I know another poster has just shared a similar link to this study, but I think its very interesting that a group of researchers have now found evidence from the PET brain scans of CFS patients that CFS patients have brain or neuro inflammation in various regions of the brain that appear to be contributing to the host of symptoms some of us often experience: brain fog, cognition issues, etc.
Given that CFS and FM often overlap, and that
70 percent of FM patients meet the criteria of CFS , I think this information could be very relative to some FM patients, or the ones that also experience overwhelming fatigue or could be said to have many of the symptoms of CFS. But, for the record, this study was done on CFS patients.
So, if you have CFS, or CFS in addition to FM, you could be dealing with an illness with an inflammatory component: Inflammation of the nervous system.
Here is the article and study if you'd like to read it.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140404085538.htm "The researchers performed PET scanning on nine people diagnosed with CFS/ME and ten healthy people, and asked them to complete a questionnaire describing their levels of fatigue, cognitive impairment, pain, and depression. For the PET scan they used a protein that is expressed by microglia and astrocyte cells, which are known to be active in neuroinflammation.
The researchers found that neuroinflammation is higher in CFS/ME patients than in healthy people. They also found that inflammation in certain areas of the brain -- the cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, midbrain, and pons -- was elevated in a way that correlated with the symptoms, so that for instance, patients who reported impaired cognition tended to demonstrate neuroinflammation in the amygdala, which is known to be involved in cognition. This provides clear evidence of the association between neuroinflammation and the symptoms experienced by patients with CFS/ME."Post Edited (CharmCityLady) : 4/6/2014 9:12:17 AM (GMT-6)