{"id":14803,"date":"2017-11-06T08:15:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T08:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=14803"},"modified":"2017-11-07T11:00:47","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T11:00:47","slug":"blood-cells-in-cfs-are-drained-of-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/blood-cells-in-cfs-are-drained-of-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood cells in CFS are drained of energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Scientist<\/strong> article, by Andy Coghlan, 3 Nov 2017: Blood cells in chronic fatigue syndrome are drained of energy<\/a><\/h3>\n

Blood cells in people with CFS seem as listless as it can make people feel<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thirteen years ago, Cara Tomas was rendered bedbound with chronic fatigue syndrome. It came on suddenly, she says, without warning signs. Even now she has good days and bad days due to the lingering effects of the disease. \u201cA lot of people dismiss it as a psychological disease, which is a big frustration,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Tomas knows more about CFS than most. A PhD student at Newcastle University in the UK, she has just published a paper <\/a>demonstrating that white blood cells in people with the disease are as listless as the people themselves often feel. \u201cNow we\u2019ve shown there\u2019s a physiological difference, it could explain the whole-body fatigue shown by patients,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The finding adds to\u00a0mounting evidence<\/a>\u00a0that the disorder has a biological explanation, and raises the prospects for\u00a0new treatments<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0diagnostic tests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For many years,\u00a0arguments have raged<\/a>\u00a0over whether CFS \u2014 also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME \u2014 has a physiological or psychological basis. But the latest research comparing samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 52 people with the condition and 35 without has reinforced the case for\u00a0a biological explanation.<\/a><\/p>\n

Less mighty mitochondria<\/strong>
\nAcross almost all measures of energy capacity, the cells from people with CFS were weaker compared with their healthy counterparts. If other cells are equally compromised, it could explain why people with the condition are often bed- or wheelchair-bound for months, and struggle with even modest physical exertion.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

See also<\/strong>: Science alert blog post, by Mike McRae, 7 Nov 2017: People With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Are Exhausted at a Cellular Level, Study Shows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Scientist article, by Andy Coghlan, 3 Nov 2017: Blood cells in chronic fatigue syndrome are drained of energy Blood cells in people with CFS seem as listless as it can make people feel Thirteen years ago, Cara Tomas was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[2866,4066,4077,4078,1857,420,4079],"class_list":["post-14803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-andy-coghlan","tag-cara-thomas","tag-cellular-bioenergectics","tag-mike-mccrae","tag-new-scientist","tag-prof-julia-newton","tag-science-alert"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-3QL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14803"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14811,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803\/revisions\/14811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}