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What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS):

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16 years 4 months ago #1336 by Scott_1984
What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myalgic_Encephalomyelitis

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is one of several names given to a poorly understood, highly debilitating disorder of uncertain cause/causes, which is thought to affect approximately 4 per 1,000 adults[1] in the United States and other countries, and a smaller fraction of children.[2]

The disorder is marked by chronic mental and physical exhaustion, often severe, and by other specific symptoms, arising in previously healthy and active persons.

Despite promising avenues of research, there remains no objective assay or pathological finding which is widely accepted to be diagnostic of CFS.

It remains largely a diagnosis of exclusion, made on the basis of patient history and symptomatic criteria, although a number of tests exist which can help aid diagnosis.[3]

Although there is agreement on the genuine threat to health, happiness, and productivity posed by CFS, various physicians' groups, researchers, and patient activists champion very different nomenclature, diagnostic criteria, etiologic hypotheses, and favored treatments, resulting in ongoing controversy about nearly all aspects of the disorder.

The name chronic fatigue syndrome is itself controversial, with some patient advocates and other authorities preferring terms such as myalgic encephalomyelitis (\"ME\" or \"ME/CFS\") and post-viral fatigue syndrome (\"PVFS\"), which imply specific underlying etiologies or pathologic processes.[4]

Chronic fatigue syndrome is not the same as \"chronic fatigue”.

While fatigue is a common symptom in many illnesses, CFS is a multi-symptom disease and is relatively rare by comparison.[5]

Definitions (other than the 1991 UK Oxford criteria[6]) require a number of features, the most common being severe mental and physical exhaustion which is \"unrelieved by rest\" (according to the 1994 Fukuda definition),[7] and may be worsened by even trivial exertion (a mandatory diagnostic criterion according to some systems).

Most diagnostic criteria insist that the symptoms must be present for at least six months, and all insist on there being no other cause for them: i.e. the symptoms must be idiopathic, not caused by other medical conditions such as diabetes, hypothyroidism or anemia.

CFS patients may report many other symptoms which are not included in all diagnostic criteria, including muscle weakness, cognitive dysfunction, hypersensitivity, orthostatic intolerance, digestive disturbances, depression, poor immune response, and cardiac and respiratory problems.

It is unclear if these symptoms represent co-morbid conditions or are produced by the same underlying etiology as CFS itself.[8]

Some cases improve over time, and treatments (though none are universally accepted) bring a degree of improvement to many others, though resolution is rare.

CFS occurs more often, but not exclusively, in women, for unknown reasons.

CFS is most easily diagnosed when formerly active adults become ill, and is most commonly diagnosed in young to middle aged adults, although it is also reported in children, adolescents and the elderly.[9]
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16 years 4 months ago #1337 by Scott_1984
What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): www.meassociation.org.uk/content/view/89/83 & www.meassociation.org.uk

It should be explained that there are a number of different names for what is an illness of uncertain cause affecting many thousands of people.

Currently it is estimated that some 250,000 people in Britain are affected by this illness.

*Myalgic Encephalopathy or \"ME\" (a term which The ME Association feels is more appropriate than the original, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)

*Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or \"CFS\"

*Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome or \"PVFS\"

*Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome or \"CFIDS\"

All types of people at all ages are affected. Severe and debilitating fatigue, painful muscles and joints, disordered sleep, gastric disturbances, poor memory and concentration are commonplace.

In many cases, onset is linked to a viral infection.

Other triggers may include an operation or an accident, although some people experience a slow, insidious onset.
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16 years 4 months ago #1339 by Scott_1984
What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): www.nmec.org.uk/whatisme.html & www.nmec.org.uk

ME can and does affect all age ranges, from the very young to the elderly.

The peak age tends to be between 20 and 40 and the incidence seems higher amongst those in stressful occupations.

ME, or Chronic Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome, is primarily a brain disorder which typically occurs in a vulnerable individual, often at a time of stress, as a consequence of a viral or recurrent viral infection. Clinically it is a fluctuating disorder of energy control (fatigue).

Symptoms commonly include prolonged recovery from any activity, muscle pain, sleep disturbances, disturbances of memory and concentration, irritable bowel, abnormal temperature control, emotional lability and mood fluctuations.

The consensus view is that the average duration of the illness is four years and up to twenty percent of sufferers fail to return to previous levels of functioning.

The severity of this disorder varies, though some patients are disabled for years.

It is estimated that there are around 240,000 people in the UK today suffering from ME and related chronic fatigue syndromes.

The loss of working hours and the inter-related burden upon social services amounts to many millions of pounds annually, this is without taking into account the personal stress that cannot be measured.

ME/CFS has also now been identified as the single largest cause of absence from school and college.
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16 years 4 months ago #1340 by Scott_1984
What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): www.meresearch.org.uk/information/whatisme.html& ; www.meresearch.org.uk

Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is characterised by a range of neurological symptoms and signs, muscle pain with intense physical or mental exhaustion, relapses, and specific cognitive disabilities.

Early reports dating from 1934 described epidemics of the illness (see Research Publications on ME epidemics for more information) — such as the 1955 outbreak at the Royal

Free Hospital in London — but nowadays it is more common for endemic (sporadic) cases to be identified. ME is classified by the World Health Organisation as a neurological illness (International Classification of Disease 10: G93.3).

The cardinal symptoms of ME are profound, generalised post-exertional loss of muscle power (fatigability); muscle pain that may include tenderness and swelling; and neurological signs.

Patients are also prone to relapses which may take the form of recurrences of the original systemic illness, or fresh episodes of muscle weakness, neurologic changes or well-defined cognitive problems.

As with many chronic illnesses, fatigue may be present, but in ME patients the fatigue is post-exertional, often delayed, and quite unlike the ‘fatigue’ experienced by healthy people.

The cause of ME is still unknown, but there is unlikely to be one single causative agent.

Several early epidemics appear to have been triggered off by an outbreak of an infection with enteric organisms or poliovirus which then subsided, and many patients report an infectious onset to their illness.

However, in others, there may have been a variety of contributing factors — infectious, traumatic, environmental and endogenous — all of which can lead on to a condition which shares a set of common symptoms.
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16 years 4 months ago #1341 by Scott_1984
What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): Action for M.E. is the UK's leading charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with ME: www.afme.org.uk/aboutus.asp & www.afme.org.uk/allaboutme.asp?table=contenttypetwo&id=1

M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Encephalopathy) is a chronic, fluctuating illness.

It is also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

Sometimes it is diagnosed as Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome (PVFS).

The illness affects many parts of the body, such as the nervous and immune systems.

The most common symptoms are severe fatigue or exhaustion, problems with memory and concentration and muscle pain.

It is estimated that there are up to 250,000 people with M.E. in the UK.

It can affect men, women and children of all ages and from all social and ethnic groups.

It seems to be more common to develop the illness between your early twenties and mid-forties.

What Is ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): Action for M.E. is the UK's leading charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with ME: www.afme.org.uk/aboutus.asp & www.afme.org.uk/allaboutme.asp?table=contenttypetwo&id=1
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