More than a million Indians are annually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a disease characterised by severe fatigue that does not improve with rest, with symptoms including inability to concentrate, low-grade fever, forgetfulness, and insomnia.
Scientists have now identified that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is “unambiguously biological”. The conclusion was made after a study into the condition, launched in 2016, took one of the most thorough investigations into the condition.
“Overall, what we show is that ME/CFS is unambiguously biological, with multiple organ systems affected,” neurologist Avindra Nath, lead researcher of the study and clinical director of NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), said in an interview with JAMA.
“It’s a systemic disease,” Nath continued, “and the people living with it deserve to have their experiences taken seriously.”
The results of the study were published in Nature Communications.
Using immune testing, brain scans, and other tools, the researchers looked for abnormalities that drive health complaints like crushing fatigue and brain fog.
What did the study find?
The team of National Institute of Health (NIH) researchers found evidence of chronic activation of the immune system.
The study found that among the people suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a part of the brain known to be important in perceiving fatigue — the right temporal-parietal area — was not functioning normally.
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When healthy people are asked to exert themselves physically or mentally, that area of the brain lights up during an MRI. However, in the people with CFS it lit up only dimly when they were asked to exert themselves, Harvard Health reported.
At the same time, the symptoms of the illness could not be attributed to psychological causes.
A key limitation of the study was the number of people who were studied. The study could enroll just 17 people with ME/CFS and 21 healthy people of the same age and sex, who served as a comparison group.
Despite its small size, the study lays the foundation for future work on the study.
(With inputs from agencies)
