ME is what they call CFS in England. "CFS" seems to be an American term that was coined after the 1980s "outbreak" of it near Lake Tahoe.

IMHO, CFS can be caused by many things that stress your body beyond your ability to adapt and successfully cope with those stresses.. For some its chronic unrelenting stress at work followed by a particularly bad infection for which they don't recover normally. For others, they have mercury built up for years that weakens them and they finally succumb. For others they are born with a weak "stress axis" and they just have a lower tolerance for stress than others-they push too hard and they get it. For others they may have been exposed to lyme disease that was either never treated, or not treated properly, or reactivates under times of great stress preventing the body from recovering.

I have read and read and read, and it seems apparent to me that CFS isn't a new disease, its been known for ages as things like "neuroasthenia", "Adrenal Syndrome", "Atypical Depression", etc...

It "seems" to me that the overarching fatigue causing mechanism in "CFS" is Adrenal exhaustion coupled with increased sensitivity for cortisol in the CNS ala Hans Selye. Once you get there, you not only are intolerant to mercury, but every other stress as well. Your "stress axis" supresses the immune system when its overactive and underactive. The only way to recover is to remove all of the energy blocks (toxicity, infection, allergy, etc..) to allow your stress axis to heal. For people with many amalgams and/or genetic susceptibility to merucry poisoning, the most bang for the buck they will get its amalgam removal and chelation. Then with rest/nutrition, etc... they other stuff will fall back into line. It *is* possible to get CFS and not be mercury poisoned because you have been subjected to other stresses that were too overwhelming to your adaptive mechanism. Unfortunately, once you have CFS (by whatever means), your detox system goes south and you are more susceptible to levels of toxins that most people can handle fine. And since most people have amalgams (even if they weren't the root "stress" that caused your CFS), they can become more of a problem once you have CFS and prevent your recovery. Its kind of a never ending cycle until something gives and the stresses on your body are less than your body is able to handle and it can devote some energy to healing. I think this is why approaches like Teitelbaums and Dr. Myhill are so successful. They treat all possible loads on your system at the same time, giving your coping mechanisms a chance to rest and rebuild your body.

I'd be interesting in knowing how many people on this board had "sudden onset" CFS preceded by an unusually stressful life experience vs. a gradual decline of health that ended up in CFS.

Its pretty hard to sort out whats causing what, and I'm pretty sure its different for a lot of people.

BTW one of the best written books I have read on chronic fatigue is called "Chronic Fatigue Unmasked" (I think they have a year 2000 updated addition). Its written by a Dr. who's clinic has been treating CFS for 40 years. If nothing else, you can learn for their experience. Then you have to try to find out whats keeping you down, and remove the problems in order of priority (many times simultaneously). Another good website is that of Dr. Myhill in the UK. www.drmyhill.co.uk. She has her patients do a teitelbaum like protocol and also detox using a sauna.

If you think about it Cutler's program is just teitelbaum with the added treatment of frequent low dose chelation to deal with mercury. If your CFS doesn't primarily involve mercury, its likely to be less helpful to you that the supplements and hormones that are part of the program. If your overarching issue is mercury toxicity, then the chelation is what is going to make a big difference. Unfortunately, if everyone didn't have amalgams, it might be much less of an issue in CFS. And since just having CFS (by whatever cause) makes you more sensitive to toxins, the longer you have CFS the more likely your amalgams are going to be causing a problem.

my .50 :-)