Is this the change chronic fatigue syndrome advocates have long awaited? According to the CFIDS Association, as of Feb. 14 Dr. William Reeves will step down as head of the CDC’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Program.
http://chronicfatigue.about.com
TCM has its own history which can be traced back 3,000 years. It is the second most ancient medicine, while ayurvedic is the oldest with 5,000 years of history.
In the past, when people thought about TCM, they imagined a long-bearded doctor doing pulse diagnosis and prescribing foul tasting concoctions. It was difficult for a modern person to take the image seriously.
Whether stress comes from work, family, health or circumstances, the results are the same: less enjoyment and more tension. We now know many health conditions are stress-related, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), heart disease, cancer, asthma and chronic pain syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Based on the work of yoga therapy pioneer Michael Lee, a new program that combines yoga, mindfulness and dialog is coming to Evanston.
Among the many confusing things you have to deal with when trying to learn about fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) is the difference between a disease and a syndrome.
When doctors who don’t believe in FMS or ME/CFS are quoted in articles, they frequently lean heavily on the distinction. The word “syndrome” itself has been so misused in the popular media that it sounds a bit silly and overblown. But really, what’s the difference?
http://chronicfatigue.about.com
At the age of 11, Kate Charles was a promising schoolgirl. Her aptitude for English was such that her teachers said she was ready to sit her GCSE five years early. Then, after a routine tonsil removal, a downward spiral of debilitating symptoms slowly turned this bright energetic child into a bedbound and despairing sufferer of chronic ME.
When you have fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome your body has a lot of trouble producing energy. A lot of us take supplements to help give us an energy boost.
One popular supplement is carnitine. About 6 months ago, I wrote about starting it and have a noticeable increase in energy. A reader suggested an update down the road to see if it continued to work for me, because so many of us see effects drop off over time. I thought it was a great idea.
http://chronicfatigue.about.com
I recently heard from a Living Single reader who has so much stacked against her, I don’t know how she gets up in the morning. She asked me for suggestions for how to be happy under her difficult circumstances (which I’ll tell you about shortly). I was reluctant to take this on for two reasons. First, given the same challenges, I don’t think I could cope nearly as well as she already has. Second, although I’ve read and critiqued boatloads of studies about marital status and happiness, I’m not a happiness researcher. That’s not my area of expertise, so I’m not as well-versed as I’d like to be on suggestions that follow from scientific research.
http://www.psychologytoday.com
When your body betrays you with a long-term disabling illness like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, it’s important to guard yourmental health. Some days it’s all you have.
Here are ten strategies that have helped me shore up mymental health with hope, over the course of my marathon with CFS.
Danielle Gayden of Oakland, Calif., had to stick her face in front of a fan for almost an hour to cool down. Second to her intolerance for heat was the anxiety, which caused her heart to beat 200 times a minute and sent her to the emergency room a dozen times in six months.
Osteoarthritis is a good-news, bad-news scenario.
The good news? People are staying healthier and living longer than they did in the past, says Henry Ford Macomb rheumatologist Dr. Samir Yahia.
The bad news?
“Cartilage wears as we age, leading to osteoarthritis, which affects people’s lifestyles as they get older,” Yahia adds.
http://www.sourcenewspapers.com
There were days Jyotsna would just rise and shine. On other, not-so-exceptional days, she could barely manage to drag herself out of the bed. Her low level of stamina frustrated her, as did the inability to see any pattern emerging from the erratic energy levels. “Has the viral fever relapsed because I didn’t take as much rest as I should have? Or is it just mental stress manifesting itself in the physical form?” the 36-year-old sales manager kept contemplating. On most days she would be just dead tired. Her performance at work began to suffer as errors started creeping in the reports she prepared.
http://www.financialexpress.com
In the late 1970s, while working as a chiropractor and naturopath in Fergus, Ont., James Wilson began noticing patients with circadian rhythms out of whack.
They had trouble waking up in the morning, needed caffeine to get through the day, and felt a drop in energy mid-afternoon. Their second wind came at 11 p.m., revving them up for three hours.
Their deepest sleep, work permitting, was between 7 and 9 in the morning. They felt tired and unable to concentrate.
With nearly 40 years of medical research showing its importance in managing a wide range of serious illnesses, it’s not surprising that CoQ10 has at times been described as “The Miracle Vitamin” and “The New Fountain of Youth.”
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a vitamin-like nutrient that is present in virtually every cell of the body and is an essential component of each cell’s ability to produce energy. It is also a powerful antioxidant – a chemical that “mops up” potentially harmful substances.
Patients with severe ME who have complained of feeling neglected by the NHS could see treatment improve as early as the summer according to health chiefs. Many patients and carers have been frustrated by what they see as delays in improving the service for people with ME and the related chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) after the region’s only specialist consultant left almost four years ago.
A month ago, Bart Fenolio was told he had Lou Gehrig’s disease and had two months to live. Doctors advised his wife, Heidi, to take him home and call a hospice.But Fenolio is proving the doctors wrong. Instead of getting worse, he’s growing stronger each day, thanks to antibiotics. That’s because he doesn’t have Lou Gehrig’s disease, which isn’t curable.
As if getting decent sleep weren’t hard enough with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, many of us get random temperature swings that can cause us to wake up overheated or sweating like crazy. I recently got to test a product designed to help with that. The makers of In Balance sheets say the special fabric in these sheets is aimed at “balancing temperature swings” to make you sleep more comfortably.
http://chronicfatigue.about.com
Imagine you are a thirtysomething woman, with a family, a career and a busy lifestyle. Despite your best efforts to eat well and be active, you constantly feel run down. At your annual physical, your doctor mentions that your iron is low, a condition not uncommon for a woman your age, so you pop some iron pills and pledge to make roast beef for dinner this Sunday. You suffer from migraine headaches from time to time, and you’ve had a long-standing battle with bloating and constipation, but you tell yourself that stress, hormones and eating on the run are probably the culprits.
The Mayo Clinic is currently conducting a pilot study of the Gupta Amygdala Retraining™ Programme for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia (FMS). The study is by invitation only and only current patients of the Mayo Clinic are being considered. If the pilot study goes well, the Mayo Clinic will be applying for an NIH grant to widen the study to a larger group. The study will be using the same Gupta Amygdala Retraining™ Programme available for purchase by Ashok Gupta, but will also include regular phone support. The study is 6 months in length, will include an estimated 30 patients, and results will be released in Fall 2010.
“UK Study Publication Does Not Impact XMRV Research”
RENO, NV – In October 2009, together with the Cleveland Clinic and National Cancer Institute, the Whittemore Peterson Institute published findings in Science regarding the discovery of XMRV in the blood of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients. The testing method, validated in multiple other labs using positive control samples, uses a unique process that was extensively peer reviewed before publication and provides the most accurate results available.
In Vietnam, Jim Ogden flew through clouds of Agent Orange. In Desert Storm, he hovered past burning oil fields. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, he worked near a thick black plume of burning plastic, metals, chemicals and medical waste.Along the way he took injection after injection and swallowed pill after pill. He breathed in herbicides and pesticides. And he never questioned whether all of those drugs, toxins and poisons might someday do him harm.Not until he lost his eyesight.Now the former Marine and master helicopter mechanic can’t help but wonder what, if anything, was to blame.
Complaints about knee pain can be all too familiar when you suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee. The condition often keeps sufferers from participating in many activities—sometimes even just standing.
In 1971 a journalist introduced acupuncture to the United States through the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times and on Monday night, the FirstHealth Center for Health and Fitness in Rockingham, introduced acupuncture to Richmond County.
http://www.yourdailyjournal.com
Reno scientists who found a link between a retrovirus and people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are scoffing at a challenge from British researchers who claim the discovery was false.
Researchers at the nonprofit Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease at the University of Nevada, Reno made headlines worldwide last October when they reported discovering a new infectious human retrovirus, XMRV, in the blood of 68 of 101 people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Buddhas levitating on lotus flowers, ageing hippies traversing the path to enlightenment, celebrities citing it as the secret of their svelte bodies; yoga has had so many different proponents over the years, it’s hard to know what to actually believe about the 4000-year-old Indian practice.
http://quest-news.whereilive.com.au
Researchers have discovered a protein in blood that can be used to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome, a breakthrough that could help detect the ailment during physical checkups.
CFS and mental health. This is a subject full of landmines. Does CFS affect my mental health? Oh yeah. Unfortunately, when I say this, some mistakenly assume that CFS equals depression. Or that it is a psychosomatic condition. That I’m mentally ill. That I can’t cut it in normal life and am in hiding.
About a year ago, I started to really worry about some gastrointestinal symptoms that had been getting steadily worse for about 4-5 months. I also had intense fatigue, couldn’t stay awake, and couldn’t move when I woke up in the morning.
http://chronicfatigue.about.com
On January 22, Dr. Judy Mikovits, PhD, director of research for the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, conducted a 2½-hour XMRV seminar in Santa Barbara, CA.
The patient-oriented event was sponsored by the HHV-6 Foundation & ProHealth.com
The highly informative presentation and Q&A covered a multitude of intriguing details, clarifications, insights, and plans that patients and researchers worldwide have been speculating about for months – since discovery of the XMRV retrovirus in ME/CFS patients’ blood was reported last October in the journal Science, and a later paper by UK researchers in PLoS One reported finding none.
For many years, scientists have been looking for an explanation to characterize a condition that they termed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Basically, people suffering from it are very tired all the time, and also exhibit a host of other symptoms for which doctors can find no biological explanation. Last year, a research group proposed that the condition might be linked to a viral agent, but now a new study shows that the link does not hold up against rigorous, scientific scrutiny, ScienceNow reports.
Believe it or not, tanning may be the best way for some people to fight chronic pain.
HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo tells us about this controversial approach to treating fibromyalgia, and it’s being prescribed by a North Carolina dermatologist.
British scientists have not been successful in finding the link that connects a new kind of retrovirus and chronic fatigue syndrome in a study which contradicts earlier findings by American researchers claiming that they have found a possible viral cause of the debilitating condition.