 I got this list from the artical referenced below which included a chart of common symptoms in each of these conditions. I found it very interesting and it helps explain some of the idiosynchroncies I have as well as some of the symptoms people have emailed me about. This is apparently a new coorelation being discovered by research but is not widely known yet. These conditions are genetically predisposed and have an autoimmune component which research is beginning to reveal. Widespread pain Fatigue Feeling run down, sluggish Muscle cramps and pains Unexplained or excessive weight gain Inability to lose weight Gastrointestinal problems Irritable bowel syndrome Poor sleeping Headaches and migraines Constipation Exhaustion Depression Low exercise tolerance Rashes Concentration difficulties Feeling cold Cold in extremities Dry, coarse and/or itchy skin Dry, coarse and/or thinning hair Increased menstrual flow More frequent periods Infertility Difficulty breastfeeding Recurrent miscarriage Swollen glands Low grade fever Slowed thinking, mental fog Husky voice Eczema, acne, rashes Swelling and fluid retention Carpal tunnel syndrome Numbness and tingling in extremities Raynaud's Syndrome Reduced sexual interest and ability More frequent infections Worsening of allergies and asthmatic reactions Chemical sensitivities Difficulty getting a full breath More frequent yeast infections Slow pulse Puffiness around the eyes Low blood pressure Neck pain/neck aches  Myalgic encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria Myalgic encephalomyelitis is an acquired neurological disease with complex global dysfunctions. Pathological dysregulation of the nervous, immune and endocrine systems,with impaired cellular energy metabolism and ion transport are prominent features. Although signs and symptoms are dynamically interactive and causally connected, the criteria are grouped by regions of pathophysiology to provide general focus. A patient will meet the criteria for post exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (A), at least one symptom from three neurological impairment categories (B), at least one symptom from three immune ⁄ gastro-intestinal ⁄ genitourinary impairment categories (C), and at least one symptom from energy metabolism⁄ transport impairments (D). A. Post exertional neuroimmune exhaustion: Compulsory This cardinal feature is a pathological inability to produce sufficient energy on demand with prominent symptoms primarily in the neuroimmune regions. Characteristics are as follows: 1. Marked, rapid physical and / or cognitive fatigability in response to exertion, which may be minimal such as activities of daily living or simplemental tasks, can be debilitating and cause a relapse. 2. Post exertional symptom exacerbation: e.g. acuteflu-like symptoms, pain and worsening of other symptoms. 3. Post exertional exhaustion may occur immediately after activity or be delayed by hours or days. 4. Recovery period is prolonged, usually taking 24 hrs or longer. Are lapse can last days, weeks or longer. 5. Low threshold of physical and mental fatigability (lack of stamina) results in a substantial reduction in pre-illness activity level. Operational notes: For a diagnosis of ME, symptom severity must result in a significant reduction of a patient’s premorbid activity level. Mild (an approximate 50% reduction in pre-illness activity level), moderate (mostly housebound), severe (mostly bedridden) or very severe (totally bedridden and need helpwith basic functions). There may be marked fluctuation of symptom severity and hierarchy from day to day or hour to hour. Consider activity, context and interactive effects. Recovery time: e.g. Regardless of a patient’s recovery time from reading for ½ hour, it will take much longer to recover from grocery shopping for ½ hour and even longer if repeated the next day – if able. Those who rest before an activity or have adjusted their activity level to their limited energy may have shorter recovery periods than those who do not pace their activities adequately. Impact: e.g. An outstanding athlete could have a 50%reduction in his or her pre-illness activity level and is still more active than a sedentary person. B. Neurological impairments At least one symptom from three of the following four symptom categories 1. Neurocognitive impairments a. Difficulty processing information: slowed thought, impaired concentration e.g. confusion, disorientation, cognitive overload,difficulty with making decisions, slowed speech, acquired or exertional dyslexia b. Short-termmemory loss: e.g. difficulty remembering what one wanted to say,what one was saying, retrieving words, recalling information, poor working memory 2. Pain a. Headaches: e.g. chronic, generalized headaches often involve aching of the eyes, behind the eyes or back of the head that may be associated with cervical muscle tension; migraine; tension headaches b. Significant pain can be experienced in muscles,muscle-tendon junctions, joints, abdomen or chest. It is noninflammatory in nature and often migrates. e.g. generalized hyperalgesia,widespread pain (may meet fibromyalgia criteria), myofascial or radiating pain 3. Sleep disturbance a. Disturbed sleep patterns: e.g. insomnia, prolonged sleep including naps, sleeping most of the day and being awake most of the night, frequent awakenings, awaking much earlier than before illness onset, vivid dreams, nightmares b. Unrefreshedsleep: e.g.awakenfeeling exhaustedregardless ofdurationof sleep,day-time sleepiness 4. Neurosensory,perceptual and motor disturbances a. Neurosensory and perceptual: e.g. inability to focus vision, sensitivity to light, noise, vibration, odour, taste and touch; impaired depth perception b. Motor: e.g.muscleweakness, twitching,poor coordination, feeling unsteady on feet, ataxia Notes: Neurocognitive impairments, reported or observed, become more pronounced with fatigue. Overload phenomena may be evident when two tasks are performed simultaneously. Abnormal accommodation responses of the pupils are common. Sleep disturbances are typically expressed by prolonged sleep, sometimes extreme, in the acute phase and often evolve into marked sleep reversal in the chronic stage. Motor disturbances may not be evident in mild or moderate cases but abnormal tandem gait and positive Romberg test may be observed in severe cases. C. Immune, gastro-intestinal and genitourinary Impairments At least one symptom from three of the following five symptom categories 1. Flu-like symptoms may be recurrent or chronic and typically activate or worsen with exertion. e.g. sore throat, sinusitis, cervical and oraxillary lymph nodes may enlarge or be tender on palpitation 2. Susceptibility to viral infections with prolonged recovery periods 3. Gastro-intestinal tract: e.g.nausea, abdominal pain, bloating, irritable bowel syndrome 4. Genitourinary: e.g. urinary urgency or frequency, nocturia 5. Sensitivities to food, medications, odours or chemicals Notes: Sore throat, tender lymph nodes, and flu-like symptoms obviously are not specific to ME but their activation in reaction to exertion is abnormal.The throat may feel sore, dry and scratchy. Faucial injection and crimson crescents may be seen in the tonsillar fossae, which are an indication of immune activation. D. Energy production; transportation impairments: At least one symptom 1. Cardiovascular: e.g. inability to tolerate an upright position - orthostatic intolerance, neurally mediated hypotension, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, palpitations with or without cardiac arrhythmias, light-headedness, dizziness 2. Respiratory: e.g. air hunger, laboured breathing, fatigue of chest wall muscles 3. Loss of thermostatic stability: e.g. subnormal body temperature, marked diurnal fluctuations; sweating episodes, recurrent feelings of feverishness with or without low grade fever, cold extremities 4. Intolerance of extremes of temperature Notes: Orthostatic intolerance may be delayed by several minutes. Patients who have orthostatic intolerance may exhibit mottling of extremities, extreme pallor or Raynaud’s Phenomenon. In the chronic phase, moons of finger nails may recede.  Paediatric considerations Symptoms may progress more slowly in children than in teenagers or adults. In addition to post exertional neuroimmune exhaustion, the most prominent symptoms tend to be neurological: headaches, cognitive impairments, and sleep disturbances. 1. Headaches: Severe or chronic headaches are often debilitating. Migraine may be accompanied by a rapid drop in temperature, shaking, vomiting, diarrhoea and severe weakness. 2. Neurocognitive impairments: Difficulty focusing eyes and reading are common. Children may become dyslexic, which may only be evident when fatigued. Slow processing of information makes it difficult to follow auditory instructions or take notes. All cognitive impairments worsen with physical or mental exertion. Young people will not be able to maintain a full school programme. 3. Pain may seem erratic and migrate quickly. Joint hypermobility is common. Notes: Fluctuation and severity hierarchy of numerous prominent symptoms tend to vary more rapidly and dramatically than in adults. B. M. Carruthers et al. | Review: ME: Intl. Consensus Criteria 330 ª2011 The Association for the Publication of the Journal of Internal Medicine Journal of InternalMedicine 270; 327–338 Classification ———Myalgic encephalomyelitis ———Atypicalmyalgic encephalomyelitis: meets criteria for post exertional neuroimmune exhaustion but has a limit of two less than required of the remaining criterial symptoms. Pain or sleep disturbance may be absent in rare cases. Exclusions: As in all diagnoses, exclusion of alternate explanatory diagnoses is achieved by the patient’s history, physical examination, and laboratory ⁄ biomarker testing as indicated. It is possible to have more than one disease but it is important that each one is identified and treated. Primary psychiatric disorders, somatoform disorder and substance abuse are excluded. Paediatric: ‘primary’ school phobia. Comorbid entities: Fibromyalgia, myofascial pain syndrome, temporomandibular joint syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis, Raynaud’s phenomenon, prolapsed mitral valve, migraines, allergies, multiple chemical sensitivities, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Sicca syndrome, reactive depression. Migraine and irritable bowel syndrome may precede ME but then become associated with it. Fibromyalgia overlaps.  The Canadian Clinical Case Definition is summarized as follows: 1. POST-EXERTIONAL MALAISE AND FATIGUE: There is a loss of physical and mental stamina, rapid muscular and cognitive fatigability, post-exertional fatigue, malaise and/or pain, and a tendency for other symptoms to worsen. A pathologically slow recovery period (it takes more than 24 hours to recover). Symptoms exacerbated by stress of any kind. Patient must have a marked degree of new onset, unexplained, persistent, or recurrent physical and mental fatigue that substantially reduces activity level. [Editor’s note: The M.E. Society prefers to use “delayed recovery of muscle function,” weakness, and faintness rather than “fatigue.” Further, we disagree that the muscle dysfunction and post-exertional sickness is “unexplained.” See our Cardiac Insufficiency Hypothesis page and our Research-Based Subsets page for researchers’ medical explanations on this website.] 2. SLEEP DISORDER: Unrefreshing sleep or poor sleep quality; rhythm disturbance. 3. PAIN: Arthralgia and/or myalgia without clinical evidence of inflammatory responses of joint swelling or redness. Pain can be experienced in the muscles, joints, or neck and is sometimes migratory in nature. Often, there are significant headaches of new type, pattern, or severity. [Editor’s note: neuropathic pain is a common symptom and should be added here as well.] 4. NEUROLOGICAL/COGNITIVE MANIFESTATIONS: Two or more of the following difficulties should be present: confusion, impairment of concentration and short-term memory consolidation, difficulty with information processing, categorizing, and word retrieval, intermittent dyslexia, perceptual/sensory disturbances, disorientation, and ataxia. There may be overload phenomena: informational, cognitive, and sensory overload -- e.g., photophobia and hypersensitivity to noise -- and/or emotional overload which may lead to relapses and/or anxiety. 5. AT LEAST ONE SYMPTOM OUT OF TWO OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES: AUTONOMIC MANIFESTATIONS: Orthostatic Intolerance: e.g., neurally mediated hypotension (NMH), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), delayed postural hypotension, vertigo, light-headedness, extreme pallor, intestinal or bladder disturbances with or without irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or bladder dysfunction, palpitations with or without cardiac arrhythmia, vasomotor instability, and respiratory irregularities. [Editor’s note: low plasma and/or erythrocyte volume should be added as another explanation for orthostatic intolerance in this disease. More cardiac symptoms should be listed such as left-side chest aches and resting tachycardias, which, in addition to low blood volume, have also been documented in the research. The full text of the case definition does suggest 24-hour Holter monitoring, and when tachycardias with T-wave inversions or flattenings are present that they not be labeled as nonspecific since they aid in the diagnosis of ME/CFS. The frequent tachycardias seen in ME/CFS have been shown by Dr. Paul Cheney to be a compensatory mechanism that serves to increase cardiac output in the presence of low stroke volume due to diastolic dysfunction in the heart. Orthostatic problems may also be related to diastolic dysfunction as recently shown by Dr. Paul Cheney.] NEUROENDOCRINE MANIFESTATIONS: loss of thermostatic stability, heat/cold intolerance, anorexia or abnormal appetite, marked weight change, hypoglycemia, loss of adaptability and tolerance for stress, worsening of symptoms with stress and slow recovery, and emotional lability. IMMUNE MANIFESTATIONS: tender lymph nodes, sore throat, flu-like symptoms, general malaise, development of new allergies or changes in status of old ones, and hypersensitivity to medications and/or chemicals. 6. The illness persists for at least 6 months. It usually has an acute onset, but onset also may be gradual. Preliminary diagnosis may be possible earlier. The disturbances generally form symptom clusters that are often unique to a particular patient. The manifestations may fluctuate and change over time. Symptoms exacerbate with exertion or stress. This summary is paraphrased from Dr. Kenny van DeMeirleir's book Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Biological Approach, February 2002, CRC Press, pg. 275. A few edits and suggestions were added by the M.E. Society of America. As we have noted, the M.E. Society of America holds that this is the best case definition so far, although it is not perfect. Listing more cardiac and neurological symptoms (e.g., chest pain, left-side chest aches, tachycardia, and neuropathy pain), and emphasizing muscle weakness and faintness instead of “fatigue,” would have more accurately represented the symptomatology and vastly improved the criteria. Nevertheless, the Canadian Consensus Panel clinical case definition more accurately represents the experience and manifestations of the disease than other current case definitions. Again, for the 30-page diagnostic ME/CFS case definition click here. Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune thyroid disease artical discusses the relationship between chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and hashimoto's autoimmune thyroid disease. Endometriosis Linked to Autoimmune and Other Chronic Diseases Including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia "Women with endometriosis frequently suffer from autoimmune inflammatory diseases, hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, allergies and asthma," according to Ninet Sinaii, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland, based on the results of a 2002 survey. "These findings also suggest a strong association between endometriosis and autoimmune disorders and indicate the need to consider the co-existence of other conditions in women with endometriosis."  
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