This will be interesting to see because for a long time there's been a lot of work saying that "ego depletion" isn't a thing[0] and I swear I have tried to believe this but my own personal experience is completely different. Later in the night, and when I'm mentally tired I do experience this: poor impulse control, lowered emotion regulation, the whole shebang. It'll be interesting to see what the basis is for this, because despite taking all that research at face-value I have to say that now after all these years, I can't help but think it must be wrong.
0: though some have claimed that it is a thing if you believe that it's a thing, i.e. it happens to those who believe in it.
There has been a lot more science in this area it seems in the last 5 years, maybe it's just me, and the attention to do with long covid, or other things that cross the blood/brain barrier.
It's encouraging to see articles like this, since there is no single measure or signal of this, its really about considering brain health in general, and doing everything that is possible to eliminate neuroinflammation that can be.
The challenge for folks suffering with symptoms that includes a neurological thing like brain fog is the challenge of usually having to be the Quarterback integrating between specialists, because specialists don't necessarily integrate. For someone with cognitive fatigue, since it's differnet for everyone on different tasks, it can be a lot.
It's been eye opening to learn how many specialists first overlook proper neck posture and position since it can have a direct effect on what's getting into/out of the brain and downstream symptoms. Advocating for the basic inputs first before trying things is critical.
Additionally, tools like QEEG and FMRI are promising, not super mainstream yet but appear to have decent information it can provide of what is happening in the brain. In addition to this, the area of neurofeedback (devices like mendi, bellabee, etc seem to have some promise to help in some cases).
Another thing that too often gets missed is first ensuring things are OK physiologically. A simple xray of the neck and where nerves, blood and more go up into the brain is too often a step that's missed, and quite often there might be some compression, tightness or pinches there limiting the brain to recieve what it normally may have - and instead effort is spent trying to figure out how to get the brain operating better with a garden hose that's been slightly pinched.
Fatigue to the extent I understand it neurologically seems to at least two sided dice: energy and nutrition being available when and where it's needed on one side, and the things needed in place to use that energy effectively.
Chronic depletion or deficiencies in certain vitamins, amino acids, etc can also build up over time. Doing what we can for nutrition is critical, including any research backed neuroinflammation reducing supplements (magnesium threonate, saffron, omega 3, tumeric, etc).
[1]: https://www.statnews.com/2023/09/14/long-covid-me-cfs-myalgi...
There is more to it than just different genetic mappings because while both conditions share mitochondria differences which compartments are different. Depending on how deep you dig into the biology they appear the same or quite different and a number of multiple point blood, urine and saliva tests can distinguish the diseases from each other.
I think at this point its more accurate to say they are overlapping conditions, they have similarities but they are different conditions. Sister diseases much in the same way there is overlap in Fibromylgia and Gulf War syndrome with ME/CFS and each other. Long Covid is another post infection Neurological and immune disease with unknown biomarker/core pathology. There are clearly a lot of measurable changes that are dysfunctional so its every bit as real biological disease as the others. What they definitely share is a high amount of debilitation, severe disability and patient reduction in quality of life on the same set of 280 symptoms in a very similar patter of prevalence.
Its also now a disease with very little research funding world wide as well so the situation is unlikely to improve for the 400m+ sufferers world wide.
Your 'source' is btw. from 2023 and as far as i understand it, the main issue is, that due to covid, a lot more people got it but because it was already ignored or played down before, it still is and the people in need just don't get help.
Covid apparently triggered it in more people than before.
I also have the feeling that someone else posted this missconception a few weeks ago on hn. Or was that you too?
At this point, even if it is falsified, that falsification will probably take the form "here is an exception to the general rule", like how we still use Newton's law of gravitation even though it was falsified by Urbain Le Verrier's 1859 observations of Mercury.
Your statement can also be applied to the inverse of the hypothesis, after all.
(Technically, long COVID is a broader diagnosis, encompassing some long-term conditions caused by a COVID-19 infection that are distinct from ME/CFS, but I consider that a "by definition" distinction rather than anything real. This is what you'd expect if ME/CFS had multiple causes, and COVID-19 infection could cause multiple chronic conditions, and most long COVID is actually ME/CFS.)
The ME Association came to this conclusion a couple of years ago: https://meassociation.org.uk/2023/05/updated-booklet-long-co...
> The ME Association (MEA) takes the view that Long Covid and ME/CFS are both examples of a serious and debilitating condition that can follow any type of viral infection.
You are working against yourself in this problem.
To master cognitive capacity is similar to physical labor. There are those who do not resist the efficiency of over achieving and there are those who have no idea what that means.
Rathering a more convenient less exhaustive measure is where you short yourself.
Burn it. Do the work. The exhaustive measures will make you more complete than the banal need which drives you.
Your lazy delegation is the seed of your hypocrisy and it shall blossom into the fatigue of your self reliance.
Only you can bear the terrible burden of free will. And that comes at the cost of your determination to resolve.