COCURE:RES: Major development: Myhill et al paper on mitochondrial dysfunction

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Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:27:24 -0500

" Rich Van Konynenburg, Ph.D.

<richvank via Co-Cure Moderator " <ray

RES: Major development: Myhill et al paper on mitochondrial

dysfunction in CFS

 

Dr. Sarah Myhill and coauthors have just published a paper on mitochondrial

dysfunction in CFS. They found that there is indeed mito dysfunction in CFS,

and that the degree of this dysfunction is correlated with the degree of

disability of PWCs. A pdf of the paper is available here free:

_http://www.ijcem.comIJCEM812001.pdf_

(http://www.ijcem.comIJCEM812001.pdf)

 

In my opinion, this is a landmark development in CFS research. It shows that

the fatigue in CFS is traceable to problems in the basic powerplants of the

cells of the body. This should draw the attention of the CFS research

community to the fundamental biochemistry of

metabolism, and it should also be a powerful bulwark against the view that

CFS is a psychiatric disorder, which seems to be particularly dominant in the

UK, where, ironically, the work described in this paper was done.

 

The next step is to establish what is causing the mito dysfunction in CFS.

There are some competing ideas about this among Dr. Cheney, Professor Pall,

myself, and others, and hopefully we will be able to shake them down and see

which one or ones hold up to scrutiny soon.

 

As many of you know, my view is that the mito dysfunction is caused by

glutathione depletion in the mitochondria, and I believe that this leads to the

whole range of problems that Dr. MacLaren Howard, one of the authors of this

paper, has found in the mitochondria of PWCs with his lab testing, now at Acumen

Lab in the UK.

 

There is now good evidence that treating to correct the partial block in the

methylation cycle will raise the glutathione levels in CFS, as it does in

autism, and recently we (and I) have been hearing from a small number of PWCs

who report that after methylation cycle block

treatment their energy levels are coming back up, and some have been able to

return to work. This can take many months, but it is definitely happening,

at least in a few cases so far. We need many more cases to draw conclusions

about this, but so far, so good.

 

It is rare that a really worthwhile paper about CFS research comes out, and

in my opinion, this is one of those rare moments!

 

Rich Van Konynenburg, Ph.D.

 

 

 

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