WATERMARK

I’ve been absent from here for a long time. My energy — well, energy: what is that?

Still,
I wanted to report on recent research. I imagine several of you are
keeping up with this, but — I haven’t been reading you lately.

As usual, a lot on the differences between healthy folk and those of us
with these mysterious illnesses; little on how to help us.

So here is what my Google Alerts are bringing me:

From American Chronicle: Study Shows Exercise May Not Be What the Doctor Ordered for Your Fatigued Friend

Researchers
in Japan noted that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) report
substantial symptom worsening after exercise and took an interest in
the specific time course of the worsening. They investigated the
influence of exercise on the subjective symptoms and cognitive function
of 9 female CFS patients and compared them with 9 healthy women. An
exercise test was conducted and monitoring of vital signs, cognitive
function, and psychological status was performed from one week prior to
exercise until two weeks after exercise.

Physical
symptoms in the CFS patients did get worse on the fifth day. However
cognitive and psychological status remained constant. There was no
cognitive or psychological benefit to the exercise, yet patients became
more fatigued and suffered physical decline…

From PakTribune: Chronic Fatigue Differs from Depression

Chronic
fatigue syndrome and depression have distinct biological features,
researchers in Canada report, suggesting that the two conditions have
unique causes. Unlike patients with depression, those with chronic
fatigue syndrome have lower skin conductance levels and higher skin
temperatures in the arms and legs…

From the University of Michigan Health System:  Research may explain why common painkillers often don’t work on patients with fibromyalgia

People with common chronic pain condition have less availability of a pain-deadening receptor in the brain, UMHS study finds

ANN ARBOR, MI – People who have the common chronic  pain condition fibromyalgia often report that they don’t respond to the types  of medication that relieve other people’s pain. New research from the University of Michigan Health System
helps to explain why that might be: Patients with fibromyalgia were
found to have reduced binding ability of a type of receptor in the
brain that is the target of opioid painkiller drugs such as morphine…

From ScienceDaily:  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Linked To Stomach Virus

…Most of the biopsy specimens from patients with gut problems showed
evidence of mild long term inflammation, although few were infected
with Helicobacter pylori, a common bacterial infection associated with
inflammation.

But more than 80% of the specimens from the ME
patients tested positive for enteroviral particles compared with only
seven of the 34 specimens from healthy people.

In a significant proportion of patients, the initial infection had occurred many years earlier.

Maybe, someday, someone will put all this together and come up with treatment and prevention strategies. Those of us who are not scientists can only hope.