How To Fix Chronic Fatigue

The Importance Of Feeling Understood

I managed to hold it together while in my lawyers office, but once outside I immediately broke down into tears.

Despite the fact that Im used to responses such as I get tired too and I wish I could nap all the time like you do, it still hurts when I hear them.

Its incredibly frustrating to have a debilitating condition thats frequently brushed off as being just tired or as something that could be fixed by lying down for a few minutes.

Dealing with chronic illness and disability is already a lonely and isolating experience, and being misunderstood only increases those feelings. Beyond that, when medical providers or others who have key roles in our health and wellness dont understand us, it can impact the quality of care we receive.

It seemed vitally important to me to find creative ways to describe my struggles with CFS so other people could better understand what I was going through.

But how do you describe something when the other person has no frame of reference for it?

You find the parallels with your condition to things people understand and have direct experience with. Here are three ways I describe living with CFS that Ive found particularly useful.

What Are Common Bhrt Vehicles

There are many delivery vehicles that can be used for bioidentical hormone therapy. Some of the most common vehicles include gels or creams, patches, and oral tablets that are used every day. However, the most common vehicle for BHRT is pellet therapy, which is considered safer and more reliable.

Why Pellets Are Better

Pellet therapy is usually the best vehicle for BHRT because it allows for an even distribution of hormones each day. Instead of applying or taking hormones every day and relying on imperfect dosages, pellet therapy is designed to provide your body with a steady amount of hormones over a long period of time. This makes it much easier to manage overall, particularly because this means you will not need to repeat treatments for several months. Overall, pellet therapy is the simpler option.

Get Specialist Care When You Need It

Visit your doctor every few months to help track your symptoms and check for any need to change your treatment.

Get specialized care if you need it. For example:

• A rehabilitation specialist can help you treat pain and improve your ability to do your daily tasks.
• A pain management specialist can offer a number of pain treatments.
• There are some specialists who work with experimental treatments such as antiviral medicines.

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What To Think About

Along with the treatment you get from your doctor, you might find that other treatments help too. Some people may try different diets or natural health products to help manage their symptoms. If you try a new diet or natural health product pay attention to how your body and symptoms respond to it. It may help to work closely with your doctor to figure out what works best for you.

Your mind and body are connected and affect each other. Physical illnesses can be made worseor betterby your feelings and attitudes, and vice versa. Learn as much as you can about ME/CFS. Then work with your doctor to learn ways to cope with your symptoms. Get emotional support from your health professionals as well as from your family and friends.

What Are Common Fatigue Symptoms

To say that fatigue is simply feeling tired would be an over-simplification. There are actually several symptoms that are commonly associated with fatigue, particularly when fatigue is chronic. The symptoms most commonly associated with long-term fatigue include:

• Excessive tiredness
• Difficulty sleeping or waking up
• Unrefreshing sleep
• Exhaustion after mental or physical activity
• Unexplained muscle or joint pain

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What Questions Should I Ask My Doctor

• Take along a list of all the symptoms you are experiencing in case you forget some of them during your talk with the doctor or nurse.
• Talk about how much you can do at work or school and around the house.
• Ask if there are any financial supports or services you could apply for.
• Ask for help with pain, sleep and remaining active if these are problems for you.
• Ask about what you should be eating.

Sleep Rest And Relaxation

You may have sleep problems that make your ME/CFS symptoms worse. For example, you may:

• have problems getting to sleep
• have unrefreshing or restless sleep
• need an excessive amount of sleep
• sleep during the day and be awake at night

You should be given advice about how to establish a normal sleeping pattern. Having too much sleep does not usually improve the symptoms of ME/CFS, and sleeping during the day can stop you sleeping at night.

You should change your sleep pattern gradually, and your doctor should review how it’s going regularly. If your sleep does not improve after making changes, you may have an underlying sleep problem that will need to be addressed.

It’s likely you’ll need to rest during the day, and your doctor should advise you about the best way to do this. For example, they may suggest limiting each rest period to 30 minutes and teach you relaxation techniques, such as breathing exercises.

If you have severe ME/CFS and need to spend much of your time in bed, it can cause problems, including pressure sores and blood clots. These problems, and how to avoid them, should be explained to you and your carers.

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Stop Asking Others To Fix You

But to activate this deep potential that is yours, youve got to affirm it. Claim responsibility for it. Youve got to call back your power from the outside sources youve asked to fix you. From the experts who dont know you as well as you do. Who attempt to define your problems and address your needs with limited tools and understanding about who you are.

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.

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Allergies Hay Fever And Fatigue

Symptoms: Fatigue, headache, itchiness, nasal congestion, and drainage

Allergic rhinitis is a common cause of chronic fatigue. But allergic rhinitis often can be easily treated and self-managed. To make a diagnosis, your doctor will assess your symptoms. The doctor will also find out, through a detailed history or testing, whether your allergies are triggered by pollens, insects , animal dander, molds and mildew, weather changes, or something else.

One way to reduce symptoms of allergic rhinitis including fatigue is to take steps to avoid the offending allergen. In addition, proper medication can help with symptoms. Drugs that might help include:

• Leukotriene modifiers
• Mast cell stabilizers

Allergy shotsimmunotherapy may help in severe cases. This treatment involves weekly shots of increasingly higher solutions of the offending allergens. Allergy shots take time to be effective and are usually administered over a period of 3 to 5 years.

What May Cause Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Why chronic fatigue syndrome occurs is unclear and complex. Researchers conclude that infections, like pneumonia and bronchitis, and other immune deficiencies can be related to chronic fatigue syndrome. Depression, pain, and sleep disturbances frequently occur with chronic fatigue syndrome.

If you suspect chronic fatigue syndrome, you should find a healthcare practitioner who can take a holistic approach to your health and uncover underlying health issues and lifestyle factors that may contribute to your fatigue.

Unfortunately, patients sometimes feel frustrated that they havent been able to get answers from their doctors or by asking . They might see symptoms like chronic fatigue as in their head or they lack motivation or willpower.

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Other Lifestyle Changes To Manage Me/cfs

Other ways to manage ME/CFS include:

• equipment â some people may need a blue badge for parking, a wheelchair, a stairlift, or other adaptations for their home
• changes in your place of work or study â when you’re ready and well enough to return to work or studies, your doctor should be able to advise you on changes that could ease your return

There’s limited or no evidence to recommend:

• resting completely â there’s no evidence this helps
• complementary medicine â there is not enough evidence that it’s helpful for ME/CFS

You should not take up vigorous unsupervised exercise such as going to the gym or for a run as this may make your symptoms worse.

If You Think It’s All About How Much You Sleep You Need To Read On

What does it mean to feel energetic?

Watching children play, adults marvel at their energy. Can’t we feel energetic as well? The answer is yes, although as we age, it is normal to experience less vigor. This fatigue is not entirely due to the physical process of aging. Stress increases as we agewe may have big mortgages, car payments, increasing responsibility at work, ill parents, medical conditions, or children to raise. And we often play lessthose who are younger are often better at prioritizing socializing, trying new things and having fun, while we can become bogged down in responsibility and forget to do the things that fill us up.

Adults also tend to decrease their activities as they get olderand less activity is associated with greater fatigue. It can mean poorer physical conditioning, too, which means that less activity is needed to produce muscle strain. Fatigue is functional it can help protect us against overexertion. However, our bodies are also sensitive to too little activity. So although fatigue is often associated with not wanting to do anything, paradoxically, sometimes we need to increase activity to shake off the cobwebs.Too often we take the cues of fatigue as a sign that we must do less.

What can we do to feel less fatigued?

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It Feels Like Im Seeing Everything From Underwater

Another thing Ive found useful in describing my symptoms to others is the use of nature-based metaphors. For example, I may tell somebody that my nerve pain feels like a wildfire leaping from one limb to another. Or I may explain that the cognitive difficulties Im experiencing feel like Im seeing everything from underwater, moving slowly and just out of reach.

Just like a descriptive part in a novel, these metaphors allow people to envision what I may be going through, even without having the personal experience.

What We Know Now

As I discussed in a recent article in the journal JAMA, research has documented underlying biological abnormalities involving many organ systems in people with ME/CFS, compared with healthy controls. Heres an overview of what the current science suggests.

The brain. Tests of brain hormones, formal tests of thinking, magnetic resonance imaging , and positron emission tomography scans of the brain are abnormal in a substantial fraction of patients with ME/CFS. Tests of the autonomic nervous system, which controls vital functions including body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and movement of the intestines and bladder, also are abnormal. Not all of these abnormalities of the brain are present in every person with ME/CFS, and they appear to come and go.

Energy metabolism. We are alive because the cells of our body are alive. And theyre alive because they can make energy, and use that energy to do their jobs and remain alive. Our cells make energy out of the oxygen in the air we breathe, and out of the sugars, fats, and proteins we eat. In ME/CFS, research has shown that the cells have trouble both making and using energy. That is, people with ME/CFS feel they dont have enough energy because their cells are not making enough, nor using what they make efficiently. The ability of cells to extract oxygen from the blood and use it to make energy appears particularly defective after physical and mental exertion.

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Prevalence And Clinical Features

It is difficult to establish the prevalence of CFS, since it depends on the diagnostic criteria used and the study population. Initial research suggested a prevalence between 0.002% and 0.04%. . However, latest epidemiological studies in the USA and in the United Kingdom show prevalence rates ranging from 0.007% to 2.5% of the general population. These rates increase up to 0.5-2.5% when the population assessed includes individuals seen in primary care facilities instead of the global population. In the United Kingdom, according the Oxford criteria , the prevalence in the global population has been estimated in 0.6%. In Japan the prevalence has been found to be 1.5% in the general population. Thus, the prevalence in the general population appears to be much higher than previously indicated. Even with strict criteria for CFS, it is estimated that approximately 1% of the adult population experiences this condition. Interestingly, a large part of this group remains unrecognized by the general practitioner. A striking similarity in lifestyle pattern between SF, CF and CFS calls for further research.

CFS mainly affects young adults from 20 to 40 years, although the symptoms also exist in childhood, adolescence and in the elderly . It has a 2-3 times higher prevalence in women than in men. No evidence exists showing that any socio-economic group is more affected than others .

What Can Decrease Melatonin Levels

• Exposure to bright lights at night
• Exposure to electromagnetic fields
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories
• Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors , yes the very same antidepressants that many take for CFS, including Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Paxil, and
• Anxiety medications like Klonopin, Ativan, Xanax, Restoril, anti-hypertensive meds including, Inderal, Toprol, Tenormin, Lorpressor,
• Evening exercise

When administered in pharmacological doses , melatonin acts as a powerful sleep regulating agent that controls the circadian rhythm .

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How Is Cfs Treated

Theres currently no specific cure for CFS.

Each person has different symptoms and therefore may require different types of treatment to manage the disorder and relieve their symptoms.

Work with your team of healthcare providers to create the best treatment plan for you. They can go over the possible benefits and side effects of the therapies with you.

What Is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex and disabling disease. It has been classified as a neurological disorder by the World Health Organization, though it affects many parts of the body, including the brain and muscles, digestive, immune and cardiac systems.

The term myalgic encephalomyelitis means pain in the muscles, and inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. Scientists are starting to understand some of the biological changes in the bodies of people with ME/CFS, although they have not yet found how to prevent, or cure it.

Research has found that ME/CFS is associated with problems involving:

• The bodys ability to produce energy at a cellular level
• Immune, neurological and hormonal systems
• Blood pressure and heart rate regulation
• Cognition how quickly information is processed

ME/CFS affects men, women and children of all ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. 75-80% of people with the disease are female. It is estimated that up to 600,000 Victorians may be living with ME/CFS, and as many as 90% are undiagnosed.

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Key Points About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

• Chronic fatigue syndrome is characterized by profound tiredness.
• Symptoms often worsen with physical or mental activity.
• In addition to severe fatigue, symptoms include light sensitivity, headache, muscle and joint pain, difficulty concentrating, mood swings, and depression.
• Treatments may include medicines, exercise, supplements, and counseling.

What Is The Treatment For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

A treatment plan for CFS aims to relieve your symptoms to improve your quality of life. The plan should include:

• a plan for how to manage stress
• a very gentle exercise plan
• a nutritious diet, with regular meals/snacks to keep up your energy
• supplements if your diet lacks a good balance or if your blood tests indicate deficiencies
• a sleep management plan, which may include medication
• physiotherapy to help with pain and good breathing techniques
• medication for pain
• psychological input if you are particularly stressed or depressed.

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Address The Root Causes Of Your Fatigue

Overcoming your fatigue is about addressing the true underlying causes. You may need some help figuring out what these are. Once you know where your fatigue is coming from, focusing on your digestion, your thyroid health, your iron levels, your diet, or your unique stressors can have you feeling energetic again in no time.

• Step 4: Build Peace and Relax

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a chronic illness characterized by extreme fatigue that lasts for more than six months. This fatigue cannot be explained away by an underlying medical condition. In fact, one of the diseases principle challenges is that its impossible to diagnose with laboratory tests. However, some professionals believe it is closely related to adrenal fatigue or system wide inflammation of the body.

The process for diagnosis usually begins with ruling out possible underlying diseases and chronic conditions until the only choice left is chronic fatigue syndrome. Left untreated, it decreases stamina, memory and concentration.

Chronic fatigue syndrome can result in strained relationships with friends and family, especially when it remain undiagnosed and/or untreated. Guilt, anxiety and anger are all common emotional responses for those fighting chronic fatigue.

Currently, over 1 million Americans are suffering from this debilitating illness that manifests with a lack of energy and motivation, and women are 24 times more likely than men to be diagnosed.