There is a study happening in New Jersey at the UMDNJ* Pain & Fatigue Study Center, funded by a NIH research project, that is studying the theory that a malfunction of the cytokines in the blood of CFS patients is what causes the tired but wired issue. This is when CFS patients are sleepy during the day, but wired at night.
They are looking for sedentary women who suffer from CFS in the New York/New Jersey area .
Cytokines are related to immune function and affect alertness in the body. In healthy people cytokine levels are associated with a cycle of wakefulness during the day and tiredness at night. But in CFS patients, the researchers propose, malfunctioning cytokines may be associated with a reversal of the normal sleep/wakefulness pattern.
They are looking for women only for this study because cytokines are affected by gender. The emphasis on sedentary is because exercise affect cytokine levels.
The hope is that the study findings might point the way to therapies to rebalance CFS patients’ immune systems and help correct disordered sleep-wake cycles.
A few study details:
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