Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Introduction: It is a syndrome of severe fatigue that doesn’t improve with bed rest and may worsen with physical or mental activity. Good events such as a wedding, birth of a baby, a long tour or vacation may make you feel tired and exhausted, but the fatigue and tiredness goes away after rest.

Also bad events such as illness of a loved one, death, arguments, disappointed love can make you feel tired, sad, anxious and nervous. But these feelings are temporary and the person is back to normal as time heals most of the wounds.

But—if your feelings of anxiety, depression, or fatigue severely disrupt your daily life or persist for more than a few weeks, or if your feelings seem out of proportion to the event that caused them—or if there is no specific cause—then it's time to see your doctor.

Women are diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome far more often than men. Tiredness is severe enough to decrease our ability to participate in daily activities.

Cause: The exact cause is not known. Some of the possible causes are:
• Anemia

• Hypoglycemia

• It is more common in individuals who have previous psychiatric illness.

• Encephalitic illness

• Endocrine dysfunction

• Viral infections, such as Epstein-Barr virus or human herpes virus

• Depression

• Allergies

The cause of chronic fatigue syndrome may be an inflammation of the pathways of the nervous system as a response to an autoimmune process.

Signs and Symptoms:
Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are vague and vary from individual to individual.

• Severe chronic fatigue for at least six months or longer not alleviated by rest with other medical conditions excluded.

• Forgetfulness or difficulty in concentration

• Sore throat

• Enlarged lymph nodes in neck and axilla

• Muscular pain

• Anxiety

• Does not feel fresh to take up a new task or assignment

• Headache

• Disturbed sleep

• Mental exhaustion

• Shortness of breath

• Blurring of vision, dry eyes

• Weight loss or weight gain

• Tiredness even early in the morning. Does not feel fresh to get out of bed.

Complications:
• Depression
• Side effects of medicines to treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Due to fatigue the patient avoids social functions, and this leads to isolation.

Diagnosis: General physical examination will reveal enlarged lymph nodes, and other signs. There may be pharyngitis,signs of anemia etc.

The diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is made after ruling out all other known possible causes of fatigue, such as:

• Infections
• Other illnesses (such as heart, kidney, liver diseases)
• Auto immune disorders.
• Tumors
• Depression etc.

There are no specific tests to confirm the diagnosis of CFS, though a variety of tests are usually done to exclude other possible causes of the symptoms.
Some tests usually done are

• Complete Blood Count
• M.R.I (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of brain.

Homeopathic Management

In Homeopathy mental symptoms acquire great importance. All the mental symptoms are considered while case taking as well as the physical symptoms and then a remedy is administered.

Mental symptoms include the feelings and emotions of the patient, any major mental trauma in the past, such as death of a relative, financial loss, divorce, wrong decisions, and all such things are considered to know the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

In case of students repeated failure in exams could be the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Also the physical symptoms such as pain are considered. Based on the totality of the symptoms and repertorisation remedy is selected and the patient is restored to health mentally and physically.

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