Gut Bacteria May Hold Clues to Chronic Fatigue

Gut Bacteria May Hold Clues to Chronic Fatigue
August 15, 2016
By Kathleen Doheny

Intestinal colonies differ in CFS patients, study finds, bolstering notion the disorder isn't a psychological problem.

Chronic fatigue syndrome -- a condition that continues to baffle doctors -- may be influenced by a person's intestinal bacteria -- sometimes called gut microbiome, new research finds.

"Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome have a different profile of bacterial species in their gut microbiome than healthy individuals," said the study's senior author, Maureen Hanson. She's a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y.

In the small study, she and her colleagues found that people with chronic fatigue syndrome had less diversity or different types of bacteria, compared to healthy people without chronic fatigue syndrome. People with chronic fatigue syndrome also had more species of bacteria that promote inflammation and fewer bacteria that dampen inflammation, the researchers found.

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