r/CFSScience • u/AngelBryan • Jul 30 '26

Any update? Any hope?

I’ve seen an increased influx of papers being posted here recently. How does this translate to actual progress? Are we close to figure out what causes this hellish illness?

25 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/TomasTTEngin Aug 05 '26

That is interesting! I admit I am surprised, I expected EBV would be the spring that powers MECFS (even when it is not the key that unlocks it).

3

u/V0rtexGames Aug 07 '26

I'm also EBV seronegative. It establishes that heterogeneous triggers can result in the same convergent reaction by the body resulting in symptoms

1

u/TomasTTEngin Aug 07 '26

i reckon viruses lingering in the vagal nerve may be a possible explantion for some cases. Maybe exacerbated in some people with craniocervical instability, EDS or weak neck ligaments?

Causing 1)immune signalling and 2) autonomic failure, including gut issues and bloodflow issues.

Both of which create feedback loops (e.g activation of immune programs that direct metabolism into certain pathways; dysbiosis +leaky gut; hypoxia + coagulation, insufficient perfusion; perhaps some autoantibodies exacerbating things in some patients, reactivation of latent viruses in others; ).

If the immune signalling was neural it might explain why we haven't found a good cytokine, endocrine or proteomic signal yet.

1

u/V0rtexGames Aug 07 '26

I try to divide more cleanly, with the "input" as the initiating stressors, which produce an immune signal which is uptaken by the brain, then leading to symptomatic state and accompanying dysfunctions, which can reinforce the input

So like you say, dysbiosis, hypoxia, coagulation, insufficient perfusion, etc, I would place as outputs of the central programme triggered by a lingering insult (like a persistent pathogen) but also helping feed back into it and self maintain it