{"id":42010,"date":"2024-02-01T08:10:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T08:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=42010"},"modified":"2024-02-01T08:10:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T08:10:31","slug":"research-shows-that-me-cfs-is-a-biological-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/research-shows-that-me-cfs-is-a-biological-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Research shows that ME\/CFS is a biological illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Why do some people still think ME\/CFS is psychological in nature?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1648-9144\/60\/1\/83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> by a team of researchers in Germany and the USA \u2013 including Manuel Thoma, Leonard Jason and Carmen Scheibenbogen \u2013 provides a clear summary of why the view that ME\/CFS is a psychosomatic illness is inconsistent with results from biomedical research.<\/p>\n<p>ME Research UK provides a useful diagram of the biological abnormalities that research has found in people with ME\/CFS:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-42012 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/biological-abnormalities-2-600x600-1.png?resize=600%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/biological-abnormalities-2-600x600-1.png?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/biological-abnormalities-2-600x600-1.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/biological-abnormalities-2-600x600-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 600\/600;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Biomedical studies summarised in the research paper provide further evidence that it is biological abnormalities that lead to symptoms in ME\/CFS, rather than dysfunctional thoughts and behaviours as believed by proponents of the psychsomatic model suggests. For example:<\/p>\n<p>Studies have shown that there are biological differences in the way the body responds to physical activity in people with ME\/CFS compared to those without ME\/CFS. People with ME:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>have been found to switch more quickly to less efficient anaerobic metabolism;<\/li>\n<li>take much longer to recover from the same amount of exercise as healthy controls \u2013\u00a02 weeks compared with only 2 days for healthy controls;<\/li>\n<li>after exercise have alterations in gene expression \u2013\u00a0\u00a0meaning that their body seems to be responding differently to the exercise compared with healthy controls; ME Research UK recalls there also appear to be differences in gene expression following exercise between males and females with ME\/CFS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Evidence\u00a0has shown that decreased blood flow to the brain in the upright position is not correlated to physical fitness \u2013 and therefore is not caused by deconditioning.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What can be done to ensure ME\/CFS is treated as a biological illness?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Fund more high-quality biomedical research into ME\/CFS<\/li>\n<li>Better education for health professionals on ME\/CFS<\/li>\n<li>Evidence-based learning materials for the wider population such as family and friends, education professionals, and other members of society<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Read the full article:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>MERUK<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meresearch.org.uk\/research-shows-that-me-cfs-is-a-biological-illness-so-why-do-some-people-still-think-it-is-psychological-in-nature\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Research shows that ME\/CFS is a biological illness\u00a0\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u00a0so why do some people still think it is psychological in nature?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1648-9144\/60\/1\/83\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Why the Psychosomatic View on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis\/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is Inconsistent with Current Evidence and Harmful to Patients<\/a> by Manuel Thoma, Laura Froehlich, Daniel BR Hattesohl, Sonja Quante, Leonard A Jason and Carmen Scheibenbogen <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">in<\/span><em> Medicina<\/em> Vol 60 no.1 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do some people still think ME\/CFS is psychological in nature? &nbsp; A recent article by a team of researchers in Germany and the USA \u2013 including Manuel Thoma, Leonard Jason and Carmen Scheibenbogen \u2013 provides a clear summary of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/research-shows-that-me-cfs-is-a-biological-illness\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-42010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-aVA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42010","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=42010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42013,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42010\/revisions\/42013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}