Ostojic, Sergej M · Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2016 · DOI
Exercise is usually good for your cells' energy factories (mitochondria), but this review asks whether extremely intense or exhausting exercise might actually damage them instead. The authors explore how very hard exercise could harm mitochondrial function and suggest this might explain some cases of chronic fatigue syndrome and muscle problems.
This work is significant for ME/CFS research because it challenges the assumption that exercise always benefits patients and proposes a mechanism—mitochondrial dysfunction—by which exhaustive activity might harm those with post-exertional malaise. Understanding whether and how extreme exertion damages mitochondrial function could inform safer exercise recommendations for ME/CFS patients and validate experiences of symptom worsening after activity.
This review does not prove that exhaustive exercise causes mitochondrial damage in ME/CFS patients specifically, nor does it establish causation between EIMD and CFS development. The abstract does not describe original experiments or patient data, so it cannot demonstrate the prevalence, severity, or reversibility of exercise-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in affected populations.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Ostojic, Sergej M (2016). Exercise-induced mitochondrial dysfunction: a myth or reality?. Clinical science (London, England : 1979). https://doi.org/10.1042/CS20160200
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-ostojic-2016-exercise-induced,
author = {Ostojic, Sergej M},
title = {Exercise-induced mitochondrial dysfunction: a myth or reality?},
journal = {Clinical science (London, England : 1979)},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1042/CS20160200},
note = {PubMed: 27389587},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/ostojic-2016-exercise-induced},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/ostojic-2016-exercise-induced
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