Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is an illness that causes a person to be always in a state of fatigue or tiredness. People suffering from this disease experience fatigue that lasts for about six months and usually complain about headache, muscle pains, sore throat, loss of appetite, inability to sleep, difficulty in concentrating, and many other discomforts that are related to fatigue.
Although Chronic Fatigue Syndrome  has no known cause, there are some known ways of treating it, and most of these treatment are directed at relieving the symptoms. There are medicines that can treat some of the symptoms like muscle pains, sleep problems, anxiety and depression but many of the other symptoms can best be treated the natural way. Here are some things that will help a person suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome deal with the disease more easily:
- Enjoy your chocolate. In the past, people with CFS were advised to refrain from eating chocolates because it was believed that the caffeine and sugar in it may worsen the symptoms. But recent studies show that chocolate may actually help because it can boost the level of serotonin in the body, which is abnormally low on people with CFS. Serotonin has many functions which include control of appetite, mood, and anger.
- Be active. Although it is difficult to be active when one is feeling so fatigued, it is important for a person suffering from CFS to keep up some level of activity and exercise. Short brisk walks in the morning can help a lot. Don’t allow the fatigue to completely pull you down, but avoid exercising too much because people with CFS usually experience extreme tiredness that sometimes lasts for 24 hours after exercising.
- Try doing activities that require concentration. If your mind is left weighted down by the fatigue you feel, the symptoms will become more pronounced. By doing activities that make use of the mind, like reading and writing, you can fight the dead weight of CFS, which could be all in the mind.
- Try to socialize. If you are around people, your mind will be more active and this can help lead to recovery from the illness.
- It is also advisable to seek the advise of your doctor on what activities are best suited to you. Your doctor can give you a program to follow which is specifically designed to help you deal with an otherwise debilitating illness.
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is NOT “all in the mind”. It is also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which is classified by the World Health Organization as a nervous system (neurological) disease. There is a wealth of evidence showing the physiological nature of ME/CFS.
Further, the most effective way to manage ME/CFS, is not exercise, not ‘concentration’, but pacing and bed-rest. http://wamcare.blogspot.com/2009/07/results-from-10-surveys-re-mecfs.html
Any effort – such as a ‘brisk walk’ or ‘concentration exercises’ drains the person with ME/CFS of what little energy they have. Exercise has been shown to make 50-75% of ME/CFS sufferers WORSE, sometimes irrevocably.
This article is full of false and dangerous information. CFS/ME is not just ‘tiredness’ and cognitive symptoms “associated with tiredness”. It is a systemic pervasive disease that can occur in outbreaks, and therefore considered possibly contagious – people diagnosed with ME are asked NOT to donate blood. CFS/ME is a serious biological disease.
The chronic fatigue which you are referring to in this article is NOT the same as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which is a complex neurological disease defined by the WHO in 1969. You can find out more about the diagostic criteria here http://www.cfids-cab.org/MESA/ccpccd.pdf
ME/CFS is extremely disabling, and the severely affected are paralysed and bedbound, blindfolded and in extreme pain. You can find a full syptoms list here http://www.ahummingbirdsguide.com/themesymptomlist.htm It is not all in the mind!
Please ammend your article. I am sure it is a good article explaining about the common symptom of chronic fatigue. But please do not confuse this with the complex disease ME/CFS which is found in 0.42% of the population and is extremely serious and occaionally fatal. This distinction needs to be made.
If people who are experieince minor fatigue as a symptom and none of the other extremely disabling symptoms characteristic of ME/CFS including flu like symptoms, joint and muscle pain, dizziness, vomiting, swollen glands, immune system dysfunction, difficulty speaking/focusing/concenting, inability to maintain body temperature, low blood pressure and cardiac symtpoms etc.. then they will use the term CFS to describe their fatigue incorrectly and thus make the ignorant popualtion believe that those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are just tired, or need more rest. Or just need to try harder.
Patients are able to perform physical and mental actviity within their own limitis/ Exceeding these limits, which for one person will be a short walk or 3 hour exam, for another will be sitting up in bed or reading or talking for 5 minutes, will cause a relapse and it will take the patient days, months or years to improve to prevous activity. During a relapse patients experieince a worsening of sweakness, fatigue and flue like symtpoms. And in the more severe this can result in paralysis or seizures. Mental activities of any kind need to be monitored in the same way as psychical activities, as doing too much of either will drain the patients energy levels.
Although socialising is obviously beneficial from a patients mental well being and will help stop them from becoming depressed, it will not cure the illness. And given that it takes energy to even hold a conversation the patient will need to keep within their own limits.
Furthermore, patients with ME/CFS have the same rate of depression as people with any other chronic illness like MS, or Lupus. ME/CFS is not depression or caused by depression. Patients with the illness WANT to do things but their bodies DONT work. This is different from depression. Patient with ME/CFS may become depressed due to the fact that they are seriously ill and unable to partake in society as they may wish or may be demanded of them. This is different.
You need to the make this clear for the sake of everyone. It would be appreciated if you did extensive research before writing such an article in the future. Thank you.
There is so much misinformation in this article I don’t know where to start. How about the worst offender?
“By doing activities that make use of the mind, like reading and writing, you can fight the dead weight of CFS, which could be all in the mind.”
I cannot believe that in 2009 you are still propagating the myth that CFS or its symptoms are psychosomatic. This is probably the single most damaging incorrect stereotype that we patients have fought for years on end.
You haven’t even mentioned the hallmark of CFS: post-exertional malaise. Activities that you suggest such as those that require sustained concentration as well as socializing, are the very things that often land us in bed for a day or more. What you do not understand is that we WANT to do these things, but are unable to because of our illness.
CFS has nothing to do with “keeping the mind active.” Our symptoms are not “discomforts” — they are disabling. The “dead weight of CFS” is a symptom of a physical illness, not a problem with boredom. I strongly suggest you read this article — which I did not write or have anything to do with — and learn more about the causes (which as you can see are not entirely “unknown) rather than presenting outdated, incorrect, and offensive information.
http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/natural-health-articles/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-myalgic-encephalomyelitis-causes-45689.html