Typical Mycoplasma colony, as shown on nature.com

June 21st, 1999

For most of this decade, I suffered horribly from the profoundly devastating effects of Chronic Fatigue (Immune Dysfunction) Syndrome {CFS}. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a disease that, by the accounts of many sufferers I’ve known, pummels you into utter exhaustion, and keeps beating you from there. CFS gave me six plus years of hell and hopelessness that pains me to put into words. My earliest knowledge of CFS involved a symptomatically diverse flu-like illness that is the direct result of a severely dysfunctioning immune system. Personally, I had low and unpredictable energy, heavy legs, a sore throat, muscle aches, anxiety, depression, and severe sleep difficulties. I was “sick all over”; essentially, a vital young man shot down in his physical prime.

Apparently, I had an alien illness. The many doctors, all with outmoded information, had no answers or insight. So I had no hope. Neither did millions of others like me, who sucked daily on a fragment of their lives. Repeatedly I heard the cautions, that I may have to live “as is”; as damaged goods, in other words. But not me; not this fighter. I kept my eyes and ears open and continued doing research. I wasn’t looking for the best coping method. I demanded a cure. Continue reading →