Monday, March 25, 2024

What Can I Take For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Must Read

Supplements For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

What Causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Studies have suggested that coenzyme Q10 and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide common antioxidant dietary supplements with known cardioprotective effectsmight relieve symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome . Both supplements have been shown to significantly reduce fatigue levels and other symptoms associated with chronic diseases, such as fibromyalgia. Studies of their utility in treating CFS, however, have been very small with inconsistent conclusions, say researchers.

Because research has shown that a mitochondrial failure reduces the rate of adenosine-5-triphosphate synthesis, the central agent of energy production in CFS, and because CoQ10 and NADH increase cellular ATP production via mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, the researchers decided to conduct a proof-of-concept study to assess the effect of supplementation on heart rate, with secondary measures of fatigue, pain, and sleep.

In the eight-week study, 80 participants received CoQ10 200 mg once daily plus NADH 20 mg once daily or placebo . Heart rate was measured at baseline and at the end of the run-in period. Fatigue, pain, and sleep were evaluated at baseline, then again at four and eight weeks using participants self-report questionnaires.

The supplementation was safe and well tolerated, the researchers say, and could be added to conventional CFS therapy.

Source: Clinical Nutrition, August 2016

Keep Track Of Your Symptoms And Their Onset

Tracking the frequency, timing, and severity of your symptoms might help your doctor better understand what youre experiencing. Tracking your activity level and symptoms can also help you draw connections and learn your limits so that you can reduce flare-ups.

When tracking your symptoms, remember to write down everything ailing you, not just fatigue. People with CFS/ME often also have issues with pain, cognition, such as memory and concentration, and sleep. You might also consider keeping a sleep diary, so your doctor can see how well youre sleeping and determine if sleep might play a role in your symptoms.

Unraveling Disparities In Breast Cancer

Why are black women more likely than white women to develop certain aggressive subtypes of breast cancer or to die from the disease? The National Cancer Institute has launched a collaborative research project to try to pinpoint genetic factors that underlie these and other disparities.

The Breast Cancer Genetic Study in African-Ancestry Populations is the largest study ever to investigate genetic and biological factors behind black womens risk of breast cancer. It wont enroll new patients, but will bring together researchers and data from a variety of venues, including the African-American Breast Cancer Consortium and the African-American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk Consortium. Minority scientists from various institutions are playing an important role in the study, the NCI says.

The researchers will share biospecimens, data, and resources on 20,000 women involved in 18 previous studies. The genomes of those women will be compared with those of 20,000 black women who do not have breast cancer, as well as with white women who do. The project will investigate genetic variations associated with breast cancer risk in black women and gene expression in tumor samples to identify genetic pathways.

Don’t Miss: Does Low Potassium Cause Fatigue

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.

Treatments For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Since researchers do not yet fully understand the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and people with the illness can experience a wide variety of symptoms, multiple treatments exist. Treatments are aimed at managing and reducing the severity of CFS/ME symptoms, rather than at curing the illness.

Also Check: How To Heal Chronic Fatigue

Healthcare Cost Associated To Cfs

It is difficult to estimate the costs imposed by CFS on healthcare. There are few studies evaluating the use of healthcare resources by these patients .

Although many people suffering CFS continue to work despite of their illness for economic reasons and social prestige, this represents an annual global loss of productivity of approximately 6,900 million, or what is the same 15,200 per patient and year. These figures are comparable to the losses caused by other diseases, such as digestive system-related conditions or infectious and parasitic diseases , suggesting that the CFS can be included with other chronic processes among the highest healthcare and socioeconomic burdens.

What To Expect At Your Providers Office

There is no laboratory test for chronic fatigue syndrome. But your health care provider may use tests to rule out other illnesses. Your provider will go over your symptoms, check your medical history, and do a physical examination.

If you have CFS, your provider may prescribe drugs to treat your symptoms, or suggest herbs, vitamins, or dietary changes to help you. Get plenty of rest, exercise regularly, and learn to pace yourself. Often this combination of treatments will help you get better.

If the usual treatments do not work, your provider may check for other conditions that can cause symptoms similar to those of CFS.

You May Like: Is Extreme Fatigue A Sign Of Diabetes

Also Check: Common Causes Of Extreme Fatigue

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.

Management Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms

What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Rest and sleep in CFSRest periods in the daily routine are part of management strategies for all people with chronic fatigue syndrome. Relaxation techniques at the beginning of each rest period can be helpful. Try to balance the need for rest during the day against how you are sleeping at night. Introduce changes to your sleep pattern gradually.

Physical functioning and mobility problems in CFSStrategies to help maintain and prevent deterioration of your physical function and mobility need to be carried out in small amounts and spread out throughout the day. Strategies should include joint mobility, muscle flexibility, balance, postural and positional support, muscle function, bone health and cardiovascular health.

Care and support plans in relation to physical functioning and mobility may include bed mobility, moving from lying to sitting to standing, transferring from bed to chair, using mobility aids, walking, joint mobility, muscle stretching, muscle strength, balance, and going up and down stairs.

People with CFS may experience intolerance of changing position, such as when first standing up. This may include postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome . You may need to be refered to a specialist if your symptoms are severe or worsening, or there are concerns that another condition may be the cause.

Pain in CFSChronic pain is commonly associated with CFS. You may need referral to specialist pain services if appropriate.

Don’t Miss: Does Thyroid Cancer Cause Fatigue

Causes Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Further research is needed to confirm what causes chronic fatigue syndrome. New evidence shows that there might be various factors involved and that there may be a number of different types of the illness. These different sub-groups of chronic fatigue syndrome still need more research to be identified, including how they lead to different experiences of the condition and how it develops.

Chronic fatigue syndrome may appear suddenly or more slowly over time. It may follow an infection, typically, but not always, viral. Other possible triggers can be trauma, surgery and stressful major life events. However in some cases there may be no identifiable trigger for chronic fatigue syndrome.

Coenzyme Q10 Plus Nadh And Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Coenzyme Q10 and NADH are common antioxidant supplements that have been used for several decades as dietary supplements for general maintenanceof health. The benefits of their administration have been extensively evaluated in several conditions . However, several studies have shown that there is a mitochondrial dysfunction, which reduces the ATP production, as an immediate effect primary or secondary to symptoms in most CFS/ME patients .

In the UK, Myhill et al. highlighted the power and usefulness of the ATP profile test as a diagnostic tool for differentiating between patients who have CFS/ME and other symptoms as a result of energy wastage due to stress and psychological factors and those who have insufficient energy due to cellular respiration dysfunction. The biochemical tests should be performed in CFS/ME patients before and after appropriate interventions, and possibly in other disabling fatigue conditions as well .

Relatively few pharmacological or other therapies for CFS/ME have been tested in large RCTs. Overall, a report commissioned by the AHRQ based on a systematic review for a US NIH Pathways to Prevention Workshop concluded that no available pharmacotherapy is of proven benefit in CFS/ME. Table summarizes the current drug therapeutic strategies for CFS/ME.

You May Like: Nicole Miller Anti Fatigue Mat

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms

Most people diagnosed with ME/CFS were functioning at a normal level prior to their diagnosis. The arrival of ME/CFS is often abrupt and sometimes follows a stressful medical or psychological event.

The core symptoms of ME/CFS are:

  • Severe, continued fatigue even after rest. This fatigue reduces the ability to perform typical daily activities
  • Worsened fatigue after mental or physical activity.
  • Sleep problems, which may include difficulty falling or staying asleep.

People with ME/CFS also experience one or both of the following:

  • Difficulty with memory, thinking, or concentrating. Patients may struggle to recall information or experience brain fog or foggy thinking.
  • Increased symptoms when standing or sitting up. Dizziness, lightheadedness, or weakness can happen upon standing or sitting upright.

Additional symptoms may include:

Memory And Concentration Problems

The relationship between Fibromyalgia and allergies ...

Memory aids, like organizers and calendars, can help with memory problems. For people with ME/CFS who have concentration problems, some doctors have prescribed stimulant medications, like those typically used to treat Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder . While stimulants might help improve concentration for some patients with ME/CFS, they might lead to the push-and-crash cycle and worsen symptoms. Push-and-crash cycles are when someone with ME/CFS is having a good day and tries to push to do more than they would normally attempt .

You May Like: Extreme Fatigue And Blurry Vision

What We Knew Then

First of all, the textbooks of medicine didnt describe an illness like this. In addition, all the usual laboratory tests to screen for various diseases came back normal. At this point, a doctor has two choices: decide to believe the patient and keep searching to find what is wrong, or to tell the patient, There is nothing wrong. Indeed, some doctors seeing people like my patient did just that, adding insult to injury.

Fortunately, many physicians and biomedical scientists around the world became interested in this illness, and over 9,000 scientific studies have been published in the past 35 years. The Institute of Medicine has concluded that the condition, now called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is a serious, chronic, complex systemic disease that often can profoundly affect the lives of patients. It affects up to 2.5 million people in the United States, and generates direct and indirect expenses of approximately $17 to $24 billion annually.

S To Overcoming Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Naturally

Getting well requires undoing the things that contributed to your misery in the first place. Once you minimize or eliminate the root causes , amazing things happen. Cells are reenergized. Normal communication pathways become re-established. Immune system functions rebound. Adrenal and thyroid functions normalize. Nerves and neurotransmitters calm, and the brain starts functioning again.

Healing can take place, and symptoms, including fatigue, gradually resolve.

But to get well, you must want to be well more deeply than anything you have ever wanted. Ultimately, becoming well is your responsibility, and you alone must put the effort forward to make your recovery happen. This doesnt exclude having positive relationships with healthcare providers, family, and friends, which are all much to your benefit. But when you leave behind a total dependence on others to rescue you from misery, and take a stand to regain wellness that is rightfully yours to enjoy, you become a new person with a renewed purpose in life. That renewed purpose will carry you back to wellness and beyond.

Even with renewed spirit, however, youll need a plan to follow. The following guidelines provide the basic outline for the strategy I used personally to recover wellness, and that Ive since shared to successfully help thousands of others. You can follow in their footsteps.

Also Check: Is Fatigue A Symptom Of Menopause

Get Your Candida Imbalance Under Control

Your body might also be under the influence of a candida imbalance. Candida is a common type of fungus normally found in your mouth, in the intestines, and on the skin in small amounts. But if candida grows uncontrollably, it could cause an infection and lead to the disruption of your immune system.

This can then spiral out of control and lead to a bunch of other side effects, like a greater susceptibility to illness.

The best way to treat a candida imbalance is to adjust your diet. Avoid high lactose dairy products, refined sugars, and carbs, as these foods are the primary fuel for the candida fungus. At the same time, consume more probiotics found in certain types of yogurt and other products. These helpful bacteria can push out the candida and bolster your digestive tract.

How To Overcome Fatigue

How to overcome chronic fatigue syndrome FOREVER: #1 Tip to stop chronic fatigue forever

A patient named Josie recently came to Parsley Health with a long-standing history of fatigue. She had symptoms since graduating from college 7 years ago and clearly qualified for the diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome/systemic exertion intolerance disease.

In conventional medicine, the treatments that are recommended for chronic fatigue consist of cognitive behavioral therapy, anti-depressant pharmaceutical medications, graded exercise therapy, sleep hygiene, discouraging over-sleeping, and referrals to support groups. Unfortunately, none of these treatments effectively address the root cause of what the fatigue is. Its no wonder that more than half of patients with chronic fatigue dont improve after a year of therapy.

Not only did Josie suffer from fatigue, she was also suffering from chronic digestive issues, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune thyroiditis and hypothyroidism , insomnia, body aches, cystic acne, weight gain, PMS, anxiety, and depression. In a standard conventional model, she probably would have been referred to a rheumatologist, sleep specialist, psychiatrist and dermatologist, in addition to her endocrinologist.

Recommended Reading: Herbal Remedies For Adrenal Fatigue

Read Also: What Can Cause Muscle Weakness And 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
  • Depression

The symptoms of CFS may look like other medical conditions. Always talk with your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.

What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

There’s a long list of possible symptoms that someone with fatigue syndrome can have. The most common ones include:

  • severe fatigue, which can make it hard to get out of bed and do normal daily activities
  • sleep problems, such as trouble falling or staying asleep, or not having a refreshing sleep
  • symptoms getting worse after physical or mental effort
  • symptoms or dizziness that get worse after standing up or sitting upright from a lying down position
  • problems with concentration and memory
  • headaches and stomachaches

Recommended Reading: Can Sleep Apnea Cause Extreme Fatigue

What Is Chronic Fatigue

This condition is best known by medical professionals as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome . Its a disorder that can be characterized by the feeling of extreme tiredness with no feeling of refreshment after sleep.

Imagine going to bed at night only to wake up feeling as if you didnt go to bed at all. Doesnt sound like sweet dreams now, does it?

Plus, the symptoms and signs only worsen if you take part in strenuous physical or mental activities, and they dont improve after rest and relaxation either. Its a slippery, downhill slope!

What Else Should I Know

The Relief Products® » Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Therapy
  • Strong emotions can be a part of the illness, so it’s important to recognize and express your feelings. Feelings like sadness, anger, and frustration are completely normal and it’s important to acknowledge how you feel and recognize that it’s not your fault. Recognizing emotions can help you figure out what’s behind your feelings and help you manage problems.
  • It can help to keep a daily diary of feelings and energy highs and lows. This also can let you share information that might help your doctor. You can also track trends for example, if your energy is high at one time of day and low at another that will help you figure out when to exercise or do other activities.
  • Give yourself more time to do things, especially activities that take concentration or physical exertion.
  • Get support from family, teachers, and friends.
  • Get information about CFS from reliable sources. There’s a lot of misinformation and confusion about this disease. So it’s important to know and trust your sources.

Most important, don’t give up. Having chronic fatigue syndrome can be hard. But for most people, the symptoms are most severe in the beginning. Later, they may come and go. Teens with CFS generally get better faster and recover more completely than adults do. Most teens get partial or full recovery within 5 years after symptoms began.

You May Like: Chronic Back Pain And Fatigue

More articles

Popular Articles