New findings suggest that multiple mitochondrial mutations and mutations in genes that control mitochondria  create susceptibility for ME/CFS.  Mutations in genes that control autoimmunity add to susceptibility for ME/CFS.

It is possible that exposure to viruses, bacteria, mold or other pathogens, injury or other causes of inflammation can trigger increased or “de novo” autoimmunity causing fatigue and post exercise malaise that does not remit because of the susceptibility created by mutations either inherited or acquired, and epigenetic alterations.

Dr. Alan R. Light is Professor of Anesthesiology and Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah. He is a member of the University of Utah Program in Neuroscience and the Pain Research Center. Dr. Light has published over 120 peer reviewed research articles focused on the peripheral and spinal cord mechanisms of pain and fatigue processing, and its descending control. He has contributed to a number of advanced reviews and textbooks on pain, and authored the monograph “The Initial Processing of Pain and its Descending Control” and was editor of “Translational Pain Research: From Mouse to Man”. He received a Javits Award from NIH for his research on descending control of pain. For the last 10 years Dr. Light has focused his research on the mechanisms of the sensations of muscle pain and fatigue, and on the symptoms and causes of ME/CFS. Dr. Light’s efforts are currently funded by a grant from NIH designed to determine if mutations in mitochondria and other energy genes play a role in causing and/or maintaining fatigue and pain and autoimmune disease in ME/CFS.

Education meetings occur the first Wednesday of every month at the Bateman Horne Center and are broadcast via Facebook Live and then posted to BHC Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OFFERUtah

Attend in person at BHC or watch in via livestream! RSVP Today!