Suffer From Chronic Pain, Depression And Illness?

By Anju Mathur, MD

People who were happy, healthy and vital experience chronic symptoms that put an end to their activity. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome seems to take all your energy away and it often lasts for years.

People recover from flu in days or weeks. But with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) recovery is rare. The symptoms are similar to flu, and a tiredness that never improves no matter how much sleep a person gets. It can worsen with mental or physical exercise. Sometimes the symptoms come and go with no regular pattern.

According to Center for Disease Control (CDC) between one and four million Americans suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). They are seriously impaired, at least a quarter are unemployed or on disability because of CFS. Forty percent of people in the general population who report symptoms of CFS have a serious, treatable, previously unrecognized medical condition.

Sometimes CFS just appears gradually with no noticeable starting point or identifiable cause. Many more women are diagnosed with CFS than men. Sometimes it comes on after a cold or viral infection or sometimes after a period of heavy stress.

Doctors have previously been ineffective in handling CFS and wind up telling the patient they must learn to live with it. The consideration was that it was all in the patient's head and psychological counseling was recommended. Sometimes an exercise therapist or dietitian was called in, or perhaps a sleep therapist. All to no avail.

However, there are ways to handle this disease that can actually bring about results. You don't have to learn to live with it. The pain, fatigue and depression are not all in your head. They have an underlying cause and a medical doctor trained in this discipline can help you identify and treat CFS. Your condition can be reversed and your energy and vitality restored.

Diet plays a key role in making a difference. If you have fibromyalgia or CFS, what you eat will make a huge difference in how you feel. A diet high in saturated fats and refined vegetable oils will exacerbate pain, while omege-3 fatty acids found in fish and flaxseed oil will help alleviate it. Likewise, eating lots of refined carbohydrates will worsen the condition, whereas slow-burning carbs (foods rich in fiber) give your body the sustained source of energy it needs.

Food allergies are often missed as a cause of CFS and fibromyalgia. A competent doctor can evaluate for food allergies.

Natural supplements can also restore the dwindling amounts of seratonin in the brain. Serotonin regulates mood, and a lack of it causes depression. A deficiency can also increase pain sensation. Remedies such as St. John's wort, SAMe and 5-HTP are much safer and effective at treating depression than Prozac or other anti-depressants, and the natural remedies do not have the harmful side effects as does Prozac. Much solid research has been done to back this up, not to mention the happy patients who applaud the doctors who use them. So if you are suffering from depression, fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, or any combination of those, there is help for you that really works.

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