How Me/cfs Impacts Daily Life
ME/CFS tends to follow a cyclical course. You may experience periods of intense fatigue followed by periods of well-being. It’s vital not to overdo it when you’re feeling well, because this may trigger a relapse. Most people with ME/CFS experience symptoms that worsen after strenuous physical or mental activity. Work with your health care team to determine the right activity level for you.
Chronic Fatigue Conditions That Cause Pain Symptoms
One of the most common chronic fatigue conditions is myalgic encephalomyelitis also referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome . ME/CFS is a condition where people have a fatigue that is much more than just being a little extra tired. The fatigue can be severe and is not relieved by rest. Things like attending a school event for a child, taking a shower, or going to the grocery store can cause someone to experience a crash or collapse where they are unable to go on with daily activities for the rest of the day, sometimes even for the days to follow. Many people with ME/CFS have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep which does not make their condition any easier to manage. In addition, pain is a very common symptom. The type of pain can vary but it is not usually caused by injury. Muscle aches and pains, joint pain, and headaches can be common in those with ME/CFS.
Tired All The Time: Sinusitis And Chronic Fatigue
We have all experienced fatigue. Between long work hours and the demands of family, many find themselves exhausted at the end of each day. However, the pace of modern life may not always be to blame. If you are having symptoms such as feeling exhausted after walking two blocks, having chronic sore throats and muscle pain, or feeling heavy and sluggish rather than rested after a nights sleep, you may be experiencing chronic fatigue. Chronic fatigue syndrome disrupts work and family life for hundreds of thousands of people.
The causes of chronic fatigue remain a mystery, but some research suggests that for many sufferers the answer may be right under, or more accurately inside, their noses. People who suffer from sinusitis often list chronic fatigue as one of their most troubling symptoms, equal to facial pain and a blocked nose. If you have symptoms of chronic fatigue, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have a history of sinusitis?
- Do you feel facial pressure or have frontal headaches?
- Do you have unexplained body pain?
Recommended Reading: Adrenal Fatigue The 21st Century Syndrome
Fuel Yourself With The Right Stuff
Carbohydrates, protein, and fats are the three main macronutrients â and each plays a role in keeping us energized. Carbs provide quick energy to help you feel better right away, whereas protein and fats digest more slowly for sustainable energy until your next meal. Combining all three macronutrients sets you up for the best of both worlds.
Balanced bites to try:
-
A pear with a side of pistachios
-
A hearty slice of toast with mashed avocado and white beans
-
Sliced apple wrapped in prosciutto
-
A sprinkle of breakfast cereal on top of yogurt
A quick walk in the morning or evening will boost your energy level. A great playlist or audio book are useful tools to keep you moving.
What Can Be Done
- Persistent joint and muscle pain should never be ignored
- If even after 4-6 months post Covid, you are having persistent pain it needs to be investigated
- If the patient suffered from autoimmune arthritis then a rheumatologist must be involved
- While the degeneration cannot be reverse, treatment should be initiated to halt or slow down the process.
- While some of the post-Covid symptoms will heal on their own in time, there are others that must not be ignored. One must take care of physical fitness and nutrition intake during the recovery process for long-term good health.
You May Like: Rotary Bending Fatigue Testing Machine
You May Like: How To Combat Allergy Fatigue
When Should You See A Doctor About Long Covid
According to Dr. Gumrukcu, if youre still experiencing any symptoms after the fourth week since you tested positive for a Covid-19 infection, you should seek medical help to address long Covid symptoms. Your doctor can help you determine the best path forward to hopefully be back to feeling like your old self soon.
Gluten And Rheumatoid Arthritis
With rheumatoid arthritis , your immune system attacks joint tissue commonly found in your hands, wrists, and knees. Swelling and inflammation occur, which leads to joint tissue damage. The tissue damage ultimately causes chronic pain, stiffness, and sometimes deformity.
Several studies have linked RA with celiac disease. And researchers have even suggested that it may start in the gut and be triggered by food antigens, such as gluten.
In this case report, a 50-year old man presented with chronic diarrhea for two months. He also lost weight and his feet and legs were swollen. Antibodies for gluten proteins were found in his blood and damage to the lining of his small intestine was confirmed.
The patient was diagnosed with celiac disease and treated with a gluten-free diet. After three months, his initial symptoms improved significantly. However, he soon started to experience pain in his joints and laboratory tests confirmed he had RA.
In this study, 42 children with juvenile RA were tested for celiac disease even though they didnt have the usual symptoms. And it turned out that almost 43% of the group had antibodies for gluten proteins in their blood, which means their immune systems were reacting to gluten.
Sixteen of the children with gluten protein antibodies had intestinal biopsies performed and celiac disease was confirmed in all cases. So the children were treated with a gluten-free diet, which reduced their joint-related symptoms as well as improved their growth.
Also Check: Extreme Fatigue Weakness In Arms And Legs
Genetic Conditions Affecting Muscles
Muscular dystrophies: these are inherited diseases which affect muscles. They are rare disorders but the best known and most common is Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This occurs in children and leads to gradual loss of muscle power from toddler-hood.
Some rare muscular dystrophies: these can present in adulthood and include Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome and the facioscapulohumeral dystrophies. They also cause gradual loss of power and function in muscles. Those who have these conditions may become wheelchair-bound.
Sarcoidosis: this is a rare disease in which clumps of cells form in skin, lungs and soft tissues, including muscles. The condition usually goes away after a few years.
Amyloidosis involves deposits of an ‘unhelpful’ abnormal protein called amyloid throughout the body, including muscles and kidneys.
Other rare causes: direct damage to muscles can occur in rare inherited metabolic conditions. Examples include:
- Glycogen storage diseases .
- Even rarer, mitochondrial diseases which occur when the energy systems inside muscle cells don’t work properly.
Myotonic dystrophy: this is a rare genetic muscle disorder in which muscles become extremely tired. Myotonic dystrophies are passed down through families and they tend to occur earlier and become worse as they move through the generations.
Disturbances Of Intracellular Ions In Me/cfs
Disturbances of ionic transport are well known from experimental ischemiareperfusion injury situations in the heart and in skeletal muscle. Harmful ionic disturbances appear abruptly within a minute of reperfusion after a period of total ischemia whether it is the heart or skeletal muscle. Although ME/CFS is not an ischemiareperfusion situation we provide arguments that similar ionic disturbances could occur in skeletal muscles of ME/CFS patients but would appear more slowly and be less severe. These ionic changes in skeletal muscles finally result in calcium overload to cause mitochondrial dysfunction, muscular insulin resistance and vascular dysfunction in muscles with repeated exercise. Major players involved are the sodiumpotassium ATPase , the sodium-proton-exchanger and the sodium-calcium-exchanger . The isoform in skeletal muscle is NCX3 . The NCX can reverse its transport direction to import calcium instead of exporting it under conditions of a strong rise in intracellular sodium. In the following we try to work out how sodium overload could occur in ME/CFS which would then entail calcium overload as the final damaging mechanism.
Fig. 2
You May Like: Symptoms Of Fatigue And Sleepiness
What Is Muscle Weakness
Possible Scenario Of Altered Ion Homeostasis At Rest On Mitochondrial Function
After having considered the consequences of high sodium loading above the threshold where the NCX changes from forward to reverse mode and importing calcium to cause calcium overload we now explain the ionic changes that could take place at sodium concentrations below this threshold where the NCX would still operate in the forward mode. This is probably the case most time at rest and perhaps still during very moderate levels of exercise in ME/CFS. Even in the forward mode a rise in intracellular sodium would already raise intracellular calcium by a decrease in the sodium gradient lowering the driving force of the exchanger leaving more calcium in the cells, but this would occur in a controlled and rather linear manner. By the way, this is the mode of action how digoxin raises calcium in the heart to cause its positive inotropic effect . By contrast, reversal of the transport direction of the NCX by high intracellular sodium leads to a sudden and steep rise in intracellular calcium that can easily get out of control and lead to calcium overload. This occurs at levels of exercise that cause PEM according to our hypothesis.
You May Like: Commercial Grade Anti Fatigue Mats
What Causes ‘your’ Fatigue
Many physical and mental illnesses, as well as lifestyle factors, can cause your fatigue, and that can make it hard to diagnose. In some cases, it might be something simple and easy to fix, like having caffeine at bedtime. But other causes, like heart disease or COPD, are serious, and you may need to start long-term treatment right away.
Your doctor can help you sift through your health issues, as well as diet, exercise, and other lifestyle habits, in order to zero in on the cause and help you on the road to recovery.
What Causes Chronic Fatigue
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , chronic fatigue syndrome affects up to 2.5 million people in the United States, although many more remain undiagnosed. Anyone adults, children, adolescents can get CFS, but its most common between the ages of 40 and 60. Women are more likely than men to be impacted by CFS.
According to Dr. Zaidi, there is no test to diagnose CFS. Some of the possible causes are infections, changes to your immune system, genetics and stress.
Basically, it is an immune response to what we know, Dr. Zaidi said.
Anything that stimulates a response to stress can cause CFS. That could be a bacterial or viral infection, a prolonged illness or prolonged hospitalization.
Read Also: Natural Ways To Fight Fatigue
Diagnostic Criteria For Me/cfs Using The National Academy Of Medicine Clinical Criteria
For a diagnosis of ME/CFS, the person must have the following three symptoms:
Diagnosis also requires at least one of the following two symptoms:
It is important to note that these are not the only symptoms of ME/CFS, just the minimum needed to meet the diagnostic criteria.
While diagnosis requires that a person has had symptoms continually for six months, early intervention with pacing and rest can help reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and reduce the risk of exacerbating the disease. Research suggests that patients who are able to pace their activity and not push themselves tend to do better in the long term. Pacing and rest can start even prior to an official diagnosis.
While there is currently no cure and no evidence-based treatments, it is important to find a doctor who is not only sympathetic to ME/CFS, but can work with you to help manage your symptoms.
Muscle Damage Through Injury
There are many ways in which your muscles can be directly damaged. The most obvious is injury or trauma such as sporting injuries, pulls and sprains. In any muscle injury, bleeding from damaged muscle fibres occurs inside the muscle, followed by swelling and inflammation. This makes the muscle less strong and also painful to use. Localised pain is the primary symptom but weakness also results.
You May Like: Rotary Bending Fatigue Testing Machine
Read Also: B Vitamins For Adrenal Fatigue
Children Young People And Me/cfs
ME/CFS can affect people of all ages, including the very young. Young people with ME/CFS, especially children under the age of ten, might have trouble knowing or articulating that something is wrong. They may not realise that their loss of stamina, or other symptoms they are experiencing, are not normal. Alternatively, they may not have the words to describe what they are feeling.
For both younger children and teenagers, schooling can be affected but ME/CFS is not school refusal. While school refusal can often be accompanied by physical complaints , and these complaints may tend to disappear when the young person stays home, the pattern is different with ME/CFS. In a young person with ME/CFS, some symptoms never ease and symptom exacerbation is triggered by activity. In ME/CFS, symptoms are likely to be worse after school attendance, and can reduce with pacing and rest, which includes time away from school or during holidays.
Some young people with ME/CFS can continue to attend school, and others may be too unwell for regular classroom attendance. Parents, healthcare providers, schools and the child or teenager need to work together to come up with a plan for the young persons continued education. This plan needs to take into account the energy limits of ME/CFS. Being creative and flexible is key and might include things like fewer subjects or school from home.
How Common Is Chronic Myofascial Pain
Pain originating in the muscles and fascia is very common. Nearly everyone at some point suffers from this type of pain, known as myalgia fasciitis or myofascitis. CMP, however, involves pain that is chronic, or long lasting, and is associated with specific trigger points.CMP most often occurs in people between the ages of 30 and 60 years. It affects men and women equally.
Read Also: Vitamins To Help Tiredness And Fatigue
Diagnosis And Treatment Of Fibromyalgia Chronic Fatigue And Generalized Muscle Pain Caused By Dao Deficiency: Dao Treatment And Dao Activity
The determination of DAO, therefore, represents a new and important biomarker for the objective diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue, both by a genetic study of implied genotypes and a plasmatic measure of its activity or a combination of both.
After a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome or generalized muscle pain and deficit of DAO, proactive management and treatment with DAO supplementation has the effect of contributing to the degradation of excess histamine, thus preventing the development of symptoms.
The DAO treatment consists in the supplementation of the diet with exogenous DAO along with a poor diet in foods with high content of histamine and/or liberators, thereby also contributing the administration of an adjuvant, such as magnesium. In the design of the DAO treatment should also be taken into account to avoid as far as possible the use of drugs identified as liberators of histamine and/or inhibitors of DAO.
In this way, the DAO treatment represents a new approach in preventive therapy for fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and generalized muscle pain with minimal risk of adverse effects as a dietetic food.
Q: How Is Pots Treated
A: Treatment plans for POTS may include the following:
- Medications.
- Multidisciplinary patient education, including shared medical appointments.
- Self-help tools for patients to use to improve their body through diet and exercise .
The good news is that several wellness tools have proven much more effective in managing POTS than expensive supplements.
Read Also: High Blood Pressure And Fatigue
What Causes Back Pain
Back pain is a common complaint, especially among adults. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, there are several potential causes of back pain.
Aging is one of the most common risk factors, as people may begin to experience back pain between the ages of 30 and 40. It is also a more prevalent issue among those who are not physically fit. Another risk factor is being overweight, which stresses the back and leads to pain. There are also hereditary factors, such as ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis that can impact the spine. Back pain may also be caused by diseases such as cancer and arthritis.
Pain in the lower back is particularly common and is one of the leading reasons for people to go to the doctor or to stay home from work. Back pain can occur in acute or chronic forms. Acute pain is pain that begins suddenly and that typically lasts for six weeks or less. Chronic pain is more prolonged, such as pain lasting longer than three months. Chronic pain is less common than acute pain. It is possible for acute back pain to improve without treatment, depending on the underlying cause. You may find that taking ibuprofen, acetaminophen or aspirin can help to reduce your back pain.
There are several potential causes of back pain, including specific problems related to certain conditions or diseases:
