Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

More than ever, people are walking into my clinic complaining of being constantly fatigued. So many talk about having chronic fatigue, yet do not know much about it. How does one really know? What does one look for?

 

What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) really? So many writings today are very informative, but what I have found is that most researchers will generally try to link CFS with the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). That is another topic altogether in that they both manifest very different symptoms.

My feeling s are that CFS is a group of symptoms that are not related to any one specific disease entity but rather are caused by a disease pathogen or a disease organism that detracts from a person’s overall state of health.

A pathogen is a simply a catalytic and opportunistic virus, germ or bacteria that needs some kind of nutritional support that will be conducive to its own survival. So even if we are eating the best of foods, some or possibly a lot of the nutrition is going to fuel the pathogenic organisms themselves. They are life forms that seek not only to survive, but also to colonize.

These pathogens are not really classed as disease in and of themselves, but they do use the human body as their breeding grounds. This in turn results in a tremendous degree of stress on the body. That is one of the major aspects that I see in CFS patients, in that a phenomenal amount of stress is present, and stress has many different manifestations in the body. Even the medical industry sees CFS as being different in each individual. In fact, some doctors will agree that there is an entity called CFS while others will assertively deny that it even exists. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that it is psychosomatic, or “all in their patient’s head”.

Even though we have had childhood streptococcal infections and flu bugs that we have supposedly conquered and long forgotten about, we are still battling them. Even though at that time, our immune systems were able to deal with them (we talked in a previous article about the immune system working to deal with the challenge so as to remove it to the extent that it is just below the tolerance line) there are leftover remnants which will live on in our bodies probably for most if not all of our lives. It is these pathogens which create such a stress on our bodies. This is the direction we need to go in order to understand more about CFS.

While good nutritional dietary habits are so very important, we need to realize that it is not the whole key to overcoming CFS. If you give most patients a chance to think back, say to their early childhood, teen years or early twenties, at some point they had an infection or inflammation that really stayed with them. More times than not, they will remember that they did never quite get over it or it seemed to hang on forever. The remnants of that particular inflammation, the pathogen’s antihistic response has stayed with them throughout the years.

The body has to fight at a cellular level, fighting these remnants of viruses or leftover pathogens continually, every single day of our lives. The immune system just never gets a rest from that point on.

Let me say that cold or flu-like symptoms are not necessarily bad, because it is letting you know that your immune system is capable of fighting and producing a reaction, but imagine that your body continues to have a low grade fever every single day for several years. Over time you are probably not even aware of it, but it places stress on your system. While it doesn’t become a major debilitating disease, your body is just rarely functioning with a very heavy stress being placed on the lymphatic system.

Even with long-term CFS, if you know that your immune system is still functioning you need to not only get the proper nutrients, but also need to do some type of stimulation to get some deeper body response going for you.

I always try to link CFS back to a previous illness. I feel that we are really dealing with a lot of side issues that while patients may feel that they are in the category of CFS, they may actually have some other areas of challenge that need to be addressed, instead.

So, to fit into the category of CFS, it is important that you have seen your physician; that you have gone through a basic blood-screening and made sure there is not something else underlying your symptoms. Have a talk with you physician. See if he or she feels there might be something else to look for.

If you can, determine if you suffered an early childhood or teenage illness that stayed with you longer than you expected. If you find it really stayed with you and you have ruled out other factors, then consider not only the nutritional approaches you can take, but also some of the other modalities whereby you can stimulate a deeper body response. Let us focus on what you can do to get rid of the pathogens that are causing this irritation and keeping your immune system constantly fighting those deadly pathogens.

Remember also that these pathogens are what we call partial pathogens (in that they are not being fully aggressive but are slowly surviving and continuing to colonize throughout your system). They are not a full-scale infection. That is why it is so difficult to work with. A simple antibiotic that a physician might prescribe and that would normally do wonders in combatting a major infection is not going to touch this because it is not a full-blown “aggressive” infection.

Let us briefly mention diet. If you have been following my articles, you will remember that I dwell a great deal on the fact that much of the crap we put into our mouths generally result in a larger than usual build up of poisonous and toxic acid wastes. It is important to be really watching your diet. I am going to presume that I am addressing an audience that is sincerely health-conscious and that you already have enough of a foundation that I need not dwell on the basic elements of good nutrition.

There are any number of books available whereby one can build a foundation of good dietary habits. While I personally am very satisfied and grateful for my dietary lifestyle, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of using the YU-CCAN products on a continual maintenance basis as I myself do.

We have talked about exercise before, but to recap, it is amazing how a good brisk walk on a constant daily basis, while breathing deeply and expelling gaseous wastes can keep our bodies toned up and be able to utilize energy more effectively.

It is also important to be able to set aside just ten or fifteen minutes daily, alone, while quietly reflecting on the day just past and the morrow. This is a great stress reliever. Try these things for two or three weeks and I know it will become a daily and profitable routine.

All these considerations can surely help the body deal with fatigue and give the body the best chance to deal with all those pathogens that quite possibly have been hanging on for years.

And when you friends and acquaintances see positive changes in your health and energy (our attitudes tend to change noticeably as well), what a splendid opportunity to be able to share with them the wonderful health-giving opportunity that we all have in YU-CCAN.

All it takes is making the simple decision to DO IT!