Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Support Group

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) describes a sense of exhaustion and post-exertion malaise, even when you have gotten enough rest and sleep. The disease is characterized by six months of incapacitating fatigue experienced as profound exhaustion and extremely poor stamina, and problems with concentration and short-term memory. The cause is unknown, but it is a...

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Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate?

chronic99
chronic99

Hi, all and hugs


I hope everyone is staying safe and - I know it's hard - in good spirits.


I got to see a different doctor lately, who says he believes there is such a thing as CFS. I thought he was looking into it and I was given an erythrocyte sedimentation test and I think some basic panels, but everything looked normal except low Vit D.


My brain fog is bad lately and I'm having a hard time remembering things I've learned or learning new things. (You know me, on a good day I have 20 medical papers for breakfast but that's a good day). I don't understand what things the sedimentation rate would or wouldn't show, so I have no idea what has been ruled out or not other than they are saying that I don't have systemic infection on this basis.


I thought I remembered that Ron Davis was talking about erythrocyte sedimentation as a diagonistic indicator in CFS and then I was skeptical because of some of the things I read following that, but I'm not having any success with DS' seach functions today.


Is this subject familiar to others in this group, and if so, could you please help me to understand more about it?


Many thanks!


cmiat
cmiat
Sorry I can't help with your question but I just wanted to say that I've recently had an interesting experience concerning low vitamin D levels. My GP noticed I had it several years ago and put me on a supplement to correct it. I was first on a high dose for a while, then dropped to one tablet a day when it stabilized. It didn't seem to make any difference, but I kept taking it like I was told.

Since then my condition did worsen and about 2 weeks ago I was talking to a clinical nutritionist who said that the latest research into it indicates that supplementing vitamin D like that rather than being able to correct the underlying problem is actually counter productive, interfering with some metabolic processes - especially in CFS and Fibromyalgia patients.

She recommended I stop taking it. I did and within a few days experienced a small but significant improvement in my energy levels. I just thought I'd let you know about it in case it might be helpful.
Nina1959
Nina1959
I take D3 for bone health. My grandmother and mother both shrunk from 5'6" (167cm) to 4'10"(147cm) and I don't want to go there. So far, my bone density is good. Anyway, I show as chronically deficient in D if I don't take it..... The one vitamin that makes any real difference for me is b12. I feel best when I take very high doses sublingual. Also, being certain my thyroid meds are optimal, which is to say, not "normal" per the labs (nonsense stuff) but optimal for me, which is TSH of between 1 and 1.5 and Free T3 which is on the higher end. I realize it might be a bit of a crutch but when fighting ME and several autoimmune disorders you use all the tools in the box.
As for ESR, I did find this which was interesting. https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2019/11/06/clumper-slider-esr-chronic-fatigue-fibromyalgia-poll/