Radiation Model for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Announced by the National CFIDS Foundation 2019

I'm not too into these Facebook groups regardless of the topic. The problem with Facebook is I already follow a few groups with ME/CFS and they tend to flood my timeline, so these groups quickly become impossible to follow due to the sheer amount of new posts and lack of organization, especially with brain fog. Anyway, good luck with it.

 

I don't know much about them, but I believe this idea of radiation and CFS is mainly the interest of the "National CFIDS Foundation," http://www.ncf-net.org/ - which seems to be based out of Massachusetts.

They have a web page of links to articles concerning radiation and health. http://www.ncf-net.org/radiation.htm

They also maintain a memorial list of CFIDS patients who have died. http://www.ncf-net.org/memorial.htm

They also have an interest in Ciguatera Toxicology, among other things. http://www.ncf-net.org/NCFresearch.htm

I'm not sure how large they are, or how active they are currently. It appears they have funded a fair amount of research (said to be $4 million worth since 1997), but, for some reason, they seem to have a fairly low profile (that's just my impression, of course).

Last May, they "provided details" on a "radiation model for CFS." I'm pretty sure they have made such announcements in the past, as well.

I don't know the details, but I suppose it's possible that radiation exposure could be one the many apparent triggers of ME/CFS*. I'd be surprised if it accounted for a very large number of cases, though - with the exception of in the instance of a large scale release of radiation, as in Chernobyl, 1986.


[*ETA - I'm thinking of radiation induced cell death leading to an immune response - something discussed in this article, Harnessing the Immunomodulatory Effects of Radiation Therapy.]

 

Based on how their website art and tech looks like it was pulled from about 2007, they don't seem much relevant.

 

I think it deserves a lot more thought,I think it’s ground zero,nuclear bombs nuclear power,depleated uranium and nature causing genetic change
I always thought whatever caused my mutations is the culprit two generations ago

 

If 'radiation' is a contributory factor then area's with a relatively high background radiation level should have substantially more cases of ME than areas with relatively lower levels.

This pattern should be fairly easy to spot, but my remembrance of my O level geography re world distribution of sources of minerals leading to higher levels of background radiation is 'iffy'.

Some parts of Canada I seem to remember had significantly higher background radiation due to uranium deposits, some parts of Yorkshire and the NW in the UK also.

That's the sum total of my pre-existing knowledge on that subject, but, assuming the population data is there it should be easy for anyone to map ME cases onto such mineralogic geographical data, allowing for the fact that people move, and see if there is a correlation.

ETA - It appears that most of the southern hemisphere has relatively high background radiation, India, sections of China, the west coast of north America, and pretty much anywhere with mountains, fault lines or volcanic shield plateaus.

And, for some reason, Iran, which has a town/city that has the highest background radiation in the world.

So if the theory is correct.....

 

For M.E hospital outbreaks could a faulty x ray machine generate enough radiation to be the cause

Does the radon uk map tie in with higher MS cases I wondered (Orkney and Cornwall)

 

Is there a higher rate of ME/CFS amongst people who work in banana growing, import, processing, etc? You could be surrounded by thousands of radiation spewing bananas every day!

 

Everybody needs to be aware of bananas especially in bunches

 

If an X-ray machine was generating significant excess X-ray output, the film would be overexposed and the photos unreadable.

 

I don’t know how x ray machines work but I mean if the raw material that generates the radiation was just left out in the open so everybody was exposed especially in the earlier days where safety awareness might not of been as thorough

 

There is no material that generates radiation in an x ray machine so there’s nothing to leave out. Here’s a page explaining how they work.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/x-ray2.htm

 

I think one of the (many, many) problems I have with the 'does radiation cause ME/CFS?' question is, firstly, what type of radiation is being proposed as a causative agent here? In what part of the spectrum? Gamma radiation? X-rays? UV? Ionising? Non-ionising?

'Radiation' as a term sounds scientific but in the same way that it's used in comics to give the hero superpowers.

 

How do we know radiation wouldn’t cure ME? I mean, look what it did for the formerly meek mild mannered Dr. Bruce Banner!

 

Alpha particles.

At least that is what the CFIDS Foundation say. I am not really connected to them. I just post a lot of articles from them on the facebook page.
I also try to find stuff on the web from other sources.

It just interests me as a subject. I thought it was a shame that there was no corner on the web to discuss the theory, even though I really do not know if it is correct.

The theory is that just as smoking cigarettes was found to cause lung cancer and other diseases, but in not everyone. So very low dose radiation in the form of alpha particles can cause CFS and other conditions, not just cancer and is only something that would be seen statistically if they were to research it.

I have CFS from the age of 15. Triggered by mononucleosis. I was always too ill to work. I have 2 nephews. One has diabetes and the other autism. My Mum had treatment with radiotherapy for a growth when she was a girl. All the rest of my family who didn't have radiotherapy as a kid have healthy kids and decendants. Not only that, but there seems to be a higher incidence of autoimmune diseases around Hanford nuclear facility.

In summary I think radiation causes more than just cancer and birth defects. I think it raises the risk of mental illness, neurological disease, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, diabetes, complications after infections and CFS.

I don't think it is a big "conspiracy".
It's more that researchers simply don't know yet and have not been being funded to search in this direction.

It is more similar to the discovery of heliobactor causing ulcers and not stress, which was an idea so deeply ingrained that no one thought to look in that direction.

 

alpha particles according to the CFIDS Foundation

 

True but they have done no epidemic studies on ME and they don't even have a proper serious definition. One of the definitions does not even have Post exertional malaise as a symptom.

 

Oak ridge possibly had a cluster of birth defects associated with it including my specific defect which is rare 250,000 to 1 so to have a cluster is unusual
I say possibly because officials declared it not so,it was just random chance but they are some odds