[MESocofAmerica] Dr. Paul Cheney on ME/CFS and diastolic cardiomyopathy

[Guest guest]

[This went our to the Co-Cure list today.]

 

The M.E. Society of America is pleased to announce that now available

on our Web site in streaming video is a talk by Dr. Paul Cheney on

ME/CFS and diastolic cardiomyopathy. I believe that what Dr. Cheney

has to say about mitochondrial dysfunction and low energy production

in the heart leading to diastolic dysfunction and low cardiac output

in the disease is extremely important and in need of wider

dissemination. Doctors Peckerman, Natelson and Cheney argue that low

cardiac output in litres per minute is at the very root of the

profound disability seen in ME/CFS.

 

The M.E. Society of America is making no profit off of this project.

On the contrary, the M.E. Society went into debt to make this

important research available to the world and accessible globally on

the Internet.

 

This three-hour talk cannot be properly viewed using a dial-up modem.

It is accessible with a broadband connection only. If our server is

overloaded, please try back again.

 

The Cheney talk can be viewed on the Web, but it cannot be downloaded

or copied. It cannot be paused or rewound. Some of the best

information on the video is towards the end of the talk where Cheney

shows graphs and charts on cardiac output in litres per minute.

Because the talk is three hours long, we urge viewers to also purchase

the video from its original source (see link on our site).

 

We urge viewers of the video to read the Peckerman/Natelson article on

impedance cardiography and the interview with Dr. Cheney by Carol

Sieverling and to study these two pieces of writing in conjunction

with viewing the video. All of these articles and video are available

on our Cardiac Insufficiency Hypothesis page at

http://www.cfids-cab.org/MESA/Lerner.html

 

Dr. Cheney notes that there are two types of diastolic dysfunction,

phase I (chronic) and phase II (terminal). He states that CFS patients

have only phase I. In my opinion, this is an erroneous statement.

What may be true is that Dr. Cheney is seeing only phase I in his

limited clinical practice.

 

In Memoriam lists as well as observations by ME/CFS specialists such

as Dr. Betty Dowsett have shown that cardiac failure and other organ

failure is a common cause of death in ME/CFS. Dr. Cheney does note

that some patients may be on a progressive course towards phase II,

although he has not seen it in his practice. Further, in the interview

with Dr. Cheney by Carol Sieverling, Cheney notes that Dr. Peckerman

believes that ME/CFS patients are on a progressive track towards

crossing what Cheney calls the event horizon into terminal heart

failure. Dr. Lerner has also noted the progressive nature of the

disease, although Lerner hypothesizes that early dilated

cardiomyopathy -- i.e., systolic dysfunction -- is present in CFS.

This is different from what Dr. Cheney is arguing. It is possible that

Lerner and Cheney are seeing different subsets, but it is also

possible that these are two different human perspectives on the same

phenomena, and further research will be needed to unravel the whole story.

 

Although I disagree with some minor points here and there in the

Cheney talk, and I plan to offer some critical commentary later in the

summer, in all I believe that Doctors Peckerman, Natelson, and Cheney

are truly onto something very important -- that low cardiac output in

litres per minute is at the very route of the profound disability of

ME/CFS.

 

What Dr. Cheney has contributed to this position, that mitochondrial

dysfunction and low ATP energy in the heart would lead to diastolic

dysfunction, and that Dr. Cheney's study of patients showing this

diastolic dysfunction, is in my opinion a major, major contribution to

the understanding of this complex disease.

 

Maryann Spurgin, Ph.D.

M.E. Society of America

http://www.cfids-cab.org/MESA/