Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS)

What Does Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Mean?

Chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) is a disorder that affects the body's immune, cognitive, and muscle systems. Blood and digestive system disorders may also be triggered by CFIDS. As the name implies, sufferers of CFIDS experience a continual state of fatigue that is not relieved even when they attain adequate rest.

CFIDS sufferers may feel extreme exhaustion after completing physical or mental exertions. These individual may also experience flu-like symptoms such as swollen lymph nodes and a sore throat. The diverse symptoms that can be caused by CFDIS can be debilitating, preventing individuals with the condition from participating in normal physical activities and interfering with their cognitive abilities.

Because there is no cure or know treatment for CFIDS, medical professionals traditionally focus on addressing the symptoms experienced by the individual sufferer after ruling out other potential causes.

CFIDS is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic emcephalomyelitis (ME).

WorkplaceTesting Explains Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS)

Because there is no diagnostic test for CFIDS and symptoms vary, the condition was thought to be a psychosomatic in the past. Many physicians believed that the CFIDS suffer's physical symptoms were triggered by an emotional or mental disturbance. The fact that mental exertions or stress can worsen CFIDS may have served to reinforce this view.

In 2015, the National Institute of Health announced plans to intensity research into the condition through a multi-institute research effort. In the same year, it was recommended that the disease be renamed systematic exertion intolerance disease (SEID) and new diagnostic criteria be developed.

Since 2015, researchers have identified molecular evidence implicating immune system molecules and mitochonial cells as potential sources for the cause of the disease. Research into the cause or causes and potential treatments for CFDIS is ongoing.