By Scott LaFee in USC San Diego Health.
Mylagic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling and complex illness. Affected persons often cannot pursue ordinary activities — physical or mental — because of an incapacitating loss of energy and other symptoms, and may find themselves confined to bed or house-bound for years.
Anyone can develop ME/CFS, though it most commonly afflicts people between the ages of 40 and 60; women more often than men. In nearly every case, ME/CFS begins after a sequence of severe environmental exposures, injuries or infections. Until relatively recently, the utter mystery and complexity of ME/CFS persuaded some that it was not a “real” condition. In 2015, the National Academy of Medicine declared ME/CFS to be a serious, chronic, complex and systemic disease.
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