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Query: UMLS:C0015674 (chronic fatigue syndrome)
 2,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) remains an enigma. But literature concerning chronic fatigue which does not focus on CFS points to all sorts of enzyme deficiencies as possible causes. The deficiencies are probably dismissed as causes of CFS because other characteristic symptoms are lacking in CFS patients. But these symptoms are often also lacking in patients with a deficiency. Symptom patterns in enzyme deficiencies are extremely variable. Therefore, patients with CFS should be screened systematically for enzyme deficiencies.
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PMID:Chronic fatigue syndrome: a matter of enzyme deficiencies? 1085 1

Despite extensive investigation, the enigma of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) continues to confound medical researchers. It is suggested that this may be due to two impediments inherent in their overall approach to the problem. Firstly, although fatigue is central to CFS, medical scientists appear not to understand what fatigue itself really is, nor what is its purpose or mode of function. A functional definition of fatigue is suggested to help resolve this. Secondly, physicians and other researchers - psychologists and alternative medicine practitioners - fail to observe an elementary and fundamental procedure of clinical medicine, namely, that of properly examining their patients before making a diagnosis or providing treatment. The notion of the 'black hole' of medicine is introduced. Recognizing the existence of these impediments is considered a self-evident precondition for further significant progress being made in this field.
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PMID:Chronic fatigue syndrome - medical fact or artifact. 1269 8

The aetiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) remains controversial and a number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain it. Research into the condition is hindered by the considerable heterogeneity seen across patients but several reports have highlighted disturbances to cholinergic mechanisms in terms of central nervous system activity, neuromuscular function and autoantibodies to muscarinic cholinergic receptors. This paper examines an altogether separate function for acetylcholine and that is its role as an important and generalized vasodilator. Most diseases are accompanied by a blunted response to acetylcholine but the opposite is true for CFS. Such sensitivity is normally associated with physical training so the finding in CFS is anomalous and may well be relevant to vascular symptoms that characterise many patients. There are several mechanisms that might lead to ACh endothelial sensitivity in CFS patients and various experiments have been designed to unravel the enigma. These are reported here.
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PMID:Acetylcholine mediated vasodilatation in the microcirculation of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. 1504 Oct 34

This review was written from the viewpoint of the treating clinician to educate health care professionals and the public about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). It includes: the clinical definition of ME/CFS with emphasis on how to diagnose ME/CFS; the etiology, pathophysiology, management approach, long-term prognosis and economic cost of ME/CFS. After reading this review, you will be better able to diagnose and treat your patients with ME/CFS using the tools and information provided. Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex, chronic medical condition characterized by symptom clusters that include: pathological fatigue and malaise that is worse after exertion, cognitive dysfunction, immune dysfunction, unrefreshing sleep, pain, autonomic dysfunction, neuroendocrine and immune symptoms. ME/CFS is common, often severely disabling and costly. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed the ME/CFS literature and estimates that between 836,000 and 2.5 million Americans have ME/CFS at a cost of between 17 and 24 billion dollars annually in the US. The IOM suggested a new name for ME/CFS and called it Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID). SEID's diagnostic criteria are less specific and do not exclude psychiatric disorders in the criteria. The 2010 Canadian Community Health Survey discovered that 29% of patients with ME/CFS had unmet health care needs and 20% had food insecurity--lack of access to sufficient healthy foods. ME/CFS can be severely disabling and cause patients to be bedridden. Yet most patients (80%) struggle to get a diagnosis because doctors have not been taught how to diagnose or treat ME/CFS in medical schools or in their post-graduate educational training. Consequently, the patients with ME/CFS suffer. They are not diagnosed with ME/CFS and are not treated accordingly. Instead of compassionate care from their doctors, they are often ridiculed by the very people from whom they seek help. The precise etiology of ME/CFS remains unknown, but recent advances and research discoveries are beginning to shed light on the enigma of this disease including the following contributors: infectious, genetic, immune, cognitive including sleep, metabolic and biochemical abnormalities. Management of patients with ME/CFS is supportive symptomatic treatment with a patient centered care approach that begins with the symptoms that are most troublesome for the patient. Pacing of activities with strategic rest periods is, in our opinion, the most important coping strategy patients can learn to better manage their illness and stop their post-exertional fatigue and malaise. Pacing allows patients to regain the ability to plan activities and begin to make slow incremental improvements in functionality.
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PMID:Review of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: an evidence-based approach to diagnosis and management by clinicians. 2661 25

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has remained a medical enigma since it was first reported in the late 1980s by Paul Cheney, MD, PhD, who-along with his medical partner in Incline Village, Nevada-made the observation of a group of his patients all having serious and unremitting fatigue following a significant winter flu season. I was introduced to Dr Cheney by Scott Rigden, MD, an expert in the study of chronic fatigue syndrome and also a key advisor to me during the founding days of the Institute for Functional Medicine. From 1989 to 1991, Dr Cheney was an important contributor to the development of concepts underlying the Functional Medicine model.
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PMID:Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Functional Mitochondriopathy, and Enterohepatic Dysfunction. 3093