CFS is any umbrella term for any undiagnosed illness the major symptom of which is fatigue. Basically it is a symptom without a known underlying cause. It is not a disease per se, although there are many diseases which may be labelled as CFS. This is not necessarily an incorrect diagnosis, rather it is an admittance that the cause for any one persons fatigue is currently not known. Think of it as a "diagnosis in progess".
Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome is not really the best diagnosis to have as without knowing what is causing your illness it is more difficult (though certainly not impossible) to fight.

In my case I had "CFS" for 2 years - i.e. I was ill the major symptom being fatigue, but I didn't know what was causing it. Then 1 year ago I discovered I had candida. I had found my underlying condition. Like you I am too ill to work, and have been for 3 years.

> The others seem to tolerate exercise - I can barely lift a hairdryer above my head and at the most do a small walk. I have now been diagnosed as having a severe deficiency in my red cell magnesium levels which if you search google relates directly to M.E./C.F.S. I do have obviously a weakened immune system but I also have hormonal/adrenal disfunctions too which noboby seems to mention

Although I am on the road to recovery now (God willing) and can tolerate some level of exercise, at one point even playing a game of tennis would give me a severe case of oral-thrush and leave me bedridden for a week.

Magnesium/Calcium imbalance is not surprising as it is the classic symptom of anyone suffering fatigue. I too have an excess of Calcium and a deficiency of Mageneisum - to the point that if I take buffered Vit C. (which contains calcium) it makes me feel very depressed (calcium overload). A weakened immune system is something everyone with chronic illness has.

Hormonal/Adrenal dysfunction is also a classic symptom of candida. My hormonal dyfunction is such that I can't stand artificial light at certain times of day. In particular it used to be the case (less so now) that I would have to go with natural light through sunset and upto an hour afterwards. If I switched on the lights before then I would get *very* cranky. I suffer from adrenal insuffiency too - I can't take any form of stress whatsoever - I basically become a nervous wreck. I feel like one of those lab animals which they did experiments on - they removed the adrenal glands and the animals lived perfectly normal lives, until any outside stress was applied, at which point they died! Luckily our case isn't that severe, but I know that we are particularly sensitive to stress.

The reason we don't mention hormonal/adrenal dysfunction is because candida has 101 different side-effects. Rather than stress the body further by working on those symptoms one by one, we choose to take a root-cause approach and tackle the underlying toxicity/liver-weakness which is causing this disease.

So the question is do you have candida? From your list of symptoms you may well have. The best way to find out for sure is to take a candida questionnaire and the level of your score will give you a pretty good indication. In my experience the questionnaire is the most accurate (and cheapest) method of diagnosis. Just go into google and type "candida questionnaire" and you can do one of the many available on-line.

Hope that helps, and let me know if I haven't answered any of your questions.

Have you read anything about mercury toxicity? That could be a possibility and I also just read that Lyme disease has similar symptoms. I really do not know but I can at least point you in the direction of more information. Here are some links.

Nicole

p.s. The first link is Dr. Hal Huggins site. The second link specifically mentions M.E. and the third link talks about Lyme Disease.

http://www.hugnet.com/
http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Dentist/lister7.htm
http://www.allergyresearchgroup.com/news/letters/ARGFocus_January04Newsletter...

here's a great reference for ME/CFS.

The main difference is candida is microbe imbalance while ME/CFS is mainly electrolyte deficiency.

http://www.co-cure.org/cccd1.htm