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There is a lot of misinformation out there about chronic illness. I've said that on this forum many times. It's just a function of where we currently are as a society with our understanding.

I think a thread like this from those of us that have "been around the block" can help new people that have the daunting task of trying to piece everything together. The way I think this should be done is symptoms that are linked to multiple "causes", we should consider we don't fully understand. An easy example is brain fog. There are probably at least 10 different articles about different disorders you can find that claim brain fog is a symptom of that particular disorder and some that say it is a symptom of all of them. An example of a symptom I think we can assume is correct is the bulls-eye rash for Lyme disease.

Group 1 (Causes):
Adrenal Disorders, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME, Fibromyalgia, Bacterial Infections (Lyme), Fungal Infections (Candida), Leaky Gut, IBS, Parasites, Eating Disorders, Fatty Liver, Pyroluria, Heavy Metals Imbalance, Histamine Intolerance , Glutathione Deficiency

Group 2 (Symptoms):
Anxiety, Brain Fog, Depression, Fatigue, Itchy Skin, Headaches/Migraines, Chemical Sensitivities, Magnesium/Calcium Imbalance, Sodium/Potassium Imbalance, Sleep Abnormalities, Sensory Sensitivity, Panic Attacks, Irritability/Anger, Tinnitus, Muscle Pain, Hot Flushes, Vision Problems, Exercise Intolerance

These are common complaints we see on this forum. Many items can be switched back and forth from each grouping and that's kind of the point. From my perspective, I don't think we can give any diagnosis from group 1 if someone complains of symptoms in group 2 even if they also test positive for something in group 1. For example, if someone says they have muscle pain, anxiety, and brain fog, we can't say that it is caused by an Adrenal Disorder or Lyme even if they test that they do have adrenal insufficiency or Lyme. We can't assume causation from correlation even if a doctor or article on the internet says so.

This is all open to discussion but the point is to see if we can come up with some type of overall agreement of what we don't know for sure that some think we do. If we think a certain symptom leads to a certain diagnosis, but we can find multiple, credible sources that say otherwise, I think that is progress and can be useful in helping to prevent people from spinning their wheels. What I'm saying is I think it's better to have no diagnosis than an incorrect one. Do you guys agree? Do you believe some symptoms have one root cause and some have multiple? If so which ones? Tweet