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| credence to the theory that the Gulf War Syndrome contracted by many soldiers who fought that war is related, although this disorder does involve more skin rashes, sinus congestion and diarrhea. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas think the cause of Gulf War Syndrome might be stress combined with chemicals. Insecticides like malathion were sprayed on uniforms, mosquito repellents rubbed on skin and pyridostigmine ingested to safeguard against chemical warfare. Ironically, pyridostigmine inactivates enzymes in the blood that normally attack invading chemicals. |
| The Immune And Lymphatic Systems |
| Like most chronic disorders, CFS involves the immune system. Perhaps some weak link in the immune system makes it easier to get, or perhaps CFS occurs in an immune system weakened by trying to fight off the disease or a disease that preceded it. There is likely a direct connection to stress since nerves link the brain and nervous system to bone marrow, thymus and spleen, the places where immune cells are produced and educated. Years ago, Hans Selye, M.D., the researcher who first linked stress to illness, demonstrated that stress can damage the thymus gland, shrink lymph tissues and break up immune cells. Whatever the case, the immune system certainly is not performing up to par in CFS patients, who pick up practically every germ and virus that goes by and suffer with allergies and/or candida overgrowth in the intestines. |
| The various parts of the immune system work as a team, so our first step in treating CFS is to determine which part is malfunctioning. Of special importance to |
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