Through all the buzz about XMRV and the theories and suppositions being thrown around about the actual cause of CFS I'm continuing to hold my ground that the causes are many that result in the total burnout of your adrenal glands, central nervous system, and immune system. I believe that the cumulative effect of many injurious stressors over time is what so weakens a person that they cannot defend against pathogens or other insults that may not affect another person. If CFS is truly exclusively infectious then why have I never had a friend, family member, long term acquaintance, or relationship with someone else equally affected? I guess time will tell. In regard to children who aren't affected by the stressors that adults have such as sleep deprivation, burnout, and other adult stressors I feel strongly that we are poisoning our children from the time of conception. Embryonic and fetal cells cannot defend against being bathed in chemicals as they are now! And then from the time a newborn comes into the world he or she is rubbed with chemicals in personal care products, breathes chemicals from VOCs coming from every direction, and begins eating chemicals at a very young age (along with horrible factory made nutrient poor, calorie rich junk and processed food). We simply MUST do something about the assault of environmental toxins that we have going on globally. Bottom line I see CFS like a train wreck. Are all train wrecks completely un-salvageable? No not at all! When I worked ICU trauma and ER resuscitation we had lots of what we called train wrecks. Train wrecks take a lot of work, commitment, persistence, and time to restore back to working order but it can be done!In my reading I find a lot of consensus on this including this letter in the New York Times:
To the Editor:
I have long been struck by how similar chronic fatigue syndrome (or myalgic encephalomyelitis) is to the pathologies of gulf war syndrome, the illnesses of people subjected to low-level radiation exposure, and the maladies that plague communities near coal operations.
It seems clear that major shocks to the human system — particularly the immune, neurological and endocrine systems — can be delivered through toxic exposure, infectious agents and other extreme stressors. And once these systems are hit with sufficiently large impact, they can set off broad systemic collapse. Think of it as the human body version of a nuclear plant meltdown.
Whatever the findings of continuing research, adequate treatment mandates a health care system that provides far more effective management and active collaboration among consultant specialists than the current United States system typically provides.
Michel Lee
Scarsdale, N.Y., Oct. 21, 2009
The writer, a lawyer, is a senior adviser to the public interest organization Public Health and Sustainable Energy and formerly served on a panel of lawyers and doctors concerned about the inadequacy of regulatory standards to protect public health from the effects of environmental toxins.
In regard to children who aren't affected by the stressors that adults have such as sleep deprivation, burnout, and other adult stressors I feel strongly that we are poisoning our children from the time of conception. Embryonic and fetal cells cannot defend against being bathed in chemicals as they are now! And then from the time a newborn comes into the world he or she is rubbed with chemicals in personal care products, breathes chemicals from VOCs coming from every direction, and begins eating chemicals at a very young age (along with horrible factory made nutrient poor, calorie rich junk and processed food). We simply MUST do something about the assault of environmental toxins that we have going on globally.
Bottom line I see CFS like a train wreck. Are all train wrecks completely un-salvageable? No not at all! When I worked ICU trauma and ER resuscitation we had lots of what we called train wrecks. Train wrecks take a lot of work, commitment, persistence, and time to restore back to working order but it can be done!
I have long been struck by how similar chronic fatigue syndrome (or myalgic encephalomyelitis) is to the pathologies of gulf war syndrome, the illnesses of people subjected to low-level radiation exposure, and the maladies that plague communities near coal operations.
It seems clear that major shocks to the human system — particularly the immune, neurological and endocrine systems — can be delivered through toxic exposure, infectious agents and other extreme stressors. And once these systems are hit with sufficiently large impact, they can set off broad systemic collapse. Think of it as the human body version of a nuclear plant meltdown.
Whatever the findings of continuing research, adequate treatment mandates a health care system that provides far more effective management and active collaboration among consultant specialists than the current United States system typically provides.
Michel Lee
Scarsdale, N.Y., Oct. 21, 2009
The writer, a lawyer, is a senior adviser to the public interest organization Public Health and Sustainable Energy and formerly served on a panel of lawyers and doctors concerned about the inadequacy of regulatory standards to protect public health from the effects of environmental toxins.