Improvement of ME/CFS during an infection

[poetinsf]

Although for me I also did the travelling for pleasure and got similarly battered and had to have weeks where I was hardly awake stuck in grotty accommodation just asleep until I was back able to function and carry on trip.

Yeah, I made it clear I'm my 2021 essay about the experience that it is no more than an anecdote and I don't recommend it because there is a definite risk that it can make your MECFS worse, not better. For whatever reason though, I just light up, and my mood and ability improves despite inconveniences. Living in my car has even more powerful effect. It's really strange.

As a side note, dang this is the sort of nuance good cognitive psychologists should be looking at getting hard with exhaustion and bad days that suddenly grammar and word order becomes top-tier difficulty as the automatic part of that fails in a way some other automatic things don't

That goes for me too. My blurry eyes and brain misplaced "100%" in the sentence and interpreted differently than I would normally have, lol. I don't worry too much about it though. We all know we have cognitive problem time to time.

 

[poetinsf]

I know you're going to disagree because this is your personal experience, but I can't take it seriously when you assume there's a physiological reason that you're feeling better.

Well, I make no such assumption. My theory is some neurotransmitters suppress dysfunctional hypersensitivity to peripheral immune signals, but that's just my working theory. And I single out dopamine because there have been several papers that say dopamine downregulates neuroimmune systems. It's no more than a speculation, just like everything else about the mechanism of ME/CFS.

What any of this has to do with "feeling better when you have a cold" I don't know.

Not "feeling better when you have cold", but "feeling better when you have sepsis". I made the connection based on the fact that acute inflammation raises dopamine.

 

[mariovitali]

I wanted to make sure everyone sees the following again

On a metabolic/mitochondrial level this might be happening:

Cells shift from stuck in hypometabolic state that is ME to the hypermetabolic state w sepsis. Hypermetabolic state causes cells to actually ramp up metabolism which feels better. In sepsis there are stages which occur very similar to ME

So from a Hypometabolic Phase:
- Mitochondrial Failure: Mitochondria become dysfunctional, leading to ATP production failure and energy crisis leading to a Impaired Immune Response, because of metabolically impaired exhausted immune cells

Virus / Bacteria ⇒ shift Hypermetabolic Phase: fight infection
- Energy Surge: Cells ramp up metabolism, breaking down fats, carbs, and proteins for rapid energy.
- Glycolysis Dominates: Immune cells switch to rapid aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) for quick energy, producing lactate.

 

[AliceLily]

@poetinsf I've experienced instances of feeling better like that too over the years and I have read of other members posting about it too from time to time. I remember in my sickest years thinking I was coming right in the evenings sometimes. I've also been away and surprised I didn't have severe PEM, though I've had nasty ones when away as well.

I'm one of those people who takes everything but the kitchen sink when packing. It's a pain to unpack when I get home. So I'm not keen on going away if it can be helped.