Jolien Hendrix – a PhD researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel who is currently working on research supported by ME Research UK, has written a blog post entitled “when exercise puts your health at risk” for ‘Eos Blogs’ – a website where “experts and researchers share their ideas, wonder and points of view on science.”
Jolein’s post discusses exercise and ME/CFS stating that “For people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), exercise can leave them bedridden for days afterwards”.
Within the post, Jolein discusses why exercise can be “dangerous” for people with ME/CFS; highlighting that compared with healthy people, people with ME/CFS have been found to have:
- Abnormalities in the autonomic nervous system meaning that less oxygen and energy are transported to the muscles during exercise.
- Reduced function of mitochondria – components of cells that produce energy.
Importantly, Jolein explains:
“These abnormalities in the response-recovery cycle and energy production explain why even a small effort, such as taking a shower, can feel like running a marathon for them.”
You can read the full blog post (translation to English is available through Google Translate) here: https://bit.ly/3NcXyEv
Read more about the ME Research UK-funded project Jolien is involved in here: https://bit.ly/nijs004
