"Panel Says Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is A Disease, And Renames It"

"The mysterious and complicated illness that has been called chronic fatigue syndrome has a new definition and a new name: systemic exertion intolerance disorder, or SEID for short...The condition, which can render people housebound or bedridden and unable to work or go to school, is believed to affect between 860,000 and 2.5 million Americans. Because there is no specific test for SEID, many people who have it haven't been diagnosed, and healthcare professionals often have viewed patients as complainers whose symptoms are psychological, not physical.

But a 15-member panel of the Institute of Medicine, an independent government advisory body with a lot of clout, says otherwise. In a report released Tuesday, the panel writes that the condition "is real," and admonishes clinicians, "It is not appropriate to dismiss these patients by saying 'I am chronically fatigued, too.' "

...This [new] definition is much simpler than some previous ones for chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis. And it doesn't require doctors to run a bunch of expensive and time-consuming tests to rule out other causes for the patient's symptoms before making the diagnosis."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/02/11/385465667/panel-says-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-is-a-disease-and-renames-it?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150211

It makes me really sad that they had to say that last part.

Thinking about how we legitimize things (who gets to be a voice of authority - why not the person having the experience?), and how that