Familiar with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

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Are you familiar with it? Are there any nurses here with it?

I've been ill since July and although I have no diagnosis yet, I fear I have it. Calling this "fatigue" is almost laughable.

I've completed some preliminary research and there have been studies done that suggest that nurses have a higher rate of infection than the general population.

What are your thoughts on the disease?

Thank you in advance.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Interesting results indicating that nurses have a higher rate.

Not many people get hospitlized with it so I'm not too horribly familiar with it. I do know it's hard to diagnose and there's a lot of accusations of malingering in the people who have it. Good luck.

Since we don't give medical advice here, I'm going to ask that the discussion be geared towards the illness and research, and not you personally. (Which is what your post indicates, I'm just advising future posters. Thanks)

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Specializes in NICU.

Here at Allnurses.com, we cannot give out medical advice per our Terms of Service. If you think you are having medical problems, then it would be best to see your doctor. Good luck and take care of yourself.

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Thanks for your replies. I should have phrased this differently.

I'm more interested in the attitudes and knowledge about it among nurses along with experiences in that area of nurses who may have it.

I'm not looking for advice, medically or otherwise. A discussion about it would be nice though!

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

interesting links:

cdc - cfs gbv-c ? a virus without a disease: we cannot give it chronic fatigue syndrome

chronic fatigue syndrome

an explanation for chronic fatigue syndrome?

chronic fatigue syndrome (cfs) remains a perplexing and frustrating clinical problem for both health care providers and for patients.[13] despite efforts to define the problem more precisely, explore the possibility of various etiologic agents, and apply different therapeutic strategies, the cause or causes of this syndrome are elusive, and there have been no major breakthroughs in therapy (see fukuda and colleagues[14] and http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cfs/pub2.htm).

dr. a. m. lerner of the william beaumont hospital, royal oak, michigan, discussed an intriguing hypothesis about the mechanisms of chronic fatigue in some of these patients, as well as his ideas about possible etiologic factors.[15] because so many patients report poor exercise tolerance and dyspnea on exertion, lerner has examined patients for evidence of cardiomyopathy. based on electrocardiographic findings (alternating t wave polarity), as well as non-invasive cardiac imaging and cardiac biopsies, lerner concludes that many patients with cfs suffer from a dilated cardiomyopathy with features of myocarditis. although his work includes control patients, it is not clear whether he has included controls that have been confined to bed rest for other reasons, since physical de-conditioning might be expected to produce some of the same findings. in addition, lerner presented evidence for active epstein-barr virus and/or cytomegalovirus infection in these patients, based on novel serologic assays developed by his group. these findings do not appear to have been published in peer-reviewed journals and need to be corroborated by other investigators.

log in problems

other links:

cdc - cfs immune responses associated with chronic fatigue syndrome: a case-control study. immune responses associated with cfs

cdc - cfs is chronic fatigue syndrome an infectious disease? is cfs an infectious dz?

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i don't believe that it is more prevalent among nurses [other medical health providers] than among the general population but it is a difficult to dx and it

is difficult to live with

if your md is not giving you good advise et another...try an rheumatologist

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Specializes in Cardiac, Acute/Subacute Rehab.

I just did a paper for Microbiology about Candida albicans. There are resources that explain how the systemic overgrowth of this yeast can cause some of the same symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (particularly look for "Leaky Gut Syndrome." Check into it! It's not something many physicians will admit to, apparently, but. . .

These are a couple of the sources I used. Good luck!!

Chronic fatigue syndrome, Yeast Related Illness, CFS, candida albicans, CFIDS, immune dysfunction syndrome

Section 1, Part 1 - GENERALIZED PROBLEMS RELATING TO HEALTH

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I just did a paper for Microbiology about Candida albicans. There are resources that explain how the systemic overgrowth of this yeast can cause some of the same symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (particularly look for "Leaky Gut Syndrome." Check into it! It's not something many physicians will admit to, apparently, but. . .

These are a couple of the sources I used. Good luck!!

Chronic fatigue syndrome, Yeast Related Illness, CFS, candida albicans, CFIDS, immune dysfunction syndrome

Section 1, Part 1 - GENERALIZED PROBLEMS RELATING TO HEALTH

You're definitely correct that the candida-CFIDS link hasn't caught on in mainstream medicine. While some patients have taken antifungals and felt better, the scientific evidence just isn't there.

Even Dr Cranton (author of one of the above links) admits that the science is lacking, but he feels that subjective clinical observations are enough to confirm the theory. That's just not the way medicine typically works.

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I have a hard time accepting anything that isn't proven myself. I can understand the grasping at straws however. So many desperately want to be well that we'll put our hope in anything.

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Here is a link to prevalence among nurses:

Entrez PubMed

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Take Good Vitamins Esp Vit C And When You Can Walk Exercise As Tolerated

Emergen C Is A Good One

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Specializes in rehab; med/surg; l&d; peds/home care.

Hi,

I have CFS. My very good friend and internist did not want to dx it. But since he sees me at work, in his office, and very often in real life, he couldn't deny my symptoms. He is a doc who hates any kind of dx like fibromyalgia, etc. He doesn't believe in them. So I was surprised he actually agreed to treat me for it.

I had a span of time (still do) that I get sick very easily, had fevers with unknown etiologies and no other sx, and at one time went for blood work to check my levels of IgM, and other levels I don't recall, but he is very literate in reading the level of EBV. I was shown to have a very active EBV. Odd for my age. And I originally had "mono" when I was a teen. He has no idea why I still have such issues. He wanted to send me to an ID doc, but I have not gone, since I really don't want any more tests.

I just underwent a hysterectomy for a cancerous mass. I have a laundry list of medical issues, my most troubling right now being severe back pain (chronic x8 years), and my lupus.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to talk more about it privately.

RehabNurse

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