Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: thedoc on 03/02/2016 06:50:02
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Erik Finlayson asked the Naked Scientists:
When I listened to the recent show on chronic fatigue my mind almost immediately felt there may be a connection between that and blood viscosity. Sluggish blood flow could explain the symptoms very well and the increased accumulation of lactic acid as described on your show. I went to the medical literature and sure enough there have been many studies looking at cerebral blood flow in general in chronic fatigue patients, and it is reduced.
From your research in preparing for the show does this make sense? As to the reasons why chronic fatigue patients may have increased viscosity, they could be multiple. Previous infection can lead to increase in antibody associated proteins which increase viscosity. A poor diet high in animal protein has been shown to increase viscosity. Inflammation from any source can increase fibrinogen which increases viscosity.
My research has mostly focused on the connection of blood viscosity to cardiovascular disease. If you are interested I could share with you two review papers I wrote summarizing much of the data in attempts to get research funding (so far attempts that have been unsuccessful).
I would love to hear your view of the idea of increased blood viscosity as a possible cause of certain diseases, and if you found it worthy of a show I would absolutely love that, as getting blood viscosity on the radar for doctors outside of hyperviscosity syndrome has been near impossible.
I am an internal medicine physician in California and have, as a side project, been working on research into blood viscosity. I love your podcasts (both naked scientists and elife) and listen to them nearly daily (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts) and have learned so much and am very grateful for your entertaining production of very interesting information.
Thank you
What do you think?
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Although the cerebral blood flow was reduced in the patients you mention, was this confirmed as a viscosity problem?