ScienceNorway: What is going on in the bodies of ME/CFS patients?

[Kalliope]

The Norwegian news site about research, forskning.no, recently had a thorough article about current research into ME. @Midnattsol shared the article on the Scandinavia thread here.

The article has now been translated into English and published at ScienceNorway.

ScienceNorway What is going on in the bodies of ME/CFS patients?

Sub headlines are

• Scant research
• Sharper criteria and better technology
• Problems with the immune system
• Disorders in immune cells
• Autoantibodies and cancer medicine
• Genes play a part
• Genes for immune system and metabolism
• Energy trouble
• Changes in the blood
• From IBS to ME/CFS
• Disorders of the intestinal flora
• Intestine could show causes
• Problems in the central nervous system
• So many findings - but how are they related?
• Blood flow, psyche and immune system
• Disease with two stages
• Body compensates
• Could explain differences in symptoms and treatment effect
• Just ideas so far
• Difficult diseases are what's left
• Finding multi-disciplinary explanation

Quote:
All the researchers sciencenorway.no has spoken to encourage more people to do research on ME/CFS.

“ME/CFS is hugely under-researched. It’s a major societal problem, and it’s completely irresponsible not to try to figure it out. We’ll learn as we go,” says Tronstad.

“I would like to see more research on ME/CFS,” says Viken.

“We have to recognize ME/CFS as a disease that is worth investigating. The more we study it, even on hypotheses that turn out not to be true, the closer we’ll get to an answer as to what is going on”, she says.

Goll concurs, “It’s a good idea to do more research on ME/CFS, both from a humanitarian and a financial standpoint.”

 

[Kalliope]

The journalist, Ingrid Spilde, has written several articles about ME and I think she's currently the science journalist with best overview of the field in Norway as of today.

 

[Andy]

Tweet from the Science Norway Twitter account, if anybody wants to share it.

https://twitter.com/Sciencenorwayno/status/1509475846221971458

 

[Sly Saint]

Why do so many people have chronic fatigue
In numerous diseases, such as celiac disease and psoriasis, chronic fatigue is actually the biggest problem. But what actually causes it? Professor Roald Omdal believes the fatigue response is an ancient biological protection mechanism.

https://sciencenorway.no/chronic-fa...o-so-many-people-have-chronic-fatigue/2027717

good to see this window come up

Chronic fatigue and ME
Chronic fatigue is not the same as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also called ME.

Most people with chronic fatigue have an underlying disease, such as an autoimmune disease, cancer or a nerve-damaging disorder. ME is also characterized by fatigue, but so far has no known underlying disease. In many cases, ME appears to occur after an infection.

A characteristic feature of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), when even low levels of physical or mental exertion can trigger strong and long-lasting worsening of symptoms afterwards. This is not the case for people with chronic fatigue.

In addition, patients with ME often experience other symptoms, such as feeling like they have the flu or problems being in an upright position, called orthostatic intolerance.

Read more about what's going on in the bodies of people with ME/CFS.