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| certain viruses. Also, scientists are learning that some diseases predispose us to others and can even affect brain chemistry. An example is rheumatic fever, a heart disease caused by strep throat. A high percentage of people who get rheumatic fever eventually develop obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms. |
| A lingering question for anyone with CFS is, ''How did I get it?'' Of course, that answer will have to wait until researchers determine exactly what CFS is. On the positive side, CFS appears relatively noncontagious. Only occasionally do members of the same family come down with it. If it is indeed a virus, something apparently makes one person more susceptible than another. Paul Cheney, M.D., the prominent CFS researcher who treated the first outbreak at Lake Tahoe, speculates that it may be a preexisting condition, perhaps a latent virus just waiting to be triggered. He feels that there may be several different triggers. |
| If triggers prompt CFS, our next question is, "What are they?" There are plenty of suspects. Everything from childhood vaccinations to radiation to chronic candida have been blamed and all may be correct. The bottom line is either emotional or physical stress. |
| The many chemicals that exist in our modern environment have been pegged as possible stressors. It is true that levels of chlorinated hydrocarbons, mostly HCB, are especially high in almost half the people who develop unexplained and persistent fatigue. 2 |
| According to research surveys, a higher percentage of people with CFS were exposed to herbicides, pesticides or insecticides before they got sick compared to the general public. This would explain why the disease is so much more prevalent today. It also gives |
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