Chronic fatigue syndrome can kill - official
News Desk
(subscription)
Chronic fatigue syndrome can kill - officialNew Scientist
(subscription), UK - 2 hours agoFAR from being "all in the mind"
chronic fatigue syndrome has been recorded as a cause of death in the
UK for the first time. The ...
24 June 2006
>From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
http://www.newscientist.com/subscribe.ns;jsessionid=JKCNAEKLIOJN?promcode=nsarttop
FAR from being "all in the mind" chronic fatigue syndrome has been
recorded as a cause of death in the UK for the first time. The
coroner's verdict is a breakthrough for those who argue that CFS, or
myalgic encephalomyelitis, is a physical rather than psychological
condition.
On 13 June a UK coroner recorded that 32-year-old Sophia Mirza died
from acute aneuric renal failure - failure to produce urine - triggered
by dehydration as a result of CFS. Mirza had had the condition for six
years. The cause of CFS remains controversial, though it may have its
roots in the immune system.
Dominic O'Donovan, a neuropathologist at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford
who gave evidence at the inquest, said that Mirza's spinal cord showed
inflammation. This, he says, is a clear physical manifestation of CFS.
CFS specialist Jonathan Kerr of St George's, University of London,
agrees. He says that the immune system tends to be over-activated in
people with CFS, and this may underlie the inflammation of the
neurological tissue.
"People have been reluctant to subscribe to the biological side because
of the power of the psychiatric lobby," says Kerr.
>From issue 2557 of New Scientist magazine, 24 June 2006, page 7