What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME?
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as ME (= Myalgic Encephalopathy), or Tapanui Flu is a complex illness that causes extreme fatigue experienced as profound exhaustion. The
fatigue does not improve with rest, instead, it lasts a long time and limits your ability to do ordinary daily activities. Other symptoms can include
neurological problems, like memory problems and migraine-like headaches, muscle pain, pain in multiple joints, sleep problems, sore throat and tender lymph nodes. Since other illnesses can cause similar symptoms, CFS is hard to diagnose. CFS affects the Neurological, Endocrine &
Immune Systems and is a serious debilitating disorder with many effects
on the sufferer's health. (More detailed information can be found using the Knowledge Links on the right.)
What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia (FM) is similar to CFS and it is often difficult to distinguish because symptoms can be identical. FM also makes you feel very tired. Important symptoms are muscle pain and "tender points." Tender points are places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms or legs that hurt when touched. Other symptoms can include trouble sleeping, morning stiffness, headaches, and problems with thinking and memory.
Causes
What causes CFS or FM is not yet clear, altough researches have shown that a lack of adrenal drive, resulting in low base-line levels of the stress hormone, Cortisol, is a common feature.
There are certainly other contributing factors involved in CFS and FM, and low adrenal output is definitely not the only cause or effect in both syndromes. CFS often begins after an acute viral or bacterial infection which implies that the inflammatory response to infections may somehow trigger the onset of CFS. New resarch has shown that there are abnormalities in the inflammatory / immune response to infection between patients developing CFS after infection and those that do not.
Treatment
There is currently no cure for CFS or FM, and managing the illness can be difficults since symptoms vary considerably over time. The treatment goal
is to improve symptoms.
Many different pharmaceutical drugs are used to treat pain, sleep disorders, depression and
other symptoms of CFS and FM, although none of these were developed for CFS or FM in particular, instead they mostly address only one symptom at a time.
Many patients eventually use alternative, natural therapies to improve symptoms. It may take some time to find a combination of therapies that works for you, but it’s important not to
delay symptom management. One
key to managing CFS and FM is working with your holistic health practitioner to create an individual treatment program that works for you.
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Knowledge Links:
Associated New Zealand ME Society (ANZMES) (provides NZ support group contacts)
ME / CFS Australia
(provides AUS support group contacts)
CFIDS Association of America (USA)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US Dept of Health and Human Services) provides comprehensive info on CFS
MedlinePlus:
CFS
FM
Mayo Clinic:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
US NIAMS:
Fast Facts about FM
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