{"id":15192,"date":"2018-01-29T12:47:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T12:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=15192"},"modified":"2018-01-29T12:47:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T12:47:57","slug":"could-me-cfs-be-a-chronic-form-of-sepsis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/could-me-cfs-be-a-chronic-form-of-sepsis\/","title":{"rendered":"Could ME\/CFS be a chronic form of sepsis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simmaron Research<\/strong> blog post, by Cort Johnson, 1 January 2018: Could Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME\/CFS) Be a Chronic Form of Sepsis?<\/a><\/h3>\n

\u201cIn this monograph I would like to explore the concept of neuro-immune fatigue as a metabolic illness resulting from a series of events beginning with an infection, toxic exposure or neurologic injury.\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Dr. David Bell, 2007<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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This is one of a series of blogs highlighting hypotheses mostly written by doctors or other professionals with ME\/CFS, or in this case, doctors who have cared for them. The hypothesis examined in this case: Dr. Bell\u2019s idea, produced in his monograph, \u201cCellular Hypoxia and Neuro-immune Fatigue\u201d, that chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS) could be a kind of \u201cslow sepsis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bell\u2019s \u201cCellular Hypoxia\u201d book was published in 2007, long before he was probably acquainted with Dr. Naviaux\u2019s and others\u2019 work and before the recent explosion of interest in cellular energy production in ME\/CFS. Naviaux and others would probably smile, though, at Bell\u2019s prediction that with ME\/CFS and other diseases, \u201cwe may be witnessing the emergence of the next era of medicine: the diagnosis and treatment of cellular metabolic diseases\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sepsis is a life-threatening response to infection or trauma that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death. In some ways, sepsis sounds similar to autoimmunity. For reasons the medical profession does not understand, sepsis begins when the immune system resets itself, stops fighting pathogens, and turns on the body.<\/p>\n

The results are often devastating. The near complete body breakdown that results makes sepsis the\u00a0most expensive disease hospitals treat.\u00a0 Forty percent of patients with severe sepsis do not survive.<\/p>\n

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME\/CFS) \u2013 A Mild but Chronic State of Septic Shock?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ME\/CFS is obviously not sepsis, but it does share some interesting characteristics.\u00a0 With his \u201ccellular hypoxia\u201d monograph published in 2007, Dr. David Bell\u00a0suggested that people with ME\/CFS may exist in a \u201cmild, but chronic state of septic shock\u201d. Bell came to this conclusion after finding that sepsis and ME\/CFS produces what he believed is a similar kind of oxygen dysfunction. In sepsis and in ME\/CFS, Dr. Bell notes that oxygen is actually abundant: it\u2019s abundant in the air, the lungs and the blood of ME\/CFS patients, but it\u2019s just not getting taken up by the tissues.<\/p>\n

Bell reports that in septic shock, the following events occur (note the last one):<\/p>\n