Nailing down the cause—or, more likely, causes—of the illness has proved exceptionally difficult, since patients’ symptoms vary tremendously, reports NPR.
The study’s lead investigator is neuroimmunologist Dr. Avindra Nath, chief of the Section of Infections of the Nervous System and clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Prior to joining NIH in 2011, Nath ran a multiple sclerosis clinic, where he evaluated many ME/CFS patients to rule out MS, which can cause similar symptoms. That’s where his interest in ME/CFS began, he says.
“I became comfortable that, ‘Yes, they do have a real story that’s very convincing’ … but [when you run the usual tests] you don’t find anything. That made me feel that it’s probably worth pursuing further,” he says. “NIH is probably the best place to be able to do that because we have a lot of tools available to study a small population in great depth.”
There is likely more than one cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
I am familiar with a cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I have had success treating.
When the mandible is seated too far distal in the fossa there can be symptoms Dr. Avindra Nath describes.
Nerves in the posterior jaw joint space are pinched by a distally displaced mandible sending messages to the brain 24/7.
A posteriorly displaced mandible results in a posteriorly displaced tongue and a reduced posterior airway. This results in poor sleep and reduced restoration of the brain.
As a result we have excess brain activity due to the excess nerve activity from the pinched nerves; and we have reduced restoration of the brain.
This can be quite harmful to the nervous system over a time period.
The distally displaced mandibular condyle can place pressure on the inner ear and can cause dizziness and tinnitus. It can also pinch the eustachian tube causing various ear problems.
Supporting the mandible in a healthy position 24/7 reduces all of the above problems.
When a distally displaced mandible is so supported, symptoms of depression, anxiety, movement disorders, ear pain, fibromyalgia, unexplained difficulties going to sleep, and/or staying asleep, and other symptoms dependably reduce.
Treatment includes:
(1) a removeable night time appliance to give substantial mandibular support during sleep
(2) a removeable daytime appliance for down and forward mandibular support that is user friendly for talking and smiling
(3) a removable appliance designed for proper mandibular support during eating.
Any comprehensive study of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome needs to include studying a sample of patients who have chronic fatigue symptoms and also have a distally displaced mandible.
A distally displaced mandible has a smaller posterior joint space than anterior joint space.
This is best seen on a 3-D Cone Beam x-ray or on a transcranial TMJ x-ray.
An important note about this treatment is that no drugs are used. Therefore there is no risk of any side effects from drugs. No surgery is needed.