Harvard neuroscientist Dr Michael Van Elzakker: Chronic fatigue vagus nerve link: The low histamine chef interview with Yasmina Ykelenstam, 8 Dec 2015:
In today’s interview Harvard and Tufts neuroscientist Dr Michael Van ElZakker shares his fascinating new paper Chronic Fatigue from Vagus Nerve Infection: A Psychoneuroimmunological Hypothesis.
His hypothesis proposes that an infection of the vagus nerve can cause greatly exaggerated chronic sickness responses like fatigue, pain and more. Our interview also touches on the mast cell link right at the end.
Listen to the podcast or read the transcript
Introduction by Yasmina:
Joining me today is Michael Van ElZakker, PhD, a neuroscientist affiliated at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Tufts University. He has two primary research interests. The psychiatric condition Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, and the neuro-immune condition known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Dr. Van ElZakker has authored a number of peer-reviewed studies, but one in particular has struck a chord in the immune dysfunction community. Chronic Fatigue from Vagus Nerve Infection: A Psychoneuroimmunological Hypothesis.
Our discussion today revolves around this hypothesis, a very interesting one in which Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or CFS, is proposed to be caused by an infection of the vagus nerve.
