People
with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS are exceptionally tired no matter how much
sleep they get and for more than six months. It is often not diagnosed and
sometimes dismissed by healthcare workers. Health Briefs TV wishes to review
the factors of this debilitating medical concern.
When
a patient visiting a family doctor complains of being exhausted all the time
and for a prolonged period of time, the physician may not know what to do.
There is no blood test for CFS nor is there brain scan which can identify the
condition. A recent study conducted on 15 patients with CFS and 15 without it –
all the same age and gender – found less white matter in the brains of those
with CFS. The white matter contains the brain’s communication material which
allows parts of the brain to communicate with each other. Other tests conducted
in the research included looking at the right hemisphere of the brain of each
participant group. Researchers noticed that the patients with chronic fatigue
syndrome had thicker connection points than those of the healthy patients. The
study was small but shows us that if the doctor is willing to prescribe the brain
scan and the patient is willing to pay for it, it may be helpful in determining
what’s wrong with someone who is constantly overly tired. Health Briefs TV
learns this may be a useful tool for patients whose complaints are often met
with accusations of being a hypochondriac or just ignored.
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