Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

ME/CFS Was Called a Psychiatric Illness for Decades — 75% of Patients Have Measurable Mitoch #shorts

23 Jul 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:13

In this YouTube short, Dr. Aaron Hartman, MD, critiques the long‑standing psychiatric framing of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), emphasizing how this bias disproportionately harms women. He presents key statistics: roughly 2.5 million Americans are affected, the condition costs $17–$24 billion annually, yet NIH funding is only about $15 million—less than that for hay fever. He cites recent research showing that about 75 % of patients exhibit measurable mitochondrial dysfunction, alongside chronic immune activation and neuroinflammation, establishing ME/CFS as a biological brain‑inflammatory disease rather than a psychiatric one. Hartman notes the typical 5–7‑year diagnostic delay and the persistence of clinicians prescribing antidepressants as a default treatment. He urges viewers to share their stories, visit his blog and podcast, and advocates for personalized, cell‑level (mitochondrial) treatment approaches, highlighting the need to correct gender‑based blind spots in healthcare.

Chapters

It's all in your head. The muscle aches and pains, the fatigue, the sleep disturbance, the mood irregularities, maybe even the hormonal problems. It's nothing. You need to see a psychiatrist. This is what was told to women for decades and what I was taught in medical school about chronic fatigue, now known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. It's actually a brain inflammatory condition, much more common in women than men. And for decades we treated it as a psychiatric issue. And overlooked women. Why is this happening in our healthcare system? We have these blind spots, these things we think to be true that just aren't, causing gaslighting. It happens particularly in women versus men. And one of the results is we overlook over half our population. Let's talk about some deeper statistics. Myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, affects about 2.5 million Americans and costs our economy between $17 and $24 billion $1 billion annually. Yet there's only about $15 million in NIH funds going toward this. Less money goes towards researching this than hay fever in our country. Think about that for a second. Kind of crazy. And recent studies have shown 75% of patients have measurable dysfunction in their mitochondria, which are the powerhouse of the cells, chronic immune activation, neuroinflammation. This is biological, not psychiatric. Yet even today, 2026, many doctors and providers still think of this as a psychiatric illness. Take an antidepressant, take an SSRI, and go home. It's a brain inflammatory mitochondrial condition that affects women more than men. And guess what? It takes about 5 to 7 years on average to get the diagnosis. If you are someone who's dealing with unexplained fatigue, you're listening to this, you're kind of curious about what might be going on, share your story below. We've done a lot of blogs on this topic on our website. I'll talk about this on our podcast as well. Share your story. I'd love to hear about what may have happened to you because this still is happening today. This is a blind spot that is ongoing and we need to actually change this trajectory and realize that there are certain conditions that women suffer for, suffer with more than men. We had to recognize that and actually start treating them at the level of cell, the mitochondria, which is something we do all the time in personalized healthcare. So share your story below. I'd love to hear from you.