Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Blog

The #1 question we get on the forums is “Where can i find a CFS doctor in my area?” I thought it would be really helpful to have this chronic fatigue doctor database widget developed, so you can find cfs doctors in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. You can even embed this widget in your own website or blog, by copying and pasting the code below.

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Chronic Fatigue Treatments

This is still a work in progress as more doctors are being added. If you have a doctor that you think should be added. Write their name, address, and a description in the comments below and i’ll add it.

COPY & PASTE - the code below to embed on your website or blog
<br /> <iframe src='http://www.chronicfatiguetreatments.com/doctorwidget/widget.php' width='182' height='234' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /> <small><span style='color: #666;'>Powered By</span><br /> <a href='http://www.chronicfatiguetreatments.com'>Chronic Fatigue Treatments</a></small><br />

Also let me know if you have any ideas for features that you would like to see i have in the future. If you need any help adding it to your site, let me know in the comments

Written by: Ashok Gupta
Harley Street Solutions, No.1 Harley Street, London W1G 9QD UK. info@guptaprogramme.com
guptaprogramme.com“, Tel: +44 (0) 845 475 1 475

I used to suffer from ME/CFS myself around 10 years ago, when I contracted it whilst studying at University. Since then, for the last 10 years I have dedicated my life to finding an effective treatment for ME/CFS, and associated conditions such as Fibromyalgia and MCS. I have since recovered 100%, and I successfully treat patients at my clinic in Harley Street in Central London.

THE AMYGDALA HYPOTHESIS

My medical research seems to indicate that ME/CFS is a neurological condition, and may be caused by abnormalities in a brain structure called the “amygdala”,

Flavinox is an herbal supplement recommended by Dr. Martin Pall as a part of the treatment of elevated nitric oxide/peroxynitrite cycle (NO/ONOO- cycle). Dr. Pall believes the NO/ONOO- cycle can be set off by stressors like a viral or bacterial infection, chemical exposure, trauma, or psychological stress. It is proposed to be a main cause of CFS and possibly other diseases like Fibromyalgia, and MCS.

Flavinox contains herbs that have high levels of a compound called flavinoids. Flavinoids may be helpful in treating chronic fatigue syndrome because they inhibit nitric oxide coming from macrophages.

In a paper from January 2009, doctors out of Canada proposed a new theory about treating a suppressed HPA axis (which may be an issue for CFS patients), by suppressing it further.

The HPA axis is regulated by a complicated system of feedback loops. In the case of a suppressed HPA axis, there is a malfunction in one of these feedback mechanisms. This causes it to be stuck producing hormones at a lower than normal level.

Things have really come a long way in the 8 years that i have been sick. It seems like every week there is a new study into the physical causes of CFS. In 2001 about 1/3 of Dr.’s even believed chronic fatigue was a real disease.

Now it seems like they are zeroing in things like inflammation, oxidation, and nitric oxide. Almost every week i have read about a new study that relates CFS to these processes.

Ive been writing about Nitric Oxide and the “Martin Pall model of CFS” for a while. The reason i am so interested in it is that it makes sense with my symptoms and treatments that benefit me.

Ive been sick for 8 1/2 years and throughout that time i have come across 7 supplements that really help. Before i read Dr. Pall’s theory, I had no idea why they helped. I had tried literally 100’s of pills and i noticed that these few things improved my symptoms. I started reading about how these supplements affect the body, and they all have 1 thing in common. They all affect nitric oxide.

On Dec 4th, the CFIDS Association of America announced some new research grants totaling almost $650,000 to researchers studying chronic fatigue syndrome.

One of the recipients of the grant was a researcher out of Cornell University named Dikoma Shungu. In a preliminary study he showed through magnetic resonance brain scans that there was a build up of lactic acid in the brains of CFS patients, which might indicate compounds that cause oxidative stress.

I recently came across the June 2008 results of a follow up study for the treatment of chronic fatigue with valcyte. I had been waiting to hear more news about this, considering the pilot study had such great results.

Unfortunately the new results don’t seem positive.

I saw a newsletter from Dr. David Bell ’s website which reports on 30 person double blind study conducted by Dr. Montoya. All participants in the study had high levels of Epstien Barr and HHV-6 antibodies.

The author of this blog contacted me to write a short piece on how I understand the role of NO in CFS and my suggestions on how to deal with it. I am not a clinician, I am a researcher in NO (nitric oxide) with a chemical engineering background, so I tend to see physiology as a complicated chemical plant with exquisitely complex, precise, distributed and redundant control systems. We are mostly ignorant of the details of that control system, but that there is a control system and that it (usually) functions exquisitely well is beyond doubt. In CFS, much of that disruption results from low basal nitric oxide (my hypothesis).

One of the main symptoms of CFS is cognitive dysfunction. Also known as “brain fog”, this symptom is believed to be caused by lowered cerebral blood flow.(1)

One study showed that up to 80% of chronic fatigue patients had lower than normal cerebral blood flow.

A 2005 study showed that reduced blood flow was not confined to specific regions, but was present in broad areas throughout the brain. These blood flow patterns were not consistent with depression which would show reduced prefrontal cortex activity, but seemed to have generalized lower blood flow throughout large areas.