this is the extent of what I knew about CFS, I never heard of ME, I thought CFE was still a collection of symptoms that didn't even indicate a single underlying syndrome.

I like the progress, clearly seeing brain stem inflammation sounds like comic book talk from 20 years ago.

they're going to see inflamed dendrites next.

oh but isn't clogged dendrites how they identify multiple sclerosis already?

clearly I have to read more about this. catch up a bit.

thanks for the explanation.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that MS is usually defined by the deterioration of the myelin sheath in brain cells which can be detected through MRI's.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

it is, and they can take pictures of the inflamed dendrites and axons showing where they're clogged, so I was wondering how much smaller these substructures in the brain stem are than dendrites and axons that neurons travel through, which are pretty freaking small and we've had pictures of for at least a couple decades now.

oh or maybe those were microscope slides and they're saying now we can microscopically look at this stuff without having to cut into it.

[–] lemonmelon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

A collection of symptoms is a syndrome. Once there is a known definite cause, reclassification as a disease can take place. Lay misuse of the terms and reluctance to adopt updated designations have aided in a loss of distinction in what they refer to.

There is something else entirely to be said for how quickly one can progress from the disbelief of a particular diagnosis as anything beyond a punchline to descanting over the marvels of modern medicine as they relate to futher study of the mechanisms. If nothing else, it's a great reminder of how much information is available to us on a whim.