Question:
I am a CFIDS sufferer. If I could have the etiology of my illness
explained to me, I might feel a little better. In a 1988 publication, it
was explained that our misfunctioning immune system is, in fact, due to
an over reaction because suppressor T cells are reduced in number or are
under-active, they fail to switch off T helper cells when they have done
their job thereby causing the whole immune response to continue for
longer or with more vigor than it should. Is this still the basic
accepted theory--or have more recent findings modified this theory? Can
anyone refer me to more recent publications or to an expert for the
latest explanation?
Would the fact that I'm allergic to bee stings indicate anything
significant? As a teenager, long before I came down with CFIDS symtoms,
I noticed that each time I was stung by a bee, the reaction became more
severe. The last time I was stung, I had trouble breathing, and
experience such a severe abdominal reaction tht I was curled-up in pain for
hours.
Does this sensitivity to bee stings indicate that I may have had a
malfunctioning immune system since childhood? And if so, could this
offer a clue to the tyupe of immune damage I may have and indicate a
possible avenue of cure for my CFIDS?
Would the fact that I also had hepatitis as a child, enter into the equation?
Thanks from myself and many others who suffer from this maddening
syndrome--to anyone who can shed some light.
Answer:
The etiology is still up in the air. Current thinking is that several
different illnesses may be lumped together as CFS; there's also a school
of thought that CFS should be regarded as an illness that results from
a particular chemical pathway in the body, but that several different
things could wind up ending in this path. One illness that is regarded
this way is high blood pressure. You can get high blood pressure
from a lot of different things: genetic sensitivity to salt, kidney
damage, abnormal constriction of blood vessels. But however you
wind up there, you still have high blood pressure and it needs
to be treated by itself. Ditto with CFS: some people might get
it from a virus, others from a chemical exposure, a bacteria or
even very stressful life events. But once this path is turned on,
you've got CFS and it has to be dealt with.
People with CFS have a higher rate of allergy than the general population
prior to becoming ill. CFS also seems to set off new allergies or
worsen old ones. Allergy is one type of hyperactive immune response,
so yes, there may be some relationship.
Any allergy is a sign of a malfunction of the part of the immune system
that makes antibodies using IgE immunoglobins; so in that sense, yes
your immune system has been malfunctioning since childhood. However,
the majority of people with allergies never develop CFS, so something
else must be involved, perhaps a genetic susceptibility or exposure
to a particular virus or toxin. So far, this hasn't resulted in
any great treatment advances for CFS, although some people report that
avoiding allergens (including food allergens) and getting allergy
shots helps them. Unfortunately, allergy shots also worsen CFS
a significant percent of the time. Immunologist Nancy Klimas thinks
that allergy shots for people with CFS must start at a very low dilution
(1:100,000 or 1:1,000,000) and increase at half or 1/3 the rate
for people without CFS.
"Would the fact that I also had hepatitis as a child, enter into the equation?"
Probably not.
