Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disease of the inhabitants of megalopolises, which is officially recognized by WHO and is included in the list of the International Classification of Diseases. She is subject to compulsory treatment and can be a good reason for opening a sick leave for several weeks.
The feeling of fatigue in itself is a normal reaction of the body to stress, followed by relaxation, and everything falls into place. When it comes to chronic fatigue syndrome, we are talking about a significant deterioration in the quality of a person’s life due to pronounced unreasonable exhausting fatigue, which does not go away even after a weekend or a week’s vacation.
Drowsiness, apathy, distracted attention, decreased general tone, lack of mood, increased emotional excitability, a feeling of emptiness (“squeezed like a lemon”), insomnia and sleep disturbances are all signs that a total “reboot” is needed.
The causes of chronic fatigue
Doctors cannot tell exactly what causes chronic fatigue. This condition can be provoked by illness, prolonged emotional or physical stress, insufficient nutrition, poor working or environmental conditions. We can only say with confidence that chronic fatigue syndrome appears at the moment when a person spends a long time more energy than his body can produce, as a result of which the body’s reserves are depleted and it “burns out”.
Chronic fatigue syndrome cannot be diagnosed with an ECG, blood test, or ultrasound. He has no clear and objective clinical manifestations. At the same time, it is often accompanied by signs of an incipient cold: pain in muscles and joints, headache, chills and sore throat, nasal congestion, – disturbances in the gastrointestinal tract, disturbances in sleep and wakefulness: insomnia at night and drowsiness during the day.
The degree of manifestation of the disease can be different: someone continues to go to work every day, but at every opportunity takes a horizontal position, and someone at one point stops leaving the house altogether. Therefore, it is very important to start early treatment.
How to distinguish chronic fatigue syndrome from other nervous breakdowns?
Chronic fatigue syndrome can be suspected if:
- You wake up in the morning already tired, as if you have not slept.
- Experiencing difficulty falling asleep and sleep disturbances – wake up at night, sleep anxiously, often – less than 5-6 hours.
- You are experiencing problems with short-term memory – you often do not remember where you left your car or apartment keys, forget some words or terms.
- You regularly experience various pains: headaches, in muscles and joints.
- There are hormonal disorders, which are manifested by weight gain, decreased libido, and intense thirst.
- You often experience indigestion.
- Sometimes you experience panic attacks: anxiety accompanied by a rapid heart rate, sweating, etc.
- With all this, laboratory tests are normal.
How is chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosed?
Symptoms accompanying chronic fatigue syndrome can be manifestations of other diseases: mental, infectious, oncological or autoimmune, therefore, when contacting a doctor, a person takes various tests that help to exclude them.
If chronic fatigue syndrome is suspected, patients of the “Grigorenko Clinic” undergo a number of studies:
- clinical examination
- laboratory diagnostics
- testing: assessment of the emotional state, performance assessment, etc.
Such diagnostics allows doctors to determine the patient’s condition at a given time and track the dynamics in the course of treatment.
How is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treated?
There are various approaches to treatment: from recommending long-term vacations in another country to using antidepressants. The latter, as a rule, only masks the problem, since treatment occurs only at the level of chemical processes in the brain.
There are treatment regimens that do not involve the use of pharmacological agents (antidepressants).
- To regulate the psychoemotional state, natural herbal phytopreparations are used, which allow regulating the exchange of neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine) in the brain.
- A special diet rich in the amino acid tryptophan (a food source for the synthesis of serotonin) and B vitamins (necessary for the synthesis of dopamine) also helps to harmonize the emotional background and improve overall well-being.
- Working with psychologists and psychoanalysts allows you to change attitudes that could cause disruption to work and rest, helps to look at yourself and your life differently, teaches you to take care of yourself to prevent recurrence of symptoms of chronic fatigue.
- Herbal medicine allows you to replace a number of drugs that load the liver with immunostimulating, tonic, tonic herbal preparations.
- Manual therapy and osteopathy allow you to remove the clamps that have arisen in the body as a result of nervous and physical stress and improve overall well-being.
- Chromotherapy (color treatment) has proven itself to be excellent for the treatment of various diseases of the central nervous system, incl. chronic headaches. As part of the treatment of chronic fatigue, it allows you to quickly restore sleep and wakefulness.
- Functional trainings allow you to choose the optimal physical activity, which will help keep the body in good shape and provide an additional influx of endorphins – hormones of pleasure.
With an integrated approach, the average duration of a course of treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome is 2-4 weeks, which will help not only remove symptoms, but also qualitatively change your life!