{"id":44034,"date":"2024-07-15T16:20:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T15:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=44034"},"modified":"2024-07-15T16:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T15:20:01","slug":"calls-for-wider-research-into-pem-in-me-cfs-long-covid-fm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/calls-for-wider-research-into-pem-in-me-cfs-long-covid-fm\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for wider research into PEM in ME\/CFS, Long COVID &#038; FM"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>More research needed into the lack of recovery time in PEM<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenorway.no\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science Norway<\/a> looks at the key characteristic in ME\/CFS of PEM, which can also be found in some people with Long COVID and Fibromyalgia.<\/p>\n<p>It highlights that a type of test called repeated CPET measurements can precisely show how a session of physical activity affects a person\u2019s condition afterwards &#8211; they perform worse and the lactic acid in their muscles builds up faster, they have poorer pain regulation and changes in the immune system and interaction with intestinal flora.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-38698 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/2-day-CPET-Hanson-2023.png?resize=880%2C264&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"264\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 880px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 880\/264;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One study showed that strenuous mental tasks led to changes in the brains of ME\/CFS patients that were not found in healthy people. The changes could correspond with the patients&#8217; experiences of having an impaired ability to think and concentrate after the activity.<\/p>\n<p>No research has been done into whether the same mechanisms can trigger PEM following social or mental exertion as from physical activity. It is not known if the same causes underlie fatigue and symptoms in the muscles and general fatigue throughout the system.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers do not know if this is due to the same mechanisms as exercise-induced PEM.\u00a0A 2016 study\u00a0suggested that these might be different phenomena.<\/p>\n<p>Prof Nina V\u00f8llestad believes that existing research may provide a distorted picture, because the patients in the studies had to be able to complete a physical training session.<\/p>\n<p>This probably means that the participants who were selected either had a lighter disease burden or were in a recovery phase, according to Prof V\u00f8llestad and colleague Prof Emerita Anne Marit Mengshoel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we engage in demanding activity, we get tired and need to recover,\u201d V\u00f8llestad says.<\/p>\n<p>V\u00f8llestad sees interesting similarities between PEM in ME\/CFS patients and the symptoms of athletes with overtraining syndrome.\u00a0 Overtraining is where the athlete does not get enough recovery time between training sessions over a long period.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey&#8217;re not back to baseline before they start again. So, they wear themselves out, and it can take half a year to recover. The symptoms are very similar to ME\/CFS,\u201d says V\u00f8llestad.<\/p>\n<p>The question is: Why don\u2019t ME\/CFS patients recover normally?<\/p>\n<p>But here, there are few answers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe lack research on biological changes during the recovery phase,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenorway.no\/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-physical-activity\/why-does-physical-activity-exacerbate-symptoms-in-me\/cfs-and-long-covid-patients\/2382080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More research needed into the lack of recovery time in PEM &nbsp; The journal Science Norway looks at the key characteristic in ME\/CFS of PEM, which can also be found in some people with Long COVID and Fibromyalgia. It highlights &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/calls-for-wider-research-into-pem-in-me-cfs-long-covid-fm\/\">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-44034","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-bse","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44034","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=44034"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44053,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44034\/revisions\/44053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}