CHRONIC MERCURY SYNDROME (ME/CFS) is not imaginary!

The hyperbaric oxygen therapy department at the ADELI Medical Center and Dr. Inna Durda have been working on this disease for years and have valuable experience with treatment in the hyperbaric chamber. Nevertheless, she often finds from experience that ME/CFS is rarely diagnosed correctly or its connection with COVID-19 is strongly doubted. Patients feel that they are not taken seriously and suffer as a result. Quite unnecessarily. Because treatment in the hyperbaric chamber has helped many, the evidence that COVID-19 can trigger chronic fatigue syndrome is becoming more and more concrete and extensive.

"Our results show that the rate and risk of developing ME/CFS are significantly increased after SARS-CoV-2 infection," write the authors of a new study (from January 2025) led by ME/CFS researcher Dr. Suzanne Vernon from the Bateman Horne Center in the USA.

Six months or more after SARS-CoV-2 infection, participants were 7.5 times more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS than people who were not infected.

The researchers refer to other studies that indicate that various infectious agents (e.g. Epstein-Barr virus or Ross River virus) and non-viral diseases (such as Q fever or giardiasis) are associated with the development of ME/CFS.

Although the exact cause of ME/CFS is unknown, viral infections are thought to be a possible trigger.

📌 It is estimated that between 13 and 58% of Long COVID patients meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS.

📌 Before the pandemic in 2020, the health burden of ME/CFS in the USA was estimated to be twice that of HIV/AIDS.

📌 More than 18 million adults are already affected by Long COVID. Researchers therefore assume that the number of ME/CFS cases could double in the near future.

📌 The current study was funded by the US National Institute of Health (NIH ) and included 11,785 participants who had contracted COVID-19 at least six months previously and 1,439 uninfected people.

📌 None of the participants had previously been diagnosed with ME/CFS, and most had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

📌 4.5% of participants formerly suffering from COVID-19 met the criteria for ME/CFS, with the diagnosis typically including at least six months of fatigue accompanied by post-exertional malaise, cognitive problems, non-restorative sleep or orthostatic intolerance.

📌 89% of these patients also met the criteria for Long COVID.

📌 The authors of the study suspect that ME/CFS after COVID-19 infection represents a particularly severe subgroup of long-COVID patients.

📌 However, further research is needed to better differentiate between these two diagnoses - especially as the two diseases manifest themselves differently from person to person.

🔎 Explanation of important terms:

🟢 Post-exertional malaise (PEM)
A condition in which even minor physical or mental exertion leads to excessive and prolonged deterioration in health.
Patients with ME/CFS or Long COVID often experience PEM - after activity they may feel extremely exhausted, with pain, brain fog and other symptoms that can last for days or weeks.
PEM is one of the most important diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS and distinguishes it from normal fatigue.

🟢 Cognitive problems
Impairments in thinking, information processing and memory, including
✔ Concentration problems - difficulty maintaining attention
✔ Brain fog - feeling of mental confusion or slowed thinking
✔ S hort-term memory problems - forgetfulness or difficulty remembering information
✔ Language and expression problems - problems finding the right words
✔ S lowed information processing - slow thinking and reacting

These symptoms are common in ME/CFS, long COVID, neurological diseases, exhaustion and stress.

🟢 Orthostatic intolerance (OI)
A disorder in which the body cannot properly regulate blood pressure and blood flow when changing from sitting or lying to standing.

Symptoms are:
✔ Dizziness or lightheadedness when standing up
✔ Nausea or weakness
✔ Rapid or irregular heartbeat(tachycardia)
✔ Excessive sweating or tiredness
✔ Brain fog and concentration problems
✔ In extreme cases, fainting(syncope)

Orthostatic intolerance is common in ME/CFS, long COVID, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and other diseases of the autonomic nervous system.