Virus puts ‘Sporty Spice’ on the lounge
A GOLD Coast teacher is in constant pain and fatigued because of a “mysterious” illness that bears remarkable similarities to long Covid.
Emerald Lakes woman Karli Moulston says she is virtually housebound as a result of contracting ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).
Ms Moulston, previously a yoga teacher and fitness enthusiast, said the condition – which surfaced after she picked up a virus – had turned her lifestyle “on its head”.
“I was Sporty Spice”, she said. “I taught a lot of yoga classes ... I was really fit, I was a powerhouse.
“I was teaching in the Northern Territory and I got a virus. And that is what took me out. I felt like I was dying. I had a flu. I couldn’t move.”
Ms Moulston, who returned to the Gold Coast after contracting the illness, says she rarely leaves her home.
“I can’t get through the day without sleeping. Two o’clock is like my witching hour, and I crash. I’ll sleep until about four, but I can’t really do much thinking or talking or anything until about six o’clock. So basically the whole afternoon, I’m cactus.”
Ms Moulston, who was speaking ahead of International Awareness Day for ME/CFS on Thursday, said that even among the medical community there were misconceptions about her illness, saying that on
I CAN’T GET THROUGH THE DAY WITHOUT SLEEPING. TWO O’CLOCK IS LIKE MY WITCHING HOUR, AND I CRASH. KARLI MOULSTON
occasion she had felt “gaslighted” and had left some doctors’ surgeries in tears after struggling to get help.
However, pioneering research by Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, from the Menzies Health Institute at Griffith University, is helping to change that. She is working to develop testing for ME/CFS and more effective treatments and studying long Covid and possible links with both diseases.
“We have identified a number of receptors (that) respond to threats like viruses, bacteria, surgery, trauma,” she said. “Those receptors don’t function correctly (in ME/CFS patients).
“They’re on every cell type of the body. They’re responsible for bringing calcium inside cells in the body.”
Professor Marshall-Gradisnik said she was working on the hypothesis that the same receptors might also be dysfunctional in long Covid patients.
“What long Covid patients have been experiencing in the last 18 months is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what ME/CFS patients have experienced for some decades.”