https://goo.gl/UGZeHV
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), sometimes known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), is a condition that has been puzzling specialists for years, many of whom have been struggling to identify its causes and devise an appropriate treatment. Some, however, have denied CFS/ME's legitimacy due to wide-ranging symptoms that make it hard to diagnose.
A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California has now linked CFS/ME to cytokines - or molecules with a role in cell signaling - involved in the system's immune response, reacting to infections and inflammation.
Lead study author Dr. Jose Montoya and his colleagues published their findings yesterday, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and they suggest that that the concentration of cytokines in the bloodstream is relevant to the acuteness of CFS/ME symptoms.
The study found that variations in 17 cytokines are connected with the severity of CFS/ME in patients, suggesting that the condition is essentially an inflammatory disease.