Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
National Institutes of Health
1 AMS Circle
Bethesda, MD 20892–3675
Phone: 301–495–4484 or
877–22–NIAMS (226–4267) (free of charge)
TTY: 301–565–2966
Fax: 301–718–6366
E-mail: NIAMSInfo@mail.nih.gov
http://www.niams.nih.gov/

NIAMS provides information about various forms of arthritis and rheumatic disease and bone, muscle, joint, and skin diseases. It distributes patient and professional education materials and refers people to other sources of information. Additional information and updates can also be found on the NIAMS Web site.

What Is Arthritis?

Although Grandma's rheumatism could be any ache or pain, it generally was arthritis.

There are over 100 forms of arthritis and other rheumatic diseases. These diseases may cause pain, stiffness, and swelling in joints and other supporting structures of the body such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Some forms can also affect other parts of the body, including various internal organs.

Medical science has only recently caught up with the reality of Fibromyalgia.

FMS (fibromyalgia syndrome) is a widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue disorder for which the cause is still unknown. Fibromyalgia means pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, which are the soft fibrous tissues in the body.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) is a complicated and controversial set of problems that greatly debilitate those that have it.

A great deal of debate has surrounded the issue of how best to define CFS. In an effort to resolve these issues, an international panel of CFS research experts convened in 1994 to draft a definition of CFS that would be useful both to researchers studying the illness and to clinicians diagnosing it. In essence, in order to receive a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, a patient must satisfy two criteria:

Environmental illness can strike anyone, anytime. Examples are Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), and Chemical Sensitivity (CS).

These are common, poorly understood, and chronic multi-system illnesses that are newly recognized by the medical community and mainly affect women, although men and children can also be affected.

Chronic fatigue syndrome has been given as an official cause of death – apparently for the first time in the world.

On Tuesday, June 13, 2006, coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley of Brighton and Hove Coroners Court, UK, recorded the cause of death of a 32-year-old woman as acute aneuric renal failure (failure to produce urine) due to dehydration as a result of CFS. The deceased woman, Sophia Mirza, had suffered from CFS for six years.