I don't understand how this isn't a viral disease.

Nothing I am about to say is new information. We've been looking at this disease since at least the 80's and Viral persistence/reactivation is not a new theory.

I'm not saying I know the cause or have the answer. I'm just saying I feel like theres a common theme here and I don't understand why this hasn't been pursued more. I'm sure someone will respond with something I don't know and that is why I am posting!

We have known for decades that virus's are a particularly interesting and tricky pathogen. We have seen virus's do all of the following:

-Modify the immune system

-Delete immune memory

-Suppress the immune system (clearly it can modulate immunity and immune activity)

-Literally cause autoimmune disease

-Lie dormant for years without causing active disease.

-We have seen people with chronic viral disease that cannot actively suppress the virus without medication. (AIDs)

-Reactivate and cause a variety of diseases in different people. (ie 1 virus can cause multiple diseases)

-Viral infection can REACTIVATE other virus's that were previously dormant. (Maybe you had covid, but maybe it reactivated EBV in the aftermath)

With the correlation to viral onset being so high, I don't understand why this theory isn't researched more. We have seen an explosion of ME/CFS-like disease since SARS-COV-2. Even if your onset wasn't viral, it is well known that stress can reactivate a dormant virus. Anything that leads to a suppressed immune system can reactivate a dormant virus, this is not new information. The same child that got chicken pox in the 80's gets a shingles rash as an adult 30 years later after reactivation of the same virus.

We have so many crime scenes and a virus seems to be tied to many of them.

Immune dysregulation is likely at the center of our symptoms and pain. But what is causing immune dsyregulation?

I just feel like we are getting caught up in the signatures of disease rather than the cause.

-Mitochondrial dsyfunction is likely a signature

-elevated immune markers is likely a signature

-High correlation with comorbid autoimmunity

-Higher prevalence in women, who suffer from immune dysfunction at higher rates than men

-The CPET study tells me that our body seems to be having trouble HEALING, this is in part a function of the immune system

One last thing, using the example of the Varicella-Zoster virus that causes the Chicken Pox and Shingles disease. Most kids before the 90's actively had the chicken pox disease as a child but some of them will never see a single day of the Shingles disease. However, some of them will suffer from chronic or reoccurring shingles disease. This is all from the same virus. My point is, whatever virus may be causing the disease of MECFS is likely dormant in most of the population. However, some of us actively express the disease and seem to have trouble controlling the virus. I have more to say on the topic but I will stop there.

I'm not saying this is the answer for every single case of MECFS. But I feel it fits the criteria for a majority of cases. After all this is officially a syndrome and it is likely many of us do not have the same disease/problem.

TLDR; I feel like this is a viral disease and lay out my reasons for thinking so.

Also one last thing, I do believe people recover from this disease and that the number is much higher than 5%.