Chronic fatigue syndrome, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME/CFS, is a debilitating disease that affects more than 1 million Americans. The cause of CFS, which is characterized by at least six months of incapacitating fatigue, remains a mystery, but as a recent segment on ABC 7 News reports, Stanford researchers are making some headway.
Infectious-disease expert Jose Montoya, MD, sees patients at Stanford's ME/CFS clinic, and he believes that research and treatment for the disease is at a turning point. This should be encouraging news to patients, many of whom feel that their suffering isn't validated. "They have seen 10, 15 specialists and many of [the doctors], if not all of them, do not believe them," Montoya says in the interview above.
Previously: Deciphering the puzzle of chronic fatigue syndrome, ME/CFS/SEID: It goes by many aliases, but its blood-chemistry signature is a giveaway and Some headway on chronic fatigue syndrome: Brain abnormalities pinpointed
