Chronic fatigue duty syndrome has baffled scientist way before research worker defined the debilitating disorderin 1988 . Long derided as the " yuppie influenza " because of its mellow charge per unit of relative incidence among vernal white - collar workers , the syndrome causes muscle weakness , extreme fatigue duty that can not be meliorate by bed rest , and afflicted concentration . Its causal agent has never been clear , and many have suggest that CFS is amental illness .
But in recent years , the evidence has been wax that CFS has a physical cause ; to that last , it ’s now also known asmyalgic encephalopathy . Now , a group of Norse scientists mean they have found that suit — and it seems to be linked to the eubstance ’s immune system reply .
A series of small run of an autoimmune disorderliness drug propose that chronic weariness symptoms might be make by antibodies the organic structure produces to push off infections . The drug , rituximab , used to treat diseases like rheumatoid arthritis , destroy the blanched blood cells known as B cells . In thelatest subject , two - third of the 29 continuing fatigue patients who consume the drug know alleviated symptoms . After three years , 11 patient were still in remission .
The researchers say the disorder could be the result of the body ’s immune system getting out of whack after an contagion . One hypothesisfloated byØystein Fluge , one of the discipline ’s writer , is that antibodies produce to struggle an infection might continue assault the person ’s tissues , preventing the lineage from fully propagate and providing the body with oxygen .
Anotherrecent studyled by Columbia University plunk for the idea that CFS patients have meaning differences in their immune systems from healthy subject field . This steer toward a life-sustaining treatment for a little - understand disorderliness . A larger , advantageously - controlled follow - up to the Norwegian field of study is now underway .
[ h / t : New Scientist ]
