Keep A Blanket And Pillow In Your Office
Rheumatoid arthritis and fatigue go hand in hand for me, says Marco S., 37, of Mission Viejo, California. When its at its worst all I want to do is sleep but, you know, I have a job. His solution? I keep a small pillow and blanket under my desk so if I have some downtime I can shut my door and take a nap.
What Is The Outlook For Someone With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
The long-term outlook varies quite a bit. There may be times when your symptoms are not too bad and other times when they flare up and become worse. However, many people improve over time and some recover well. Children and younger people have a better rate of full recovery. Early diagnosis and treatment may lessen the impact of the illness. The important thing to remember is that this is not a progressive or life-threatening disease and that for many people full recovery is possible.
What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complicated disease for doctors to diagnose and even fully understand.
CFS is a physical condition, but it can also affect a person emotionally. This means that someone with CFS may feel physical symptoms, such as:
- extreme fatigue
- headaches
- dizziness
But the person may also notice emotional symptoms, such as a loss of interest in favorite activities.
Also, different people with CFS can have different symptoms. Many CFS symptoms are similar to those of other health conditions, like mono, Lyme disease, or depression. And the symptoms can vary over time, even in the same person.
This makes treating the illness complicated. No single medicine or treatment can address all the possible symptoms.
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You Can Experience Flare
When a person receives a diagnosis, you may think that chronic fatigue syndrome dooms you to a lifetime of days with little to no energy to accomplish anything. However, this is not the case. Once you learn how to manage your symptoms, you may be able to have days or even weeks between flareups. What can you do right now to try and increase the time between your flareups?
Learning to pace yourself is crucial. When you have a good day, it can be tempting to try and get through your entire to-do list. However, learning your limits for physical and emotional strain can help you to reduce your workload, even on good days, so that you can help remissions to last as long as possible.
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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Keep Time With Your Body Clock
Some people get a burst of energy first thing in the morning. They’re often called morning larks. Night owls are people who are at their best at the end of the day.
These individual differences in daily energy patterns are determined by brain structure and genetics, so they can be tough to change. Instead, become aware of your own circadian rhythms. Then schedule demanding activities when your energy levels are typically at their peak.
Who Gets Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome can affect people of all ethnicities and ages, but is most common in people in their forties or fifties. It’s very rare in kids. A few teens do get CFS, and it affects more girls than guys.
Sometimes different people in the same family get CFS. This may be because the tendency to develop CFS is genetic.
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Allow Yourself To Rest
While being productive matters, resting when you need to is more important.
Efficiency, not intensity, is the goal. Knowing how to deal with chronic fatigue mostly centers on being gracious with yourself and honoring what your body needs!
A spin on the classic Pomodoro Technique for productivity is a good idea. Switch it up to do what works best for your body!
When a full day of work is too much, focus on just 20 minutes of productivity. By making those 20 minutes truly productive and then resting, youll probably accomplish even more than you would have in pushing through for 3 hours.
After 20 minutes of work, check in with yourself. If you need to rest, set a timer for an hour and rest. Once the hour is up, try to work again for another 20 minutes. If you can still only accomplish 20 minutes, thats fine! Or, if you can accomplish an hour, thats even better.
Resting guilt-free prevents burnout and keeps your work consistent.
On that same note, dont forget to reward yourself!
Whether you have worked for 20 minutes, hours, or not at all, rewarding yourself makes rest feel like a celebration and not something to be ashamed of.
Be gentle to yourself! Youre dealing with something overwhelming, and showing up to make an effort is something to be proud of.
When youre wondering how to deal with chronic fatigue and be productive, these tips are absolutely essential!
How To Deal With Chronic Fatigue And Be More Productive
How Severe Is Your Lack Of Energy?TAKE THE QUIZ
With a ton on your plate, being productive is essential! But when youre facing exhaustion and other symptoms, how do you stay productive and accomplish what needs to be done? Learning how to deal with chronic fatigue is so important.
With any chronic illness, you need to recognize and embrace your own unique limits. From there, you can prioritize and become efficient with your time!
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Psychological Issues And Fatigue
Studies suggest that between 50 and 80 per cent of fatigue cases are mainly due to psychological factors. Suggestions include:
- Talk about it Theres some evidence that talking therapies such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy might help to fight fatigue. See your doctor for a referral for talking treatment.
- Reduce stress Stress uses up a lot of energy. Try to introduce relaxing activities into your day. This could be working out at the gym, or a gentler option such as meditation, yoga, listening to music, reading or spending time with friends. Whatever relaxes you will improve your energy.
- Assess your lifestyle for example, are you putting yourself under unnecessary stress? Are there ongoing problems in your life that may be causing prolonged anxiety or depression? It may help to seek professional counselling to work out family, career or personal issues.
- Learn to do nothing one of the drawbacks of modern life is the pressure to drive ourselves to bigger and better heights. A hectic lifestyle is exhausting. Try to carve out a few more hours in your week to simply relax and hang out. If you cant find a few more hours, it may be time to rethink your priorities and commitments.
- Have more fun maybe youre so preoccupied with commitments and pressures that you dont give yourself enough time for fun. Laughter is one of the best energy boosters around.
Why Does Chronic Pain Make You Tired
For people suffering from chronic pain, fatigue can be a natural result of their condition. It is simply exhausting to deal with an unpleasant feeling, like pain, for days on end.
Doctor appointments, medication, and worrying about the pain all take an emotional and physical toll on ones energy. Some people with non-apparent disabilities, such as chronic pain, if not fatigued by the disabilities themselves, can become tired by the constant effort required to pass as non-disabled.
Sometimes the pain does not go away when resting or laying down. It is difficult to get a good nights sleep or concentrate on relaxing if one is in pain or uncomfortable.
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General Exercise Tips For People With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
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.
- Keep an activity diary so you have a long-term picture of your performance levels and factors that might impact on your symptoms.
- 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 ‘real’ biomedical condition.
Things That Help My Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Taking regular Alka- Seltzer, not cold
Taking NADH This is a supplement sold though . This is the only thing that I have found helps me. It did not help my mom or brother at all. It did give me more energy and made me feel a little better. It is fairly expensive but worth it if it works. If it doesnt work after a month or so, stop taking it, its probably not going to work for you. It DID NOT cure me. It only made it so that I have a little more energy and my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome wasnt quite so bad.
Cutting out gluten. This helped me but not mom or my brother. You might check for food allergies as they can make symptoms worse.
Cutting all social activities Limiting phone calls
Reducing Stress
Getting Sleep
Cool, dry climate I felt much better in Colorado and Idaho than I did/do in Texas and Kansas. Some people report also feeling better in places like Arizona and Nevada.
Running the Air Conditioner- Removing the humidity from the air helps a lot.
Eating on Time I get very sick if I dont eat on a regular basis. I really go downhill fast. My husband can usually tell and forces me to eat something, even if Im not hungry. It helps a lot to eat every two or three hours.
I have recently cut out most of the sugar. It has helped a lot, especially with brain fog and low energy. It was NOT easy at all to do, but I felt it was something I had to do. I am still working on not back sliding.
These are things that seem to help so far.
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Preparing For An Appointment
If you have signs and symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, you’re likely to start by seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner. It can be difficult to absorb all of the information provided during an appointment, so you might want to arrange for a friend or family member to accompany you. Having someone else hear the information can help you later in case there’s something you missed or forgot.
Coping With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Here at Besso Clinic, we specialize in caring for misalignments of the C1 and C2. First, we examine the neck to find if a misalignment exists and to determine the exact location and degree. If so, we use a gentle method to help the bones move back to their original position. In turn, any pressure being placed on the brainstem and spinal cord is removed. Communication to the brain and body can be properly restored, and the central nervous system can begin to work at its optimum once again. This is often all that is required to see a decrease in or an end to chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.
Start coping with chronic fatigue syndrome with the Besso clinic. Call or just click the button below.
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How To Cope With Chronic Pain And Fatigue
Fatigue is defined as the lack of energy, or lethargy of body and mind, possibly caused by sleep deficit. Fatigue has many effects on daily life. It has been proven to cause insufficient sleep, associated with cognitive problems, reduced job performance, reduced motivation, increased safety risks, and physiological changes. In this article, we will take a look at the connection between chronic pain and fatigue, and what you can do to remedy exhaustion.
Fatigue-related problems are also believed to cost the U.S. an estimated $18 billion dollars per year in lost productivity and accidents. More than 1,500 fatalities, 100,000 crashes, and 76,000 injuries annually are attributed to fatigue-related drowsiness on the highway.
Fuel Up With Healthy Foods
“In exhausted patients, I find it helps a lot to initially focus on adequate protein, fiber and plenty of vegetables and fruits, as well as targeted supplementation mainly to crowd out the eating of exhaustion-triggering food choices that are pro-inflammatory and make the chronic inflammation in ME/CFS patients worse,” Dr. Gillies says.
She explains that people with ME/CFS often eat packaged foods, which are more convenient but usually less healthy, and the lack of nutrition makes matters worse. “The poor nutrition will result in reduced muscle repair as well as affect mood and greatly reduce energy,” she says.
Learn how to fill your plate with healthy, nutrient-dense foods by logging your meals on the MyPlate app. Download now to fine-tune your diet today!
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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
- Depression
The symptoms of CFS may look like other medical conditions. Always talk with your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
Seek Natural Help Through Upper Cervical Specific Chiropractic Care
Upper cervical chiropractic care may be able to help you restore some quality of life, as has been shown in a case study. While the study involved just 19 patients, the results are still worth noticing. The study involved using a health survey to rate the patients quality of life before and throughout the case study. What were the results?
- General Health This section of the survey saw the most considerable improvements for patients. At the start, the average score was just 30.3 out of 100. By the end of the case study, the average rating was 55.6, showing a dramatic increase in physical well-being.
- Mental Health Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and other chronic ailments also take a toll on a person mentally and emotionally. Mental health scores for patients improved from 46.4 out of 100 to 68.6.
- Sleep Health The PSQI was used to determine the ability of patients to sleep. The test has a score range of 0 to 21, with higher numbers indicating more sleep problems. At the start of the trial, patients averaged a 12.1 out of 21, indicating significant sleep problems. After the study, this score was a 6.1, revealing that the patients were sleeping much better.
to schedule a consultation today.
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Is Covid Fatigue Different Than Fatigue Caused By Other Viruses
Even a relatively mild case of COVID-19 can wipe you out. A lot of people who have had COVID-19 describe the fatigue they feel as worse than they have experienced at any time in their lives, says McClelland. Its certainly a unique feature of the illness.
The amount of fatigue may be related to the extent and type of inflammation triggered by the viral infection. COVID-19 is a systemic illness it affects many parts of the body, such as the whole respiratory mucosa, the kidneys, fat cells, parts of the brain. The illness causes a remarkable amount of inflammation that, as it is resolving, is likely to leave people feeling fatigued, says McClelland.
COVID-19s mental toll can make fatigue worse. The mental gymnastics of contact tracing, guilt and fear about possibly infecting others, self-blame for exposing yourself to infection all of this triggers a stress response in the body and leads to fatigue, says Mucci-Elliott.
Ways To Cope With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Maybe you find it difficult to fall and stay asleep despite being absolutely exhausted. Maybe you have trouble focusing, too, and feel like you just can’t remember things the way you used to like your brain is always in a fog.
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If you’ve had these symptoms for more than three months without an obvious cause, a condition known as chronic fatigue syndrome may be to blame. And while there’s unfortunately no cure, there are ways to cope with this CFS to make life a little easier.
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What You Can Do
Before your appointment, you may want to write a list that includes:
- Your signs and symptoms. Be thorough. While fatigue may be affecting you most, other symptoms â such as memory problems or headaches â also are important to share with your doctor.
- Key personal information. Recent changes or major stressors in your life can play a very real role in your physical well-being.
- Health information. List any other conditions for which you’re being treated and the names of any medications, vitamins or supplements that you take regularly.
- Questions to ask your doctor. Creating your list of questions in advance can help you make the most of your time with your doctor.
For chronic fatigue syndrome, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
- What are the possible causes of my symptoms or condition?
- What tests do you recommend?
- If these tests don’t pinpoint the cause of my symptoms, what additional tests might I need?
- On what basis would you make a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome?
- Are there any treatments or lifestyle changes that could help my symptoms now?
- Do you have any printed materials I can take with me? What websites do you recommend?
- What activity level should I aim for while we’re seeking a diagnosis?
- Do you recommend that I also see a mental health provider?
Don’t hesitate to ask other questions during your appointment as they occur to you.
