Eriksen's hypothesis on ME/CFS cause and treatment

[TracyD]

I read Dr. Willy Eriksen's journal article on his hypothesis regarding ME/CFS and thought it deserved more attention. So I interviewed him for more information and wrote a summary of his ideas in relatively plain language. Here's a link: https://tracyduvall.com/2017/06/10/mecfs-a-new-explanation-and-cure/

 

[Cort]

I read Dr. Willy Eriksen's journal article on his hypothesis regarding ME/CFS and thought it deserved more attention. So I interviewed him for more information and wrote a summary of his ideas in relatively plain language. Here's a link: https://tracyduvall.com/2017/06/10/mecfs-a-new-explanation-and-cure/

Wow - great job TracyD!

 

[TracyD]

Wow - great job TracyD!

Thanks, Cort! Obviously it's inspired by your work, which has been very valuable to me.

 

[TracyD]

Dr. Eriksen has provided an update: https://tracyduvall.com/2018/09/20/eriksens-me-cfs-hypothesis-an-update/

 

[Matthew]

@TracyD thanks for posting this!

 

[TracyD]

To be clear: I think that it's most likely that Eriksen is not correct about the basis of ME/CFS. But I suspect he might be right in that persistent clumps of EBV or HHV-6 in odd places could be contributing to the illness in many people.

 

[Matthew]

@TracyD Have you seen the Naviaux/Prusty paper that came out in Immunohorizons in April of this year?

 

[TracyD]

@TracyD Have you seen the Naviaux/Prusty paper that came out in Immunohorizons in April of this year?

Yeah, that paper 1) showed what a thorough study looks like, unlike so many in this field, and 2) included really exciting findings. I thought it was brilliant, and it resonated with my experience because, when my health declines, valganciclovir can make a huge, overnight difference.

If I remember correctly, my main question was why some other type of infection or other stressor would trigger this permanent state of HHV-6/7 semi-activation, especially when other infections/stressors earlier in my life didn't.

Also, despite a verifiable issue with EBV and HHV-6, I get viral infections all the time (even during lockdown!).

 

[Matthew]

I keep hoping that the field will advance to the point of offering better therapies to help patients improve their quality of life. So much of the science is so speculative and only identifies correlations for further research, and the therapies are all over the place, from thinking happy thoughts to very severe medications of many different sorts. If we could only isolate a biomarker or a well-defined pathophysiology, it would be such a huge step forward.

 

[TracyD]

Hear, hear! My own model is that each person with ME/CFS has a unique-ish combination of problems that

• might or might not be seen as problems if they didn't have ME/CFS
• exacerbate and perhaps perpetuate the common pathology of ME/CFS.

I've gotten a lot better (relatively speaking) by addressing those ancillary issues, and I think others should do the same, whether that involves meditation or medication. Describing and reversing the common pathology is the dream, of course, and I contribute to that research, but these days I'm mostly focused on optimizing what I can control.

 

[BobbyPeru]

I just stumbled on this older thread. Very interesting. If some of the COVID long-haulers enter remission from getting the vaccine ... is it a similar mechanism to the proposed therapy? Don't know ... Just throwing it out there.

"Clumps of immune cells form in one or more key spots along the nervous system. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects the clump(s), and this causes inflammation in the area. This inflammation provokes a reaction in the nervous system, which directly and indirectly accounts for the symptoms of ME/CFS. Extracting a patient’s immune cells, priming them to fight EBV, and returning them to his or her body might cure the disease."