Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) strikes four times as many women as men, but it is equally debilitating in both. It occurs most frequently between the ages of 40 to 60.
CFS is actually caused by genetic mutations that impair the central nervous system's ability to adapt to stressful situations, according to a major new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Small changes in many of the genes in the brain prevent the nervous system from rebounding from everyday stress and less frequent, stronger insults, eventually triggering a cascade of molecular responses that leave the patient severely debilitated, researchers reported in 14 separate papers in the journal Pharmacogenomics.
"This is the first credible evidence for a biological basis" for the syndrome, said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. The findings will provide immediate help in diagnosing the disorder, which often puzzles physicians because of the broad spectrum of symptoms and the absence of defining biochemical markers.
CFS was first recognized in the 1980s, but was long dismissed as the complaint of "a bunch of hysterical, upper-class white women," said Dr. William C. Reeves of the CDC, who led the new study. Diagnosis is difficult because many of the psychological symptoms, in mild form, are common traits of the modern stressful life.
Over the last two decades, most physicians have come to recognize CFS as a valid illness, he added, but there has been virtually no information about its causes. It has even been difficult to provide a precise definition of the disorder.
Experts now agree that it affects as many as 1 million Americans, causing severe exhaustion, widespread musculoskeletal pain, impairments in thinking and sleep disturbances.
Source: Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
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