| BREAK THROUGH INFORMATION ON CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME!!!! I found Dr. Lerner's research published online! *Cardiac Involvement in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 3/2001 In November I was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia, a heart condition that can be caused by EBV (Epstien-Barr Virus), CMV (cytomegalovirus), and HHV6 (Human Herpes Virus 6)-all of which I have tested positive for at one time during my 2 years of illness. I started medication for the heart condition in December and beginning next week will be in Detroit for 6 weeks where I will begin antiviral treatment (see above 'Pilot Study of Intravenous Ganciclovir' for more info) for CMV and HHV6. I began seeing an infectious disease specialist, Dr. A. Martin Lerner at the beginning of November after a friend of the family saw an article in the Wall Street Journal on Dr. Lerner's recent "unveiling" of his theory (see 'Hypothesis' above for formal report) and findings (see above) at the American Society of Microbiology meetings in Toronto. He theorizes that CFS is the result of heart damage (cardiomyopathy) caused primarily by EBV and CMV (also HHV6). The heart condition coupled with the ongoing infection of a virus explains why many CFS patients are ill for years without being able to find a reason; unless you know what you're looking for, the cardiomyopathy may never be diagnosed. For instance, our family doctor thought the EBV infection I had could've attacked my heart and was the reason I was not getting better, we cheked this over a year ago with an echocardiogram which indicated no problem just as it did when checked by Dr. Lerner. No abnormality appeared until a 24 hour Holter monitor test showed problems. A year ago we were certain I had not had any heart damage, but if we had probed further, we may have caught the problem earlier. This reinforces that you must keep looking to find the answer, especially when it comes to your health and conditions where little is known about them (such as CFS). Dr. Lerner's studies have certainly made a good case for finding an actual cause to CFS. I would recommend him to anyone. You can find articles on his research in the September 9, 2000 edition of the Wall Street Journal in the Technology and Health section and also in the October 2, 2000 edition of U.S. News & World Report on page 60. Once we read the articles, we searched on the web and were able to find many articles there. Please e-mail me if you have any questions or would like more info on Dr. Lerner. |
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