A New Angle On Mental Fatigue

[green]

I just read this article which compares CFS to Post-Polio fatigue, and argues that the fatigue is neural in origin - having to do with damage to the Basal Ganglia.

The symptoms of Post-Polio fatigue and accompanying brain fog reminded me of complaints I read from dysautonomics on this site - word finding difficulties, impaired short-term memory, difficulty with concentration.

Polio is a disease that primarily is thought of as attacking the nerves, but apparently it attacks part of the brain. Perhaps some of the dysautonomics who suffer from autoimmune neuropathy have had their immune system chew up the neurons in their brainstem as well.

Just a thought.

One of the more interesting sections:

"Polio survivors reporting severe fatigue required 23% to 67% more time to complete tasks requiring sustained attention and vigilance than did polio survivors with no or mild fatigue.In spite of these marked impairments of attention, CFS patients and polio survivors have been shown to have I.Q.s within the high normal or superior range and have higher than average levels of educational and professional achievement (Table 1)(17).Further, despite the high frequency of subjective complaints of memory impairment in CFS patients and in 87% of polio survivors reporting fatigue, verbal memory has been shown to be intact on testing in both groups (16,19,20).However, polio survivors have twice been shown to have trouble recalling visual information whether or not they report fatigue (7,16).

These findings indicate that fatigue in CFS patients and polio survivors is associated with impairment of attention and information processing speed but not of memory or thinking ability.Given the findings of frequent and severe poliovirus lesions in the brain's activating system, it was hypothesized that damage to the brain's activating system is responsible for both fatigue and impaired attention in polio survivors."

http://www.ippso-world.org/ppsinfo/articles/bruno/fatiguetreat.html

[Kellysavedbygrace]

That is really interesting. I know so little about Polio. Wonder if there could be a connection.

[ramakentesh]

abnormalities in the ventricular system of the brain have been identified in CFS.

[issie]

Hmmmmm, interesting. Since my guess of when my POTS was triggered was after a polio vaccine. My sister, a friend and I were all hospitalized and missed over 3 months of school and none of us have recovered and all got autonomic issues from then on.

Issie