Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is one of those illnesses that’s often misunderstood. In terms of symptoms, people misinterpret it as depression or just an extreme case of tiredness. In the aspect of treatment, people readily say it’s just a matter of sleeping it off. Probably the most widely misunderstood of them all is its causes.
This is mainly due to the fact that there’s no single, exact answer as to why CFS happens. Despite that, there are factors medical experts believe to be triggers of the condition. If you suspect that you or your loved one is suffering from this debilitating disorder, the following may be the reason they’re experiencing such:
Infections
People who have CFS often complain about flu-like symptoms, like headaches, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes. For years, it has been believed to be caused by a type of virus present in the body. Apparently, a lot of CFS patients test positive for hepatitis, herpes, or Epstein-Barr (EBV) virus, with some cases being inherited from their parents.
As people with chronic fatigue suffer from immune dysfunction as well, these viruses tend to proliferate in the body and make symptoms worse. Add to that the fact that most patients initially shrug off what they experience as simple flu, thus resorting to self-medication and never going for a checkup.
If you’ve been suffering from flu symptoms, along with extreme tiredness for quite a while now, you may have to consider getting yourself checked for chronic fatigue.
Stress
Everybody gets stressed every once in a while. However, stress for people with chronic fatigue is different, specifically in the way their bodies respond. For instance, experts have observed that CFS patients tend to have lower levels of the hormone cortisol in their saliva, which signals the fact that they’re less able to fight off the effects of stress.
This is one of the possible reasons people with chronic fatigue feel exhausted all the time. This reduced cortisol activity is a result of a dysfunction in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, a system in your body that’s responsible for stress response. This is why chronic fatigue help, as Las Vegas functional medicine doctors explain, should involve issues in different body systems, not just the visible symptoms of exhaustion or headaches. This way, you can have a holistic treatment.
Abuse
Childhood trauma from different types of abuses, ranging from physical to emotional and sexual, raises risk for chronic fatigue . This is due to the fact that early life experiences affect brain development, changing the body’s hormonal and immune responses and leaving a person vulnerable to CFS symptoms.
This is the reason doctors recommend counselling or psychotherapy sessions to chronic fatigue patients, apart from medications and lifestyle changes. This addresses not just the trauma of the past, but also the emotional challenges of the present health condition.
Don’t be left in the dark when it comes to the causes of this debilitating disorder. It pays to know why exactly you or your loved one are suffering from such. Consult your doctor for a holistic treatment customized for your unique condition.
