Why are doctors skeptical that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome actually exists as a physical illness?

[faceurchin]

The people who say they have it are usually 18-25 years old, or 40-50 years old.. but usually the younger age & female. the symptoms are fatigue, body aches that have no redness or swelling, feeling tired, sleeping a lot, brain fog, weakness, memory loss, exercise intolerance, and depression, and this lasts for years or even decades and it was in the news recently where a mother blamed her daughters death on cfs. CFS people are adamant their condition has a physical and non psychological cause and have given doctors death threats and compared them to Nazi doctors if they make any conclusions that CFS is not caused by something physical, like a new virus.

CFS itself has many names, such as ME, Post Exertional Intolerance Syndrome, and 'Yuppie Flu'. The demographic is usually women in their 40's.

Many odd things have been blamed, for instance 'chemtrails', stress, vaccinations, gut bacteria, or even a new virus that doctors are covering up (the virus one is the most common). there are few doctors who will diagnose and the criteria is that every single known disease must be ruled out. it seems to have made a sudden appearance in the 1980's, and it was prevalent in the 90's, but then it seemed to wane and now it's prevalent again and it's like every other person has it.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

and have given doctors death threats and compared them to Nazi doctors if they make any conclusions that CFS is not caused by something physical, like a new virus.

it becomes extremely difficult to discuss the science of something when you insist on mixing in conspiracy theorys.

sudden appearance in the 1980's, and it was prevalent in the 90's, but then it seemed to wane and now it's prevalent again and it's like every other person has it.

what is the rate of opiod addiction in the usa currently ?
what is the rate of suicide in the usa currently ?
what is the rate of domestic abuse in the usa currently ?

are you wanting to discuss the medical science side ?
the conspiracy side ?
the statistical impresion of public medical conditions ?

 

[Tiassa]

​

It is not that I am unfamiliar certain aspects of the topic narrative regarding cynicism and the like, but it seems more like trusting and then projecting the cynicism than anything else.

Via the New Yorker (2015)↱:

Ever since it was first given its name, in 1988, the condition known as chronic fatigue syndrome has been trivialized by doctors and laypeople alike, dismissed as mere malingering. So it felt momentous, earlier this month, when the Institute of Medicine released an exhaustively documented report announcing that CFS—also called, in some circles, myalgic encephalomyelitis, because of its effects on the muscles and brain—is real. As the authors put it, “The primary message of this report is that ME/CFS is a serious, chronic, complex, multisystem disease that frequently and dramatically limits the activities of affected patients.” They suggested that it be given a new name: systemic exertion intolerance disease.

The report devotes hundreds of pages to assessing the medical literature on ME/CFS, ultimately judging it an organic disease—one rooted in the body rather than in the mind—with clear physiological markers, including diminished cardiovascular function, even after exercise; slowed information processing in the brain; and orthostatic intolerance (lightheadedness, blurred vision, and other symptoms that develop when a patient stands up). People with ME/CFS, the report noted, are more “functionally impaired” than those with Type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and congestive heart failure—diseases that we know to be very grave indeed. Their rate of unemployment is estimated at between thirty-five and sixty per cent, and up to twenty-nine per cent of them will at some point be bedridden or housebound because of the illness, which frequently strikes people in their forties or fifties. “I was uninformed,” Ellen Clayton, the chair of the I.O.M. committee and a professor at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, at Vanderbilt University, told me. “As I went through the literature and listened to patients, I became completely convinced.” She and her colleagues estimate that there are as many as two and a half million people living with ME/CFS in the United States, perhaps nine in ten of whom are undiagnosed.​

As to the report:

• There is a four-page report brief (.pdf)↱ available online from the National Academies of Science.

• The full report, running three hundred five pages (.pdf) is also available in exchange for a working email address via the National Academies of Science (click here and note the link upper right↱).​

____________________

Notes:

Institute of Medicine. Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Redefining an Illness. Washington: National Academies Press, 2015. NAP.edu. 8 April 2018. http://nap.edu/19012

—————. "Report Brief: Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Redefining an Illness". February 2015. NationalAcademies.org. 8 April 2018. http://bit.ly/2qhjxix

O'Rourke, Meghan. "A New Name, and Wider Recognition, for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". The New Yorker. 27 February 2015. NewYorker.com. 8 April 2018. http://bit.ly/2EuAHhC

 

[DaveC426913]

it seems to have made a sudden appearance in the 1980's, and it was prevalent in the 90's, but then it seemed to wane and now it's prevalent again and it's like every other person has it.

I'm not sure whether you're a proponent or a skeptic.

Thing about syndromes is that they are syndromes because we don't know the cause. The syndrome is essentially identifying a common set of symptoms, without knowing the root cause. At some point, the medical profession must recognize that - even if such a problem has no known cause, it is definitely something that cannot be ignored - too many patients are experiencing this same thing, and they still need treatment. They have to acknowledge that 'we don't know why' is not tantamount to 'you are imagining this'.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

I'm not sure whether you're a proponent or a skeptic.

Thing about syndromes is that they are syndromes because we don't know the cause. The syndrome is essentially identifying a common set of symptoms, without knowing the root cause. At some point, the medical profession must recognize that - even if such a problem has no known cause, it is definitely something that cannot be ignored - too many patients are experiencing this same thing, and they still need treatment. They have to acknowledge that 'we don't know why' is not tantamount to 'you are imagining this'.

i worked along side someone with it for a while.
they told me the condition had a name, doctors knew it existed, but didnt really know what it was.
the name that they the patients used was just a name.
i observed them in varying states of the condition over some months.
general mathamatical and cognitive dynamic ability was a little above average(cognitive fluid dynamic was above average).
spacial judgement was on again off again.
the onset of the condition was like a complete collapse of the body into a flu like state where a flu sufferer looses motor ability and the bodys immune system is visually breaking down.
migraines were also a thing.
psychological disposition very happy and positive.

 

[anonymousse]

This person has been spamming several boards on Reddit over the past few days, using more than one account, asking variations on this question, although originally it was not phrased as a question, but an extremely hostile declaration that ME/CFS is not a physical illness. All of the original postings have been deleted by the OP or removed by mods. Several detailed responses were provided for the OP's benefit with links to peer-reviewed literature, but none were responded to. If this person were sincere about finding an answer to this question, there is more than enough evidence out there to provide detailed information. I would be happy to post any and all relevant links, but at this point not out of any interest to deal with this person, only because if anyone is intrigued by the question and would like to know more...

 

[faceurchin]

bump

 

[DaveC426913]

bump

What's to bump? You haven't contributed anything since the OP. Are you hoping we'll just squabble amongst ourselves? That's kind of trollish.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

i worked along side someone with it for a while.
they told me the condition had a name, doctors knew it existed, but didnt really know what it was.
the name that they the patients used was just a name.
i observed them in varying states of the condition over some months.
general mathamatical and cognitive dynamic ability was a little above average(cognitive fluid dynamic was above average).
spacial judgement was on again off again.
the onset of the condition was like a complete collapse of the body into a flu like state where a flu sufferer looses motor ability and the bodys immune system is visually breaking down.
migraines were also a thing.
psychological disposition very happy and positive.

faint sense of bi-polar, more soo a PTSD symptomatic response to fatigue matched with a mild form of OCD as a sense of emotional perfectionism.


some people like to feel validated by asserting thier idea that just toughing it out and hardening up will solve a lack of emotional intelligence by social culture.

i would like to see them explain that to the parents of a S.I.D.S patient.

 

[Selfexprt.SJ]

Has it been suggested that people with mentioned syndrome be tested for lupus, the muscle disorder which could cause some if not all the mentioned problems in original post?

 

[Selfexprt.SJ]

Has it been suggested that people with mentioned syndrome be tested for lupus, the muscle disorder which could cause some if not all the mentioned problems in original post?

The staff member definitely solved this, please forgive my hasty post.. trusting and what not

 

[RainbowSingularity]

The staff member definitely solved this, please forgive my hasty post.. trusting and what not

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_fatigue_syndrome#Prognosis

Prognosis
A systematic review described improvement and occupational outcomes of people with CFS found that "the median full recovery rate was 5% (range 0–31%) and the median proportion of patients who improved during follow-up was 39.5% (range 8–63%). Return to work at follow-up ranged from 8 to 30% in the three studies that considered this outcome." .... "In five studies, a worsening of symptoms during the period of follow-up was reported in between 5 and 20% of patients." A good outcome was associated with less fatigue severity at baseline. Other factors were occasionally, but not consistently, related to outcome, including age at onset (5 of 16 studies), and attributing illness to a psychological cause and/or having a sense of control over symptoms (4 of 16 studies).[103] Another review found that children have a better prognosis than adults, with 54–94% having recovered by follow-up compared to less than 10% of adults returning to pre-illness levels of functioning.[104]

interesting to note (sounds like mass poisoning[attack] by a chemical nerve agent)

Chronic fatigue syndrome
In the mid-1980s, two large outbreaks of an illness which resembled mononucleosis drew national attention in the United States. Located in Nevada and New York, the outbreaks involved an illness which was characterized by "chronic or recurrent debilitating fatigue, and various combinations of other symptoms, including a sore throat, lymph node pain and tenderness, headache, myalgia, and arthralgias". An initial link to the Epstein-Barr virus saw the illness acquire the name "chronic Epstein-Barr virus syndrome".[1]:29[80]

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened a working group tasked with reaching a consensus on the clinical features of the illness. Meeting in 1987, the working group concluded that CFS was not new, and that the many different names given to it previously reflected widely differing concepts of the illness's cause and epidemiology.[116] The CDC working group chose "chronic fatigue syndrome" as a more neutral and inclusive name for the illness, but noted that "myalgic encephalomyelitis" was widely accepted in other parts of the world.[80] The first definition of CFS was published in 1988, and although the cause of the illness remained unknown, there were several attempts to update this definition, most notably in 1994.[77] In 2006, the CDC commenced a national program to educate the American public and health care professionals about CFS.[117]

maybe its genetic from a mutation of DNA from some type of food group...
things like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruptor

maybe its pregnant women who have been poisoned by eating food from plastic containers which has damaged their babys DNA.

many possible explanations... not many that corporate america will be happy to accept though.