ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, a cluster of seemingly unrelated symptoms was being reported in several populations. While symptoms tended to vary, one aspect the populations appeared to share was constant, unremitting fatigue that seemed to be exacerbated by exertion. Given that the populations were often centered in urban areas, the term “Yuppie Flu” was used in the media, suggesting that the symptom clusters were not representative of a “real” physical illness but an “imagined” psychosomatic illness. Other hypotheses revolved around a suggested relationship with Epstein–Barr Virus (EBV). Unfortunately, pharmaceutical therapies that addressed these issues, such as antidepressants and antivirals, yielded poor outcomes in the vast majority of cases. Fortunately, published research from the last 10–20 years has made it clear that clinical success can be attained using a new model of metabolic and pathophysiologic understanding that incorporates functional medicine/allostatic load concepts. In this chapter, research will be highlighted suggesting that by clinically repositioning the ME/CFS patient as a manifestation of a unique combination of environmental stressors, genetic propensity and metabolic imbalances, custom multiphasic treatment modalities that incorporate a patient-specific combination of lifestyle modifications, nutritional supplementation and/or pharmaceutical assists can yield highly predictable, time- and cost-effective, long-term outcomes.
