Jarred Younger

Jarred W. Younger B.A. PhD. is an American researcher who leads the Neuroinflammation, Pain and Fatigue lab at the University of Birmingham, Alabama, United States. He previously worked at the Stanford ME/CFS Initiative with Jose Montoya, as an Assistant Professor involved in a notable study highlighting leptin levels and ME/CFS.

He is currently funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense to study new techniques for diagnosing and treating neuroinflammation in ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and Gulf War Illness. In particular his work focuses on the role of microglia.

Awards

• 2016 Ramsay Award Program grant recipient, sponsored by the Solve ME/CFS Initiative for Advanced Non-Invasive Analysis in ME/CFS Diagnosis and Treatment Decisions

Committees and boards

ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center

Dr. Younger is a member of the Working Group which offers their expertise and resources to the ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University.

ME/CFS Common Data Element (CDE) Project

Chair (Overall/Cognitive) of the Neurologic/Cognitive/CNS Imaging Working Group of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Common Data Element (CDE) Project sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Notable studies

• 2010, Low dose naltrexone for the treatment of fibromyalgia: findings of a small, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, crossover trial assessing daily pain levels - (Full Text)
• 2009, Fibromyalgia Symptoms Are Reduced by Low-Dose Naltrexone: A Pilot Study - (Full Text)
• 2013, Daily cytokine fluctuations, driven by leptin, are associated with fatigue severity in chronic fatigue syndrome: Evidence of inflammatory pathology - (Full Text)
• 2017, Cytokine signature associated with disease severity in chronic fatigue syndrome patients - (Full Text)
• 2019, Evidence of widespread metabolite abnormalities in Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: assessment with whole-brain magnetic resonance spectroscopy - (Abstract)

Talks and interviews

• 2011, Chronic Pain in Women
• 2014, ME/CFS Alerts Episode 68: Jarred Younger Interviewed by Deborah Waroff
• 2015, Dr Jarred Younger - LDN Scientist - Low Dose Naltrexone
• 2015, Pandora Research Report: Jarred Younger - Leptin in the Role of Neuroinflammation, Pain and Fatigue (see Leptin)
• 2015, Jarred Younger, Ph.D. - Microglial Modulation in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia
• 2015, Spoonie Radio Ep 15: Jarred Younger (see also Courtney Craig)
• 2016, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: Can We Find Answers in the Brain? - Solve CFS Webinar
• 2016, Younger Lab YouTube Channel: Series of ongoing talks on the work of the lab
• 2016, Dr. Jarred Younger: Cutting Edge Research on CFS, Neuroinflammation, Pain, and Fatigue
• 2018, ME/CFS Involves Brain Inflammation: Results from a Ramsay Pilot Study
• 29 Sep 2018, How Brain Inflammation Causes ME/CFS, given at Second Annual Community Symposium on the Molecular Basis of ME/CFS, sponsored by Open Medicine Foundation - (Video)
• 2019, Dr. Jarred Younger - Neuroinflammation in ME/CFS
• 2022, Dr. Jarred Younger Presents: How We Can See ME/CFS Inflammation in the Brain - Solve ME Webinar

Articles and blogs

• 2015, The Neuroinflammation Man: Jarred Younger on Inflammation, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Cort Johnson)
• 2015, New Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Lab Opens: Jarred Younger Talks (Cort Johnson)
• 2016, Prisoners of Pain - UAB magazine (Spring 2016)
• 2016, Self Hacked on Dr Younger
• 2016, Younger Lab YouTube Channel
• 2016, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Research Center Makes Good (Cort Johnson)
• 2018, Brain on Fire: Widespread Neuroinflammation Found in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)(Cort Johnson)

Younger's new approach looked at the entire brain and found signs of inflammation almost everywhere. When asked what could cause that, Younger said that any neurodegenerative/ neuroinflammatory disorder like MS or a severe brain injury that tweaks the microglia (immune cells in the brain) enough to produce a sustained period of inflammation, burns up the oxygen in the system. Once that happens, the cells resort to anaerobic metabolism and lactate builds up just as it does in the muscles during exercise.

See also

• Fibromyalgia
• Gulf War Illness
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Leptin
• Low dose naltrexone
• Microglia
• Neuroinflammation

Learn more

• Publications on the PubMed register - Jarred Younger
• UAB Departmental Website
• Biography at UAB
• Facebook page for Younger's Lab at UAB
• YouTube channel for Younger's Lab at UAB

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

See chronic fatigue syndrome.

cognition Thought processes, including attention, reasoning, and memory.

central nervous system (CNS) - One of the two parts of the human nervous system, the other part being the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system consists of nerves that travel from the central nervous system into the various organs and tissues of the body.

myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) - A disease often marked by neurological symptoms, but fatigue is sometimes a symptom as well. Some diagnostic criteria distinguish it from chronic fatigue syndrome, while other diagnostic criteria consider it to be a synonym for chronic fatigue syndrome. A defining characteristic of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), which is a notable exacerbation of symptoms brought on by small exertions. PEM can last for days or weeks. Symptoms can include cognitive impairments, muscle pain (myalgia), trouble remaining upright (orthostatic intolerance), sleep abnormalities, and gastro-intestinal impairments, among others. An estimated 25% of those suffering from ME are housebound or bedbound. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies ME as a neurological disease.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a U.S. government agency dedicated to epidemiology and public health. It operates under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services.

See Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

double blinded trial A clinical trial is double blinded if neither the participants nor the researchers know which treatment group they are allocated to until after the results are interpreted. This reduces bias. (Learn more: www.nottingham.ac.uk)

cytokine any class of immunoregulatory proteins secreted by cells, especially immune cells. Cytokines are small proteins important in cell signaling that modulate the immune system. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

cytokine any class of immunoregulatory proteins secreted by cells, especially immune cells. Cytokines are small proteins important in cell signaling that modulate the immune system. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

A chemical compound produced by, or involved in, metabolism. The term is often used to refer to the degradation products of drugs in the body.

metabolite A chemical compound produced by, or involved in, metabolism. The term is often used to refer to the degradation products of drugs in the body.

myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) - A disease often marked by neurological symptoms, but fatigue is sometimes a symptom as well. Some diagnostic criteria distinguish it from chronic fatigue syndrome, while other diagnostic criteria consider it to be a synonym for chronic fatigue syndrome. A defining characteristic of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), which is a notable exacerbation of symptoms brought on by small exertions. PEM can last for days or weeks. Symptoms can include cognitive impairments, muscle pain (myalgia), trouble remaining upright (orthostatic intolerance), sleep abnormalities, and gastro-intestinal impairments, among others. An estimated 25% of those suffering from ME are housebound or bedbound. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies ME as a neurological disease.

See National Institutes of Health.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) - A set of biomedical research institutes operated by the U.S. government, under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services.