigue. |
| CDC group also outlined strict criteria for its | | | | A study of 15 teenagers ages 13 to 17 diagnosed |
| diagnosis. To meet their definition, a patient must | | | | of having CFS found 11 reported their symptoms |
| have debilitating fatigue for more than six months | | | | as following an acute illness, according to doctors |
| and must exhibit at least eight of eleven | | | | from the University of Washington School of |
| symptoms, including sore throat, mild fever and | | | | Medicine and Children's Hospital and Medical Center |
| muscle aches. | | | | in Seattle, Washington. Severn had positive tests |
| Why some experience chronic fatigue and others | | | | for mononucleosis. A third of the teenagers, all of |
| do not, seems to be related to their immune | | | | whom were female, also were fond to be clinically |
| systems. It has been common experience that | | | | depressed. |
| chronic fatigue syndrome occurs during time when | | | | |