by John Young
Syndromes are called “syndromes” because they have no definitively known cause and are instead diagnosed by a preponderance of a constellation of symptoms. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is one such syndrome.
CFS has eight official symptoms which include fatigue, loss of memory or concentration, and unexplained muscle pain among others. CFS can also manifest with a number of unofficial symptoms including anxiety, depression, irritability and panic attacks. Women are affected four times as often as men, though sex is not known to be a risk factor for the disease.
In general, treatment has consisted of cognitive behavioral therapy, antidepressants, drugs such as ritalin, and so forth. In other words, CFS has been treated, largely, as a psychosomatic illness.
Well, after decades of treating patients as though they are mentally ill rather than physically ill; it appears as though a real causative agent has been found: an infectious retrovirus known as xenotropic murine leukemia virus or XMLV.Dr. Judy A. Mikovits and her co-authors published their findings in the journal Science this past Thursday.
Initial findings included that 67% of 101 subjects manifesting the symptoms of CFS carried the virus; whereas only 3.7% of 218 asymptomatic subjects were infected. Subsequent study found that an astonishing 98% of 300 patients diagnosed with CFS were infected with XMLV.
XMLV is an RNA-based retrovirus similar to HIV. It combines with and becomes part of the host’s genetic material for life. Nevertheless, the study indicates that diagnosed CFS, particularly combined with the discovery of XMLV infection, might be better treated with the same drugs used to treat AIDS than giving patients psychoactive meds.
Over one million Americans suffer from CFS every day. And for decades they have been treated as though they are hypochondriacs. Now, it turns out, that medical science was wrong.
This is not the first time.
Up until a decade ago, stomach ulcers were treated as a sign of stress or excess. Patients routinely underwent surgery and were given tranquilizers. This happened up until the causative agent, a bacteria known as heliobacter pylori was definitively proven as the causative agent.
The bottom line is that a large number of human symptoms that have been mistakenly attributed to issues of lifestyle or mental health have turned out to be caused by infectious agents.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is just the beginning.
We have also discovered a number of cancers, such as cervical cancer, to be caused by a virus. Research by Dr. Mikovitz indicates that prostate cancer may also be one of these.
So we should be reminded that, just as we look at the medical science of 100 years ago and considered them rather unenlightened; our posterity 100 years from now may look at us the same way.
OUR job is to assure the wellbeing of that posterity.