Chronic fatigue syndrome - underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed? - opinion by Dr Rajendra Sharma

MeSci

MeSci

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
http://www.hospitalhealthcare.com/neurology/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-–-underdiagnosed-or-misdiagnosed

(This site is intended for health professionals only)

Chronic fatigue syndrome – underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed?

31 January, 2018 11:10 AM | By Dr Rajendra Sharma

As a population, we are either being underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is, after all, a label given to those whose chronic tiredness and other symptoms do not fall under any other diagnosis.

There are published estimates stating that from 0.25% to 2.54% of the population may well have been misdiagnosed. The lower figure comes from UK research and the upper figure from the USA. This means the number of sufferers here in the UK could be closer to 1.6 million people rather than the suggested 150,000. It is possible that CFS is underdiagnosed in more than 80% of the people who have it, or is often misdiagnosed as depression.

(More at link)
 
Diet and supplements are rarely considered despite strong evidence of efficacy.
Click to expand...

Citation needed.

I personally recommend a range of functional medicine tests for patients with CFS to identify the underlying cause(s) so that therapy can be individualised. Genetic, immunologic, infectious, metabolic (especially mitochondrial dysfunction), and neurologic aetiologies are all capable of affecting energy production. Bowel inflammation and flora imbalance is also a cause of CFS but rarely investigated nor treated despite many research papers

Natural therapies including high dose supplementation, intravenous nutritional replenishment, mitochondrial therapy, bioidentical hormone therapy and botanical/herbal should be utilised in combination with life-style, exercise, dietetic and complementary and alternative therapies
Click to expand...

The author seems to be presenting a number of theories as fact. And the suggested response seems to be to run as many expensive tests as possible and then throw as many 'natural' remedies into the mix as one can. Colour me sceptical.
 
I presume that before going down the road of the "other tests" he pursues some of the basic tests of misdiagnosis first? Interesting that he doesn't mention PEM?

He is right about misdiagnosis and I'm sure a portion of people do have under active thyroid, etc but that doesn't mean they don't have ME as well.

I was a bit confused as to what he was trying to say...just seems like a general note with an opinion piece and some back of fag packet sums?
 
@MeSci
*not in direct response to the article/link but I had been thinking about this today.

I would be one of those people who was misdiagnosed (rightfully) with ME/CFS. I say "rightfully" because based on my symptoms, and very thorough testing (tons of blood testing of which my NK Cell function was found to be very low, brain MRI, nerve testing, evoked potentials testing, etc) other conditions were ruled out and I easily met all the criteria for ME/CFS.

In my case being misdiagnosed with ME/CFS was a good thing as it introduced me to the language to describe and understand my symptoms, to an online community of people going thru the same things as me, and to a sympathetic doctor.

After being diagnosed with ME/CFS I learned how important it was for me to avoid triggering PEM, and doing so improved my quality of life. It also alleviated the guilt I was feeling for spending 95% of my time at home resting, and ignoring doctors advice to exercise. The diagnosis of ME/CFS gave me permission to follow my instincts.

And then one day it wasn't ME/CFS anymore. And I wouldn't change anything as I think being misdiagnosed with ME/CFS was a positive thing in my case.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom