The Wastebasket approach to CFS is to say that it is due to many causes. This idea doesn't fit with the epidemics of CFS or dogs and horses getting it...but some doctors have had success giving some relief by breaking it down into parts.
"In his book Solving the Puzzle of CFS, Michael Rosenbaum, M.D., makes a strong case for CFS patients succumbing to a 'mixed infection syndrome,' which may involve a combination of synergistic viruses, yeasts, bacteria, and parasites."
page 264, Depression Free, Naturally by Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D.
"Chronic Fatigue will be the dominant chronic health disorder of the 21st century."
"Chronic fatigue sufferers are human canaries - unique people who tolerate poorly the biologic stressors of the late 20th century. [Canaries died quickly of poisons in mines because there was so little of them to be killed. When the canary died, the miners fled with their lives intact.] They are genetically predisposed to injury to their energy and detoxification enzymes by agents in their internal and external environments. Their molecular defenses are damaged by undiagnosed and unmanaged allergies, chemical sensitivities, environmental pollutants, microbes, sugar-insulin-adrenaline roller coasters, stress and hostility of speeded-up lives. Under their skin, they carry oxidative storms - the Fourth-of-July chemistry."
The Canary and Chronic Fatigue by Majid Ali, M.D.
"To me, this 'find-a-bug' approach is ultimately bankrupt. CFS is probably due to a mysterious and highly individual mélange of viruses, yeasts, allergies, chemical and heavy-metal poisons, and stress. Hormones may also play a role, since pregnancy reduces the effects of CFS, just as it reduces the severity of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. (During pregnancy, high levels of progesterone help create immune tolerance to prevent miscarriage.)"
From Tired All the Time by Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D. - page 215
"The Downhill Syndrome has, as yet, no known cause. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) advisory subcommittee states: "Given that a single etiology [for CFIDS] has not been found, it is important that investigators continue to think of it as a symptom-complex and not a single disease and thus allow themselves to consider multiple etiologies."...
"Here is a listing of fifteen factors that potentially weaken people's immune systems when frequently repeated:" Processed food, psychological stress, ingesting chemical additives and artificial coloring agents, absorbing mercury gas particles into the body from amalgam fillings, air & water pollution, radiation, overmedicating, alcohol, tobacco, rancid fats, food from nutrient-exhausted soils, too high dosages of megavitamins or megaminerals, inorganic mineral, toxic agents, free radicals emitted by video display terminals
From The Downhill Syndrome by Dr. Pavel Yutsis & Dr. Morton Walker
"In one series of 100 consecutive patients, we found mold allergy in all and pollen and food allergy in most cases. Allergy increases oxidant stress. About 80% of the patients gave a history of extensive antibiotic therapy. ...About one-quarter of our patients had elevated blood levels of toxic metals such as aluminum, mercury, lead, nickel and others...Many subjects in this study suffered from unusual degrees of stress before they developed a state of chronic fatigue...Viral and bacterial infections in most cases seemed to play only contributory roles."
The Canary and Chronic Fatigue by Majid Ali, M.D. - page 192
"Chronic fatigue and CFS/CFIDS are not caused by a single factor. Nor will it be resolved by a single treatment. To wait for a single treatment (i.e. drug) is foolish, even if one were to develop (which I doubt) it will take years to come on the market." - page 171
America Exhausted, Breakthrough Treatments of Fatigue and Fibromyalgia by Dr. Edward J. Conley
"Bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold do not themselves produce symptoms in the body - their toxic wastes do. Nor do they initiate disease. They only show up because of a compromised environment....
"These organisms and their wastes contribute directly or indirectly to a huge list of symptoms. Most diseases, especially chronic and degenerative ones, follow microform overgrowth." - pg 17
"Microforms ferment sugar in our bodies that we would otherwise use for energy (then, to add insult to injury, they spew out acid waste as a result). - pg 28
The pH Miracle by Robert O. Young, Ph.D., and Shelley Redford Young
"These illnesses have many causes - genetic, hereditary, dietary, environmental, life-style, and personality factors all play a role. There is no one identifiable causative factor at work here. The question as to whether it is the body or the mind that caused you to become sick is unresolved. What makes sense is that emotional disharmony works synergistically with genetic frailties, as well as toxic and viral exposures, to make you sick." - page 3
The Rebellious Body, Reclaim Your Life from Environmental Illness or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Janice Strubbe Wittenberg, R.N.