StemCell Therapy

Reprinted with the kind permission of Cort Johnson and Health RisingMost people with chronic fatigues syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM) know the consequences of poor sleep the fatigue and pain, the difficulty concentrating, the irritability and more. Sleep is when our body rejuvenates itself; no sleep no rejuvenation. Given how important sleep is to our health, its no surprise that poor sleep is the first symptom many ME/CFS and FM doctors focus on.The effects of poor sleep go beyond just feeling bad, though. It turns out that poor sleep can have significant effects on our immune system effects, interestingly, which are similar to whats been found in the immune systems of people with ME/CFS and FM. Theres no evidence yet that ME/CFS and FM are sleep disorders that the problems ME/CFS and FM patients face are caused by poor sleep but depriving the body of sleep can cause one immunologically, at least, look like someone with these diseases.Why Sleep Is Important for Health: A Psychoneuroimmunology Perspective-Michael R. Irwin. Annu Rev Psychol. 2015 January 3; 66: 143172. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115205.Irwin begins his review on sleep and immunology by noting the explosion in our understanding of the role sleep plays in health over the past decade. First, Irwin demolishes the idea that sleep studies are effective in diagnosing insomnia or sleep disturbances other than sleep apnea. Far more effective than a one or two-night sleep study is a home based sleep actigraph study which estimates sleep patterns and circadian rhythms over time and is coupled with a sleep diary.In fact, Irwin points out that the diagnosis of insomnia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is based solely on patient reports of difficulties going to sleep, maintaining sleep, having non-restorative sleep (common in ME/CFS) and problems with daytime functioning (fatigue, falling asleep, need to nap). (Problems with daytime functioning are actually required for an insomnia diagnosis.)Several effective sleep questionnaires exist including the Insomnia Severity Index, which assesses sleep quality, fatigue, psychological symptoms, and quality of life and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, a 19-item self-report questionnaire that evaluates seven clinically derived domains of sleep difficulties (i.e., quality, latency, duration, habitual efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medications, and daytime dysfunction).Assess Your Sleep QualityThe Immune System and SleepThe immune system is vast and incredibly complex and has its own extensive set of regulatory factors, but is itself regulated by two other systems, the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Both are involved in the stress response and both are affected in ME/CFS and FM. One the HPA axis is blunted in ME/CFS, while the other the sympathetic nervous system is over-activated.Poor sleep, it turns out activates both system. The HPA axis is generally thought to be blunted, not activated, in the morning in ME/CFS patients, but the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), on the other hand, is whirring away at night (when it should be relaxing) in both FM and ME/CFS. (Having our fight or flight system acting up at night is probably not the best recipe for sleep.)Sympathetic nervous system activation, in fact, was the only factor in one Australian study which explained the poor sleep in ME/CFS. The authors of a recent FM/autonomic nervous system study went so far as to suggest that going to sleep with FM was equivalent to undergoing a stress test (!). Heart rates, muscle sympathetic nervous activation, and other evidence of an activated sympathetic nervous system response made sleep anything but restful for FM patients. In fact, the authors proposed sleep problems could be a heart of fibromyalgia.

Many questions have involved the roles pathogens play in ME/CFS and FM. Thats intriguing given the almost universally poor sleep found in the disorders and role recent studies indicate that sleep plays priming the immune systems pump to fight off invaders. During sleep, pathogen-fighting immune cells move to the lymph nodes where they search for evidence of pathogens. If pathogens are present, those immune cells mount a furious (and metabolically expensive) immune response.

Go here to read the rest:
Is Poor Sleep Pummeling the Immune System in ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia? A Vicious Circle Examined - ProHealth

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