CFS sufferers beware

I've thought long and hard about why this muscle wasting has happened to me. And, the best I can come up with is that it's come about through an unlucky combination of factors, these being:

1. The debilitating effects of the mental health problems (including poor quality sleep for years)
2. The debilitating effects of medication taken for the mental health problems
3. The iron deficiency which probably went undiagnosed for some time due to the masking of the first 2 factors
4. My physical make up. I'm what body builders would call an ectomorphic body type - I find it hard to put on weight or muscle. I've always been a 'skinny bean' no matter what I ate
5. A poor diet during the most difficult years of the mental health problems. I probably ate enough calories but they were perhaps 'empty calories' meaning they contained little vitamin or mineral nutrition.

And so, for years I was significantly under active and 'ill'.

What worries me is that the likelihood of disabling muscle atrophy is not publicised to those who are most at risk. I was never warned about the possibility. I had no idea that, for example, if a muscle isn't used for 12 hours it begins to waste. It takes just 12 hours! Nor that once a muscle starts to waste, other muscles 'come to the rescue' and start to take over the work of this wasting muscle, thus adding to the original problem. It is not difficult to see how large pockets of important muscle then begin to waste away leaving just a few doing most of the work. I have been left with literally just sinews of muscle holding my joints together, leaving them unstable, easily fatigued and strained. If only I had been warned and given appropriate advice as to how to prevent muscle atrophy I would not be looking at 2 years of concentrated, painful work to rebuild my body.

There's an interesting article explaining how sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are at high risk of muscle atrophy and all that this entails (link). I very much hope that GPs are helping CFS sufferers to manage both their illness and the unseen effect that the enforced body rest has on their muscles.