before i copy it, the part where she discusses vaccines, that part woke up my brain to a long forgotten memory - when i was about 12 i started getting allergy shots - to help with my seasonal allergies (i didn't have any food allergies back then) i got them for years, even when i went away to college. and i remembered sitting in the nurses office getting my shot that was sent by my allergist back in milwaukee and i had a really extreme injection site reaction and specifically remember having to wait in the office a call made back to milwaukee and finally being released to go back to my dorm room. I was out cold the rest of the evening.
i decided at that moment to stop getting the shots. when i returned home i had a follow up at the allergist and they decided to re-test me - an awful experience of about forty scratches on your back - and the results were peculiar - my skin tests showed ALL of my allergies were worse than when i started getting the shots that were suppose to help - and so they decided to "re-mix" the formula - and i politely declined.
that was the first time i saw an "alternative" practitioner - our family friend connected us with Jim Ehmke, and slowly after about a year's time of supportive rather than suppressive measures, my seasonal allergies had almost completely vanished - and my overall health improved greatly. That was the beginning of my twenties, and i can't remember if it was prior to or after my tonsils were removed. but this light bulb went off - i had the constitution for this illness long before its current manifestation - i was just younger, stronger and didn't have as many tipping point infections - but the dysfunction showed in the reverse effects of the allergy treatment........
that was my "prologue" here is that very informative article -
one more thing before i take my body that currently feels physically, mentally, and emotionally broken into a million little pieces (shout out james frey - but i'm not making this stuff up) a cryptic dedication - thank you sp i will always have a reason to be grateful that dixon closed - and a bunch other sappy stuff that would make your eyes roll.
Immune System Abnormalities in ME/CFS
(NOTE: Many of you expressed interest in hearing more about how Immunovir has helped me this past year, so I started to write a blog post about that, but I quickly discovered that I needed to explain how ME/CFS affects the immune system before I could explain how Immunovir treats it. It's just too much for a single post. So, consider this Part 1, and I will write the second part later this week.)
Within the first year of getting sick, before I even had a diagnosis, I knew that some sort of immune system problem was at the heart of whatever this mystery illness was. I saw the same pattern, over and over again, with recurring symptoms like sore throat, flu-like aches, and congestion, but it was obvious these weren't colds - the symptom pattern was exactly the same every time, signaling the start of another relapse (you learn to instinctively call them crashes pretty early - it's the perfect description). One Infectious Disease doctor told me I was just catching a lot of viruses, but I had never in my life had two viruses that were exactly the same, and now I'd had a half dozen in a year. The only thing that made sense was that my immune system wasn't working correctly.
When I finally got my diagnosis of ME/CFS, a full year after getting sick, I was hungry for information and devoured everything I could find about CFS - in books, on websites, and through the other people I was gradually finding online. I discovered that my instincts had been correct and that a dysfunctional immune system is at the root of CFS. Although the exact cause of ME/CFS is still not known, its immune system abnormalities have been documented in dozens of research studies. Most experts agree that there is some sort of infectious agent that triggers immune system dysfunction and that the dysfunctional immune system is the engine that sustains the illness and causes a cascade of domino effects in the endocrine and nervous systems that lead to our substantial and disabling symptoms.
Most illnesses of the immune system fall into one of two categories. There are immune system deficiencies, like AIDS, where the immune system is suppressed and doesn't respond properly to infectious agents. On the other side, there are auto-immune diseases, like MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and others, where the immune system is over-active and not only over-reacts to infections but also attacks the body itself. Unfortunately, ME/CFS does not fit neatly into either of these categories. This means that established treatments for the two types of problems, such as treating auto-immune disease with steroids, don't usually work for people with ME/CFS).
One of the most fascinating things that I learned in that second year of illness was that ME/CFS has characteristics of both types of immune system disorder: parts of our immune system are over-active and parts of it are under-active. This is sometimes referred to as a Th1-Th2 imbalance or a Th2 dominance. Now, AP Biology was many years ago for me, so I'm no expert, but here is my understanding. The Th1 and Th2 referenced above refer to two different types of T-helper cells, part of the immune system. Th2 cells generally respond to viruses and allergens, among other things, while Th1 cells respond to bacterial infections (among other things).
ME/CFS is characterized by an imbalance, where our Th2 cells dominate. This means, in simple terms, that when someone with ME/CFS is exposed to viruses or allergens, our immune systems over-react, creating the kind of cold or flu-like immune response I described above, all signs that the immune system is responding (even in a healthy person, most viral symptoms are caused by the immune system response, not by the virus itself). This is why just being exposed to someone else's cold can cause a severe crash, even though we don't actually "catch" the cold and why many of us have problems with allergies and food intolerances.
On the other hand, with fewer Th1 cells around, our immune systems under-react when exposed to bacterial infections. This is why people with ME/CFS are extra-susceptible to sinus infections and bronchitis. For instance, Jamie and I rarely catch colds, but if one of us gets even a bit congested, it almost always leads to bronchitis, requiring treatment with antibiotics. In fact, I had to go to the doctor's office yesterday to get treated for a bladder infection!
This also explains why those of us with ME/CFS often have bad reactions to vaccines, causing lengthy relapses or even acting as the trigger that starts ME/CFS. It's not the fault of the vaccine: it did what it is designed to do and stimulated the immune system to create antibodies. But, with our overactive Th2 cells, we respond with a prolonged immune response (i.e. crash) that would not happen in a healthy person. I have long believed that allergy shots were the trigger for my own ME/CFS for this reason. I have also observed over the years, for both of my sons and me, that our worst, longest-lasting crashes are usually those triggered by exposure to a virus.
This is a VERY simplified explanation of what is happening in our immune systems. There have been lots and lots of research studies detailing dozens of different types of dysfunction in the immune systems of those with ME/CFS, and each of these problems causes other problems, in a cascade of cause-and-effect. People with ME/CFS generally have low Natural Killer Cell function and all sorts of problems with our cytokines (where levels of certain cytokines are high and others low). Much of this is beyond my understanding.
The best resource I have seen in all these years is an excellent article written by Dr. Nancy Klimas, published in 2007 in Current Rheumatology Reports, that details all of the known abnormalities in ME/CFS patients' immune systems and how these lead to dysfunction in the endocrine and nervous systems. The paper contains dozens and dozens of references to scientific research studies that document these abnormalities. Although much of the article is beyond my understanding, it is an excellent paper to print and hand out to doctors. I especially like to give this article to doctors who don't understand ME/CFS or don't believe it is real because it provides lots and lots of hard scientific facts on the physiological basis of ME/CFS. I think this one article alone can change the minds of skeptical medical professionals! You can look at an abstract of the article online ordownload a pdf file of the entire article (it's 6 pages long).
OK, so that is a very general overview of immune system abnormalities in ME/CFS (please remember that I am not an expert in this field - if you see I have made a mistake in this post or know of other information that might be helpful to others, please share it in the Comments section or send me an e-mail). I will try to explain how Immunovir has helped me in the next post. Now, time to make dinner...
(P.S. 1/18/12 Addendum: Since I wrote this post last week, I have done more reading on this subject and have found that some research papers explain the Th1-Th2 functions differently, stating that response to viruses is a Th1 function (for which we are underactive), not Th2. I don't know which explanation is correct, but the bottom line is still the same: people with ME/CFS have a Th1-Th2 imbalance which means that parts of our immune system over-respond and parts of our immune system under-react.)
See my new post on Treating ME/CFS with Immunovir for information on how I am treating the Th1-Th2 imbalance.
the author sue jackson - link to her blog
Within the first year of getting sick, before I even had a diagnosis, I knew that some sort of immune system problem was at the heart of whatever this mystery illness was. I saw the same pattern, over and over again, with recurring symptoms like sore throat, flu-like aches, and congestion, but it was obvious these weren't colds - the symptom pattern was exactly the same every time, signaling the start of another relapse (you learn to instinctively call them crashes pretty early - it's the perfect description). One Infectious Disease doctor told me I was just catching a lot of viruses, but I had never in my life had two viruses that were exactly the same, and now I'd had a half dozen in a year. The only thing that made sense was that my immune system wasn't working correctly.
When I finally got my diagnosis of ME/CFS, a full year after getting sick, I was hungry for information and devoured everything I could find about CFS - in books, on websites, and through the other people I was gradually finding online. I discovered that my instincts had been correct and that a dysfunctional immune system is at the root of CFS. Although the exact cause of ME/CFS is still not known, its immune system abnormalities have been documented in dozens of research studies. Most experts agree that there is some sort of infectious agent that triggers immune system dysfunction and that the dysfunctional immune system is the engine that sustains the illness and causes a cascade of domino effects in the endocrine and nervous systems that lead to our substantial and disabling symptoms.
Most illnesses of the immune system fall into one of two categories. There are immune system deficiencies, like AIDS, where the immune system is suppressed and doesn't respond properly to infectious agents. On the other side, there are auto-immune diseases, like MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and others, where the immune system is over-active and not only over-reacts to infections but also attacks the body itself. Unfortunately, ME/CFS does not fit neatly into either of these categories. This means that established treatments for the two types of problems, such as treating auto-immune disease with steroids, don't usually work for people with ME/CFS).
One of the most fascinating things that I learned in that second year of illness was that ME/CFS has characteristics of both types of immune system disorder: parts of our immune system are over-active and parts of it are under-active. This is sometimes referred to as a Th1-Th2 imbalance or a Th2 dominance. Now, AP Biology was many years ago for me, so I'm no expert, but here is my understanding. The Th1 and Th2 referenced above refer to two different types of T-helper cells, part of the immune system. Th2 cells generally respond to viruses and allergens, among other things, while Th1 cells respond to bacterial infections (among other things).
ME/CFS is characterized by an imbalance, where our Th2 cells dominate. This means, in simple terms, that when someone with ME/CFS is exposed to viruses or allergens, our immune systems over-react, creating the kind of cold or flu-like immune response I described above, all signs that the immune system is responding (even in a healthy person, most viral symptoms are caused by the immune system response, not by the virus itself). This is why just being exposed to someone else's cold can cause a severe crash, even though we don't actually "catch" the cold and why many of us have problems with allergies and food intolerances.
On the other hand, with fewer Th1 cells around, our immune systems under-react when exposed to bacterial infections. This is why people with ME/CFS are extra-susceptible to sinus infections and bronchitis. For instance, Jamie and I rarely catch colds, but if one of us gets even a bit congested, it almost always leads to bronchitis, requiring treatment with antibiotics. In fact, I had to go to the doctor's office yesterday to get treated for a bladder infection!
This also explains why those of us with ME/CFS often have bad reactions to vaccines, causing lengthy relapses or even acting as the trigger that starts ME/CFS. It's not the fault of the vaccine: it did what it is designed to do and stimulated the immune system to create antibodies. But, with our overactive Th2 cells, we respond with a prolonged immune response (i.e. crash) that would not happen in a healthy person. I have long believed that allergy shots were the trigger for my own ME/CFS for this reason. I have also observed over the years, for both of my sons and me, that our worst, longest-lasting crashes are usually those triggered by exposure to a virus.
This is a VERY simplified explanation of what is happening in our immune systems. There have been lots and lots of research studies detailing dozens of different types of dysfunction in the immune systems of those with ME/CFS, and each of these problems causes other problems, in a cascade of cause-and-effect. People with ME/CFS generally have low Natural Killer Cell function and all sorts of problems with our cytokines (where levels of certain cytokines are high and others low). Much of this is beyond my understanding.
The best resource I have seen in all these years is an excellent article written by Dr. Nancy Klimas, published in 2007 in Current Rheumatology Reports, that details all of the known abnormalities in ME/CFS patients' immune systems and how these lead to dysfunction in the endocrine and nervous systems. The paper contains dozens and dozens of references to scientific research studies that document these abnormalities. Although much of the article is beyond my understanding, it is an excellent paper to print and hand out to doctors. I especially like to give this article to doctors who don't understand ME/CFS or don't believe it is real because it provides lots and lots of hard scientific facts on the physiological basis of ME/CFS. I think this one article alone can change the minds of skeptical medical professionals! You can look at an abstract of the article online ordownload a pdf file of the entire article (it's 6 pages long).
OK, so that is a very general overview of immune system abnormalities in ME/CFS (please remember that I am not an expert in this field - if you see I have made a mistake in this post or know of other information that might be helpful to others, please share it in the Comments section or send me an e-mail). I will try to explain how Immunovir has helped me in the next post. Now, time to make dinner...
(P.S. 1/18/12 Addendum: Since I wrote this post last week, I have done more reading on this subject and have found that some research papers explain the Th1-Th2 functions differently, stating that response to viruses is a Th1 function (for which we are underactive), not Th2. I don't know which explanation is correct, but the bottom line is still the same: people with ME/CFS have a Th1-Th2 imbalance which means that parts of our immune system over-respond and parts of our immune system under-react.)
See my new post on Treating ME/CFS with Immunovir for information on how I am treating the Th1-Th2 imbalance.
the author sue jackson - link to her blog
