CFIDS-ME and Low-BP Moments
From a writeup by Joan S. Livingston, in The Update, Mass. CFIDS Association, Summer 2000:
'When Dr. David S. Bell last addressed members of the Mass. CFIDS Association, he reported on a fairly astonishing finding: His discovery, along with Syracuse [N.Y.] endocrinologist Dr. David Streeten, that a majority of Bell's chronic fatigue syndrome patients had "extraordinarily" low circulating blood volume (a combination of plasma and the red blood cells via which the plasma delivers oxygen throughout the body). While his average patients ran about 70 percent of normal, several PWCs had only half the blood volume of a healthy person ....'
By way of perspective, if a normal healthy person loses half his/her blood volume -- as in a car crash or other serious injury -- the result tends to be fatal. Yet there are people with chronic fatigue who are walking around that way. Wow.
'Bell and other clinicians, including Dr. Nancy Klimas, have long commented on their patients' (reported and observed) intolerance to being in an upright position, while they may feel "pretty good" while lying down. "When they get up," Bell said, "suddenly they have a lot of symptoms, so I suspected that what we call "fatigue" in chronic fatigue syndrome is really orthostatic intolerance. A patient might lie down for three hours and feel pretty okay, then get up for just 10 or 15 minutes before they're forced to lie down again to restore some blood flow to the brain.'
Um, yes: blood, brain -- two great things that go great together!
Anyway, the writeup goes on to quote Bell giving some guidelines for normal BP/pulse response to standing, versus our response. And he talks about some hard data -- test results -- that can be used both in diagnosis and for documenting a disability.
Nifty article, written mostly in English. This posting may be expanded -- I have more to add, but my brain is full. ;-)
Next time: If upright = not bright, you are not alone.
'When Dr. David S. Bell last addressed members of the Mass. CFIDS Association, he reported on a fairly astonishing finding: His discovery, along with Syracuse [N.Y.] endocrinologist Dr. David Streeten, that a majority of Bell's chronic fatigue syndrome patients had "extraordinarily" low circulating blood volume (a combination of plasma and the red blood cells via which the plasma delivers oxygen throughout the body). While his average patients ran about 70 percent of normal, several PWCs had only half the blood volume of a healthy person ....'
By way of perspective, if a normal healthy person loses half his/her blood volume -- as in a car crash or other serious injury -- the result tends to be fatal. Yet there are people with chronic fatigue who are walking around that way. Wow.
'Bell and other clinicians, including Dr. Nancy Klimas, have long commented on their patients' (reported and observed) intolerance to being in an upright position, while they may feel "pretty good" while lying down. "When they get up," Bell said, "suddenly they have a lot of symptoms, so I suspected that what we call "fatigue" in chronic fatigue syndrome is really orthostatic intolerance. A patient might lie down for three hours and feel pretty okay, then get up for just 10 or 15 minutes before they're forced to lie down again to restore some blood flow to the brain.'
Um, yes: blood, brain -- two great things that go great together!
Anyway, the writeup goes on to quote Bell giving some guidelines for normal BP/pulse response to standing, versus our response. And he talks about some hard data -- test results -- that can be used both in diagnosis and for documenting a disability.
Nifty article, written mostly in English. This posting may be expanded -- I have more to add, but my brain is full. ;-)
Next time: If upright = not bright, you are not alone.