XMRV?

People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS,) also known as CFIDS or ME, are excited about studies showing a possible connection between that disease and a newly discovered retrovirus called XMRV. Some of the studies have shown a high correlation between people who have that disease and XMRV, but others haven't been as conclusive and all the results aren't in yet.

The good news is that more scientists are taking the disease seriously instead of claiming that it's 'just' psychosomatic. The bad news is that even if a definite connection is found, it will take a lot more time to discover a cure.

Many years ago I read a study showing that broken bones from skiing accidents healed faster than identical breaks caused by car accidents because the healing was influenced by the attitudes of the patients. In other words, broken bones are psychosomatic. I wouldn't be surprised if someday scientists establish a link between all illnesses and people's thoughts and emotions. However that wouldn't alter the fact that diseases are real and caused by viruses, bacteria, etc.

It's difficult enough for people to live with debilitating illnesses without being told the conditions are "all in your head" and they aren't really sick at all.

Even if researchers aren't able to find a cure for CFS it will be a great help to people who have it if the XMRV virus is definitely proven to be a cause.

New Research

Many people with chronic illness are delighted to see news stories about this newly-released scientific study: http://www.wpinstitute.org/xmrv/index.html. It's about a retrovirus called XMRV that has been discovered in most of the subjects tested who have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and similar conditions. Of course it will take time to see if anti-viral medications can cure those diseases, but at last there is hope.

Since the same virus has also been found in people with certain kinds of cancer, it's possible that XMRV is not the cause of the diseases but simply takes advantage of damaged immune systems. But even that is helpful for people with CFS/ME and FM since it proves those illnesses are real and not just psychosomatic. It's hard enough to live with debilitating chronic illness without being told "It's all in your head" and having to struggle to find a medical practitioner who believes you're really sick.