Diagnosing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome And Fibromyalgia
ME/CFS and fibromyalgia are both diagnoses of exclusion, which means:
- They dont have objective lab or imaging tests.
- Other possible conditions must be ruled out.
- Multiple factors must be interpreted to come up with an answer.
This process can take a long time. You may have to push your healthcare provider to keep searching or to give you a referral.
Theres Tired And Then Theres Fatigue Lets Not Mistake The Two
Fatigue is one of the most challenging symptoms of chronic illness to cope with. This is something we hear from CreakyJoints members over and over and over again.My worst problem is fatigue. I need all my energy just to get through my eight hours of work and when thats over I have none left to do anything else, Elena K. told us recently on Facebook.Fatigue is robbing me of the energy I wanted to use on all the projects I had planned for retirement, shared Beverly K. on Facebook.
Why Choose Psymplicity For Chronic Pain Or Fatigue Treatment
- Weve treated many clients with chronic pain and chronic fatigue, helping them to manage their symptoms and enjoy increased health and wellbeing
- Clients love our warm, caring approach and the transformative results that come from working with us
- You will get your own dedicated therapeutic care coordinator
- Were registered by the Care Quality Commission and members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
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A Quick Introduction To Chronic Illness
Chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic pain can be severely life-limiting, affecting your ability to enjoy social events, sports and exercise or even a daily walk through the park. Psymplicity can support you in managing your symptoms, helping you get back to a more fulfilling life without constant pain or exhaustion:
- Get the right diagnosis and a holistic treatment plan designed to help you manage chronic fatigue or pain
- Receive tailored treatment to develop healthier beliefs surrounding your condition and coping strategies to relieve symptoms of pain and fatigue
- Alleviate pain-related anxiety, enjoy improved sleep and engage in more activities without fatigue getting in the way
- We dont just work with you to treat the symptoms our holistic approach means youll have the tools you need to effectively manage chronic fatigue or pain.
Do you need support managing the symptoms dominating your life?
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What is chronic fatigue syndrome and how is it different from chronic pain?
Chronic pain and chronic fatigue syndrome are separate conditions, but what they have in common is that they are long-term illnesses that can severely impact quality of life and restrict activities. Here, we explore the differences between the two conditions.
How do chronic pain management and chronic fatigue syndrome treatment work?
What are the symptoms of chronic pain and chronic fatigue?
What Are The Symptoms Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Symptoms of CFS often mimic the flu. The following are the most common symptoms of CFS. However, each person may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
- Sensitivity to light
- Low-grade fever
The symptoms of CFS may look like other medical conditions. Always talk with your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
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Fukuda Research Case Definition For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Patients can be classified as having CFS if they meet the following criteria:
1. The individual has had severe, clinically evaluated, persisting or relapsing fatigue for six or more consecutive months. The fatigue is not due to ongoing exertion or other medical conditions associated with fatigue. The fatigue significantly interferes with daily activities and work.
2. The individual has four or more of the following symptoms, persisting, or relapsing and concurrent with the fatigue:
Post-exertional malaise lasting more than 24 h
Unrefreshing sleep
Significant impairment of short-term memory or concentration
Muscle pain
Pain in the joints without swelling or redness
Headaches of a new type, pattern, or severity
Tender lymph nodes in the neck or armpit
A sore throat that is frequent or recurring
3. A thorough medical history, physical examination, mental status examination, and laboratory tests are necessary to identify other conditions with similar symptoms that require treatment. The diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome cannot be made without such an evaluation.
What Do We Know About Fibromyalgia
Of the two, fibromyalgia affects about 4 million Americans and is one of the most misunderstood conditions. Many times, family members and friends dont understand what having fibromyalgia means and what it means to suffer from it.
Many patients get their diagnosis between the ages of 20 and 50, but the incidence increases with age. By age 80, about 8% of adults have fibromyalgia. according to the National Fibromyalgia Association. About 75% to 90% of those who have fibromyalgia are women.
The cause of fibromyalgia is unknown, says Dr. Bolash. Genetics, trauma or an infection may play a role. Fibromyalgia sufferers say it feels like having the flu all the time.
Symptoms include:
- Fatigue and tiredness.
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Tips For Exercising Safely With Me/cfs
If you feel you can tolerate some exercise, be guided by your doctor or specialist, but general suggestions include:
- Experiment to find the type of exercise that works best for you. Choose from a range of gentle activities such as stretching, yoga, tai chi, walking and light weight training. Often, people find exercises lying down use less energy.
- Keep an activity diary so you have a long-term picture of your performance levels and factors that might impact on your symptoms. Some people with ME/CFS find they feel good straight after exercise, but then crash later on, so make sure you monitor how you feel, hours to days after exercise.
- Stop the physical activity well before you feel any symptom flare. Pacing yourself is very important.
- Remember that the amount of exercise you can do will change from one day to the next.
- Listen to your body if you dont feel up to exercising on a particular day, dont.
- Find out as much as you can about your ME/CFS. Make sure you consult with health professionals who fully understand ME/CFS as a biomedical disease
Fatigue: How Chronic Pain Causes It And Ways To Alleviate It
Those who experience chronic pain often experience fatigue as well. Both of these symptoms feed off of one another, making it hard to manage and improve your health. For those with diabetes, this is even more complicated because pain and fatigue both interfere with the ability to self-regulate blood sugar levels. Medicare helps cover ways to alleviate pain and energize the body.
Get your FREE quote to learn how you could save on your Medicare plan today!
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How Your Family Can Help
Always remember that youre not alone. Support from your family can make your condition easier to bear by spending time with you on good days as well as the bad days.
I try to make family members a partner in treatment, he says. When you just want to spend the day in bed watching TV because of fatigue or pain, a family member can encourage simple, fun activities to help get you moving.
Whether your diagnosis is chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia, a doctors role in treating the disease small. A doctor is there as the coach and can help you with the first 10% to 15% of improvement, while you have to help yourself manage the remaining 85% to 90%.
If youre suffering with chronic pain and/or fatigue, talk to your doctor. A diagnosis can put you in a better position to manage your symptoms even if there are still some mysteries surrounding your disease.
Other Fatigue Fighting Strategies
If youre living with fatigue and exhaustion on a daily basis, its time to make an appointment with your doctor. The two of you can discuss your current medications and your dosage schedule. Sometimes splitting doses or taking the same medication by injection on the weekends can help to fight the fatigue. You may also want to discuss supplements with your doctor. Taking probiotics could help you deal both with the pain and your fatigue levels, as might vitamin D. Even investigating your sleep cycle can help quite a bit.
After you talk to your doctor, you may want to try a few other things. First, dont overdo it when you have a good day. If you feel good, keep in mind that your energy level may still be in short supply, and overdoing it will make your next bad day far worse. Knowing your limitations can help you avoid overdoing it.
Be sure to get some exercise every day. While this can be tough if youre dealing with chronic pain and fatigue, a little bit of exercise could help increase your overall energy levels while keeping your joints flexible.
Think about increasing the quality of your sleep, too. You should have a dark space in which you sleep each night that is cool and comfortable. If possible, make sure it is quiet, too, and dont take any electronics into the room.
Chronic pain and fatigue can make it tough to live your life, but there are things you can do to move forward. To learn more about how we can help you fight chronic pain and fatigue, contact us today.
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A Key Factor In This Vicious Cycle Is Inefficiency Of The Bioenergetic Pathways
As a healthcare professional, you probably have noticed the two most common patient complaints are fatigue and pain. Many patients have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia and have gone from practitioner to practitioner.
Significant interrelationships exist between chronic fatigue and chronic pain syndromes, turning into vicious cycles involving the neurological, endocrine, and immune pathways.
These conditions cant be treated by any single intervention. Instead, they require looking at the whole picture, understanding the interrelationships, and working your way through them with your patient.
Factors that can cause chronic fatigue and pain include:
- Underlying autoimmune patterns
- Endotoxemia and gut-related imbalances
Chronic Fatigue And Pain Syndromes Clinical Strategies And Treatment Applications
Welcome to ON DEMAND registration for KI Course Eight Chronic Fatigue and Pain Syndromes. After registration, you will have one-year access to all videos and course materials from the date of your registration. IMPORTANT: You should take all exams in a timely manner in order to get the appropriate credit from NUHS, or to receive the KI Certificate of Completion. Completing the exams within 30 days of your registration for each course is recommended. Waiting too long may delay credit.
Please note! CE credits for state licenses for the Chronic Fatigue and Pain course via ON DEMAND video attendance generally have indefinite expiration for most states and specifically on the following dates for states listed below:
Arizona , Arkansas , California , CA ACU Board , Georgia , Hawaii , Kentucky , Missouri , NCCAOM , Oregon NDs , Pennsylvania , Texas .
Access to CE credits for these states is ongoing: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.
CE credits are still pending: New Mexico
CE credits exception: Texas .
For Nutritionists: see CE Credits HERE.
Approvals as of July 20, 2022
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Pacing Activity For People With Me/cfs
Pacing, or keeping within your available energy, is a self-management strategy to help people with ME/CFS make sure that they dont overdo activity or exercise. It reduces the likelihood of triggering PEM and can help reduce symptoms. Pacing is not a cure for ME/CFS and does not treat the underlying, physical cause of the disease.
The goal of pacing is for activity to be sustainable, so that the person can have some stability in their symptoms and what they can do each day. Pacing should be used in conjunction with rest.
The most challenging aspect of pacing is that PEM is very often delayed by as much as 24-48 hours, which can make it difficult to recognise when youve done too much. Using tools like an activity diary or heart rate monitor help you learn about your body and how much activity you can safely tolerate.
Suggestions on how to pace yourself include:
See A Psychiatrist Or Therapist
If symptoms of chronic fatigue sound similar to symptoms of depression thats because theres often a lot of crossover between the two. Experiencing fatigue can make you feel depressed and feeling depressed can promote feelings of fatigue, which creates a vicious cycle, Dr. Cohen says. Getting treated for depression and/or anxiety can make a big difference in how well you can cope with fatigue, she says. A psychiatrist, preferably one who specializes in chronic diseases, can help you get the right diagnosis and treatment for mental health issues, especially when medication is necessary.
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Viral And Other Infections
Post-viral fatigue syndrome or post-viral syndrome describes a type of chronic fatigue syndrome that occurs following a viral infection. A recent review found Epstein-Barr virus antibody activity to be higher in patients with CFS, and that a subset of patients with CFS were likely to have increased EBV activity compared to controls. Viral infection is a significant risk factor for CFS, with one study finding 22% of people with EBV experience fatigue six months later, and 9% having strictly defined CFS. A systematic review found that fatigue severity was the main predictor of prognosis in CFS, and did not identify psychological factors linked to prognosis.
Another review found that risk factors for developing CFS after mononucleosis, dengue fever, or Q-fever included longer bed-rest during the illness, poorer pre-illness physical fitness, attributing symptoms to physical illness, belief that a long recovery time is needed, as well as pre-infection distress and fatigue. The same review found biological factors such as CD4 and CD8 activation and liver inflammation are predictors of sub-acute fatigue but not CFS. However, these findings are not generally accepted due to the use of the Oxford criteria in selecting patients. The CDC does not recognize attribution of symptoms as a risk factor.
Know Your Limits And Be Firm With Others
Ive learned that two hours of activity, like going out with friends or taking my kids to the pool, is the max my body can handle before I crash hard, says Janelle W., 42, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who has lupus. And once the fatigue hits I cant do anything for the rest of the day. To avoid these crashes, Janelle says shes learned that she has to be strict about her two-hour limit, both with herself and others. Its a running joke with my family that Im the party pooper but Id rather be that than totally pooped for days after, she says.
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Boost Your Vitamin D Intake
Many people are deficient in vitamin D, a nutrient that is vital for a healthy immune system and may play a role in energy and fatigue. Your body can produce its own vitamin D when exposed to sunshine and you can get some vitamin D from your diet, such as from fish and fortified milk, but if your vitamin D levels are very low you may need to take a vitamin D supplement. You can talk to your doctor about whether you should get a blood test to check your vitamin D levels.
Take Advantage Of Shopping Technology
These days, you barely to set foot out of your house to fill your fridge a huge perk on days where fatigue hits you hard. I order groceries online from Walmart and Costco. Even vendors at the local farmers market will make home deliveries, Janelle says. Some apps will even save your grocery lists and help you clip online coupons, saving you time and money.
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Home Remedies And Lifestyle Changes
Making some lifestyle changes may help reduce your symptoms.
Limiting or eliminating your caffeine intake can help you sleep better and ease your insomnia. You should limit or avoid nicotine and alcohol too.
Try to avoid napping during the day if its hurting your ability to sleep at night.
Create a sleep routine. Go to bed at the same time every night and aim to wake up around the same time every day.
Dr Kharrazian Is A Leading Expert In Diagnosing And Treating Chronic Fatigue And Pain
Datis Kharrazian, PhD, DHSc, DC, MS, MMSc, FACN, is a Harvard Medical School trained researcher, clinical research scientist, academic professor, and a functional medicine health care provider. Dr. Kharrazian earned a Master of Medical Science degree in Clinical Investigation from Harvard Medical School, and is a member of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association and the American Association of Immunologists.
Today, Dr. Kharrazians clinical models of functional medicine are used by several academic institutions, and thousands of health care clinics and practices providers throughout the world.
He maintains a private practice near San Diego, California, and consults with patients from all over the world who are seeking non-pharmaceutical alternatives. His practice is focused on developing a personalized medical approach using diet, nutrition, and lifestyle approaches.
After decades of analyzing thousands of studies and working with patients in the United States and Europe, Dr. Kharrazian developed never-taught-before clinical strategies to successfully manage chronic fatigue and pain.
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What Can Be Done
If you think you may be struggling with chronic fatigue, it is important to discuss your symptoms with your healthcare provider. Symptoms that are particularly important to discuss include:
It is also important to tell your healthcare provider about the medications you are taking, including dietary supplements, natural remedies, and complementary treatments. Some medications can exaggerate the symptoms listed above. For example, stimulants , as well as corticosteroids, may cause sleep disturbances. Your healthcare provider can provide guidance on what medications and interventions may restore your sleep, as well as advice on medications to avoid.
It is also important to discuss chronic pain symptoms with your healthcare provider because chronic pain often leads to sleep difficulties, which in turn leads to chronic fatigue. Your healthcare provider may order laboratory tests to determine if organ involvement may be causing chronic fatigue.
For those with arthritis, maintaining a healthy weight and participating in regular exercise may also help reduce symptoms of chronic fatigue.
- Chronic Fatigue Research: Challenges and Opportunities, June 2003, NIAMS, National Institutes of Health
