Virus Is Found in Many With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome are infected with a little known virus that may cause or at least contribute to their illness, researchers are reporting.
The syndrome, which causes prolonged and severe fatigue, body aches and other symptoms, has long been a mystery ailment, and patients have sometimes been suspected of malingering or having psychiatric problems rather than genuine physical ones. Worldwide, 17 million people have the syndrome, including at least one million Americans.
An article published online Thursday in the journal Science reports that 68 of 101 patients with the syndrome, or 67 percent, were infected with an infectious virus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV. By contrast, only 3.7 percent of 218 healthy people were infected. Continuing work after the paper was published has found the virus in nearly 98 percent of about 300 patients with the syndrome, said Dr. Judy A. Mikovits, the lead author of the paper.
XMRV is a retrovirus, a member of the same family of viruses as the AIDS virus. These viruses carry their genetic information in RNA rather than DNA, and they insert themselves into their hosts' genetic material and stay for life.
Dr. Mikovits and other scientists cautioned that they had not yet proved that the virus causes the syndrome. In theory, people with the syndrome may have some other, underlying health problem that makes them prone to being infected by the virus, which could be just a bystander. More studies are needed to explain the connection.
But Dr. Mikovits said she thought the virus would turn out to be the cause, not just of chronic fatigue, but of other illnesses as well. Previous studies have found it in cells taken from prostate cancers.
"I think this establishes what had always been considered a psychiatric disease as an infectious disease," said Dr. Mikovits, who is research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, a nonprofit center created by the parents of a woman who has a severe case of the syndrome. Her co-authors include scientists from the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Mikovits said she and her colleagues were drawing up plans to test antiretroviral drugs — some of the same ones used to treat HIV infection — to see whether they could help patients with chronic fatigue. If the drugs work, that will help prove that the virus is causing the illness. She said patients and doctors should wait for the studies to be finished before trying the drugs.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said the discovery was exciting and made sense.
"My first reaction is, 'At last,' " Dr. Schaffner said. "In interacting with patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, you get the distinct impression that there's got to be something there."
He said the illness is intensely frustrating to doctors because it is not understood, there is no effective treatment and many patients are sick for a long time.
He added, "This is going to create an avalanche of subsequent studies."
Robert.
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FYI & Files:
Honeybees Face Towering Threat From Cell Phones
Hans.
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(Also consider the links between Mercury and Electro Hypersensitivity)
Misleading Media Denies Connection between Mercury and Autism
Friday, November 06, 2009 by: Aaron Turpen, citizen journalist
www.naturalnews.com/027410_mercury_blood_autism.html
Several recent headlines about a study which concluded that mercury levels in children with autism were not significantly higher than those without have been widely distributed. Headlines reading "Mercury levels not related to autism" and "Mercury not linked with autism, study says" were at the top of many American and European newspapers and magazines in October.1
These publications quickly latched on to the implied fact that because children with autism and those without had about the same blood mercury levels, mercury cannot be the reason children are getting autism. This isn't the first time the media has been misleading in its interpretation of science.
The study they refer to is from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and was published on October 19, 2009. The study was titled Blood Mercury Concentrations in CHARGE Study Children with and without Autism and was authored by Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Peter G. Green, Lora Delwiche, Robin Hansen, Cheryl Walker, and Isaac N. Pessah. It was published through Environmental Health Perspectives and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.2
The study found that young children without autism have equivalent mercury levels in their blood when compared to children who've been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study also included children with Down's Syndrome and other developmental disorders.
The study involved 452 children between 2 and 5 years of age and adjusted for demographic and mercury sources such as fish. Most of the children measured, regardless of mental ability, were found to have 0.28 micrograms of mercury per liter of blood or less before adjustments and 0.26mcg/L or less after adjustment.
The problem here is the methodology used and the conclusions drawn by the media versus what the actual science is proposing.
Understanding that blood mercury versus tissue mercury is not the same is the first clue. Mercury absorbed through vaccination goes directly into the blood, but quickly transfers to body tissues. Similarly, mercury absorbed through diet usually is absorbed into tissues quickly. Mercury absorbed directly through the skin travels in the same manner, spending very little time in the blood.
Mercury, when found in the blood, is usually there for one of two reasons: recent introduction or as part of the body's natural flushing system to be rid of it. Mercury, regardless of why it's in the blood, does not stay in blood for very long.
Mercury injected into the blood would have to move on to other tissues before ASD could be caused by it. Regardless of whether mercury caused the ASD, the blood levels of those with and without autism would be roughly the same. Obviously, in order for the mercury to have caused ASD, it has to have affected and damaged the nerve cells. This means it's no longer in the blood stream.
Most scientists agree that the most accurate measurement method of mercury contamination in mammals, including humans, is hair, not blood.
Now, back to the media representation of this study.
Does it seem odd to anyone that this study was done and published and grabbed up by the main stream media right about the same time that H1N1 vaccines containing Thimerosal (a mercury derivative) are being pushed on pregnant women and young children? What about the fact that recent studies, covered here on NaturalNews,3 have shown direct links between mercury and autism and between vaccines themselves and ASD? Yet these studies got little traction in the main stream.
Strange coincidences, to be sure.
Footnotes and Resources:
1 - Study Examines Mercury in Vaccines, Reuters, October 30, 2009
2 - Blood Mercury Concentrations in CHARGE Study Children with and without Autism, October 19, 2009, NIEHS
3 - NaturalNews.com autism-mercury articles
Articles Related to This Article:
• Mercury Fillings Shattered! FDA, ADA Conspiracy to Poison Children with Toxic Mercury Fillings Exposed in Groundbreaking Lawsuit
• FDA Declares Mercury Amalgam Fillings Safe for All
• The great thimerosal cover-up: Mercury, vaccines, autism and your child's health
