• Neuroimaging of ME/CFS brains has shown objective evidence of poor and abnormal oxygenation, abnormal energy metabolism, small lesions in various areas of the brain, and significant reduction in gray matter. Spinal taps and autopsies have shown definite signs of inflammation in the brain and spinal cord.
• Several researchers have found significant autonomic nervous system (ANS) abnormalities, such as the inability to maintain blood pressure as well as heart rate irregularities in an upright position, and pooling of deoxygenated blood in extremities.
• Neurocognitive studies (i.e. studies of how the patient processes information) have shown that patients have difficulty with memory, concentration and many other thought processes, that they require more energy to process information, and that their ability to process information worsens with physical exercise or prolonged mental tasks.
• Numerous studies have shown chronic activation of some parts of the immune system, while other parts are functioning sub-normally, causing chronic infections by any of several pathogens, including reactivation of latent viruses, multiple and severe allergies, the "flu-like", "poisoned", and "hangover" feelings so often described in ME/CFS, and very likely many more of the long list of symptoms.
• Abnormalities in the cardiovascular system have been noted since the first definitions of ME in the 1950s. More recent studies have found chronic viral damage to the heart, low circulating blood volume, improper heart function, vascular abnormalities and misshapen red blood cells.
• Gene profiling and other genetic studies have found changes most prominently in genes relating to mitochondrial (energy) and immune function, as well as oxidative stress.
• Studies of oxidative stress in ME/CFS show that several potent free radicals are upregulated, particularly during and after physical or mental activity.
• Researchers have shown what clinicians and patients knew fifty years ago about ME - that aerobic exercise worsens symptoms and the patients' prognosis.● Numerous studies, including neuroimaging, have shown that there is a low incidence of psychologically-related problems in ME/CFS patients, that the disease is not caused or maintained by psychological factors, that it is distinct from clinical depression, and depression rates in ME/CFS are comparable to those with other chronic illnesses.
• ME has a history of as many as 75 epidemics worldwide since 1935. More recent epidemiology (the study of epidemics) has shown that ME/CFS is widespread, very often misdiagnosed, and has a devastating effect not only on the patients but on families and the economy. One study showed ME/CFS patients die fairly young on average (mid-50s and 60s), usually of heart failure or cancer, with suicide risk in younger patients, probably due to the misconceptions perpetuated in the past about this disease.

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