Email
Print
FeedTired of Being Tired
Getting a grip on chronic fatigue syndrome.
(page 1 of 3)
It’s one thing to suffer from exhaustion, pain and headaches. But what if all three last for years? Imagine sleeping 14 hours a day and still feeling tired. Years go by, and you lose the respect of your friends, family and employer. Even your doctor is wondering whether you might be an insomniac or, worse, a hypochondriac.
It’s hard enough to understand an illness that eschews specific diagnostic methods and varies greatly from person to person. But chronic fatigue syndrome also has another disadvantage: It involves an ailment everyone experiences—fatigue. If you’re like most sufferers of this devastating illness, you learn to struggle through it, and you may even discover a new—sometimes better—life.
Much of CFS research reads like a mini-history of American wellness culture, with an emphasis on self-care, low-impact exercise, women’s health issues and integrated medicine. Patient studies range from the impact of stress hormones and potassium on energy levels, to how fatigue impairs memory and concentration.
“One of the first signs something was going wrong was that I had trouble concentrating in [math] class—and I always loved math,” says Doylestown’s Stephanie Mordan, a cake designer who became ill as a teenager in the early 1990s after an acute bout with mononucleosis.
Mordan is among those who cite “brain fog” as the worst symptom. On some days, the illness makes her feel “like my IQ has dropped 20 points.”
Though CFS is an equal opportunity illness, affecting individuals of all ages, races and classes, it’s been known to target hard-working adults between the ages of 40 and 59—a healthy, productive and active demographic. That may explain why the affliction’s legitimacy has been questioned since it came to light in the 1980s. To borrow a saying from that decade, CFS may well be the Rodney Dangerfield of the medical community: It gets no respect.
Two years ago, the New York Times reported that CFS patients and scientists couldn’t agree on the prevalence of the syndrome or even its name. In the same story, it was revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention diverted millions of federal dollars earmarked for CFS to other programs.
Recent news from the CDC has been more encouraging. A $6 million public awareness campaign dubbed “Spark!” is underway, initiated by the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Association of America, based in Charlotte, N.C. According to the group, CFS was identified as a distinct medical disorder in the 1980s—three decades after England and Europe had recognized it.
Twenty years of intensive research have yet to produce a cure, but strides are being made. For one, American scientists have come up with several diagnostic markers that help rule out other illnesses.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is four times more likely to affect women than men. Aside from fatigue, its symptoms mimic those of such well-known diseases as multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism and clinical depression. Some people experience extreme sensitivity to light, sounds and touch. Others can’t tolerate temperature or diet changes. Still others have heart palpitations, sore throats, migraines and tender lymph nodes. What’s more, those illnesses often mistaken for CFS are widely accepted, including Lyme disease and mononucleosis.
Anyone with pervasive exhaustion can become a target for misunderstanding and indifference from others. And those with CFS have an additional handicap: recurring periods of relative wellness. They respond to the illness in many ways—which is where you come in.
Even if you’re not one of the 4 million Americans with CFS, the research surrounding it could affect you in some way. That’s largely because it’s such a complex illness—one that involves the brain, plus the immune, endocrine, cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems. Treatments are many and varied, and include the latest in holistic medicine and powerful antiviral medications.
