Beth Dobbin: Sick athlete talks about ME/CFS

Beth Dobbin in 2022: Formerly top athlete, now bedridden

In 2021, Beth Dobbin made it to the semi-finals over 200 meters at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. She ran the track in 22.85 seconds, finishing fifth and missing the final.

Today she spends more than 22 hours a day in bed, she tells the BBC in an interview. Dobbin suffers from ME/CFS. In Germany, it is estimated that around 650,000 people suffer from ME/CFS, in the UK it is estimated that more than 400,000 cases.

The abbreviation stands for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is a serious, chronic multisystem disease. Affected usually suffer from pain, severe sleep disorders and other complaints. An important symptom is post-exercise malaise (PEM), the time-delayed deterioration of the condition after excessive stress.

Dobbin addresses this deterioration in the interview: I did small activities, such as a blood test at the doctor, and afterwards I was in bed for months. This interview, in which I speak for 30 minutes, may affect me in 2027. She wanted to clarify about the disease.

ME/CFS occurs in the majority of cases after infections, the number of patients increased significantly as a result of the corona pandemic. Dobbin became infected with corona in the winter of 2021/2022 and she had Pfeiffers' glandular fever. At first she just slept more and walked a little slower, she says. As more symptoms came along, doctors attributed this to Pfeiffer's glandular fever and told her it would pass.

In subsequent competitions she felt dizzy, once she lost the feeling in her legs on the starting block. It was “a hell of a year,” she told the BBC at the time. Finally, her several doctors said she had ME/CFS.

The term CFS for “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” clearly rejects Dobbin. As an athlete, she knows fatigue – colloquially exhausted. “I wish it was just fatigue, that would be a walk,” she tells the BBC. "It's so much more." Instead, it’s like your body is failing. “It feels like you’re going to die in a few days.” ‘

The diagnosis ME/CFS is made on the basis of clinical criteria, a biomarker does not yet exist. Probably also for this reason, the causes of ME/CFS are controversially discussed in medicine. It is mainly about what part the psyche could have in the development of the disease. In a SPIEGEL interview, psychotherapist Bettina Grande criticized: “The mere fact that the diagnosis did not provide a conspicuous result is not enough to classify complaints as psychosomatic,” said Grande. But that's what happens. A completely appropriate behavior of those affected in the face of the disease is reinterpreted in the sense of psychosomatics. When the body is out of touch with ME/CFS – suddenly things fall out of your hand, one leg just buckles away – and the person is understandably alarmed, he is accused of being overly fixated on his symptoms. ‘

Athlete Beth Dobbin says she has heard from many other sufferers that they are not believed or people think they are lazy. “It never happened to me.” Why should an athlete suddenly stop after 20 years? This is why she wanted to talk about her illness.

ME/CFS is not yet curable. Doctors can try out some therapies and drugs together with those affected, but the scientific evidence for all procedures is low – which is mainly due to the fact that hardly any research has been done on ME/CFS for a long time. “The chance that those affected will recover on their own is very small,” said the doctor Carmen Scheibebogen, who is researching at the Berlin Charité. She complained that many sufferers do not even receive widely available therapies. For example, they suffer from severe pain, the most severe sleep or circulatory disorders, and these symptoms can be alleviated. But often that doesn't even happen