Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) - a mysterious condition that confounds western doctors - may be associated with changes in the intestinal microflora of patients.
This is evidenced by the results of a study conducted by staff at Cornell University.
"Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome have a different composition of the intestinal microflora than healthy people of the same age, but why remains a mystery," says the author of the new study, Maureen Hanson, professor of molecular biology and genetics.
Today, up to 4 million people in the United States suffer from a mysterious chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 20% of patients with CFS manage to make this diagnosis. Accordingly, the actual number of patients may reach 20 million, or 6% of the total population of the country.
Symptoms of CFS include persistent fatigue that does not go away after rest and sleep, weakness, muscle and joint pain, headaches and gastrointestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome. Causes of the disease have not yet been clarified.
In the framework of the project by Professor Hanson, scientists compared the DNA of bacteria obtained from the intestines of healthy people and patients with CFS. It was found out that in the syndrome of chronic fatigue in the intestine there is a larger number of species capable of causing the inflammatory process, but much less "useful" bacteria that help control inflammation. This clearly speaks of the physical nature of CFS.
"The data obtained by us put an anecdotal concept under attack, as if CSU is a disease of purely psychological nature. Over the years, many of my colleagues believed that the syndrome of chronic fatigue - in the mind of patients, and that it should be treated with psychotherapy. I do not claim that we have found the cause of CFS, but this is a specific biological anomaly associated with this syndrome, "said Hanson.
It is curious that not every patient with CFS had a microflora disturbed - some volunteers did not show any anomalies.
If the results of the last study are confirmed, then in the future, it may be possible to treat CFS with the help of bacterial preparations or, for example, transplantation of intestinal microbioma (the notorious "fecal transplantation".
According to Professor Hanson, already today some doctors offer patients with CFS to take probiotics - drugs with living bacteria that can colonize the intestines and suppress harmful microorganisms in it. But it is not yet clear which bacteria are best used.
"In fact, these are only empirical attempts. So far, we do not know whether probiotics will work with CFS, "says Professor.
Read more about the results of the work in the journal Microbiome.
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