What is the theory behind Procrit and CFIDS?
Procrit was developed to treat anemia. Its highly effective in inducing bone marrow to produce red blood cells. Procrit has been used on two groups of patients so far: people who have cancer and have undergone chemotherapy, and people with kidney disease who are on dialysis. To date the medication has not been used on CFIDS patients in a large clinical trial. Our preliminary data indicated that many of our CFIDS patients who had difficulty with fainting spells and light-headedness also displayed decreased red blood cell volume. We hypothesized that the lack of sufficient oxygen supply could be a cause for these symptoms and possibly explain the fatigue as well. The study were conducting is looking at whether increasing red blood cell volume can improve these symptoms in people diagnosed with CFIDS. Q: Do people with CFIDS have low numbers of red blood cells? A: We have found that 60-70 percent of people with CFIDS have low-normal, or below-normal, red blood cell volume. This was not kn
