Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

This is a situation where you have chronic, unremitting fatigue, which continues for a long period and sleeping doesn't help. Two of the common factors I find are immune system imbalances and respiratory disorders, where the person's breathing capacity has been compromised and they are no longer able to take deep breaths. Oxygen being the most important in the molecule to maintain our vitality can be dramatically reduced on a breath-to-breath basis just by shallow breathing. By not exercising appropriately the ribs lose the ability for the ribs to articulate and move properly, preventing the ribs and subsequently the lungs within to expand fully, causing shallow breathing. Chronic shallow breathing can be a big contributor to CFS, because if you don't get the oxygen in, you don't have the energy available in your cells.

I check breathing on all my clients because oxygen is such a key player on the biochemical side of the triad of health. If you're trying to stimulate the healing process in other ways, through nutrients or exercises, and the body doesn't have enough oxygen available, that step that the other nutrients are going to activate will put a stress on the system because there's not enough oxygen to drive the system.

I also look at emotional and immune issues, which could be affecting how a person's body is or is not able to heal itself. It varies case to case, but excessive stress is a common stressor of the immune system. When a person is under stress the adrenal stress hormone cortisol is secreted into the blood system, and gives you the "fight or flight" response. If you are under constant stress you'll have high levels of this hormone in your system all the time. Cortisol is an important stress hormone, but at the same time it supresses the immune and lymphiod tissues. so if you're constantly supressing the immune system, you're going to have a harder time responding to infection patterns.

Exposure to high levels of toxic chemicals can also overwhelm the body's detox systems, especially in the liver, and can cause chronic fatigue patterns until those chemicals are eliminated from the body, or new exposure to toxins is avoided. Over time, the body will excrete what has built up. Mercury fillings may contribute to this toxic pattern. To my understanding, the EPA has ruled that mercury is a toxin and should not be in the body. Mercury has toxic effects in many areas of the body, particularly the nerve cells, where it tends to be deposited in the mylin sheath.

In short, chronic fatigue can be brought on by a a number of enviromental factors, including petrochemical, viral, mold, and chemical outgassing from new carpet and paint.

Disclaimer:  The information contained herein is for research purposes only and should not be construed as medical recommendations for any disease or symptom. It is not intended to provide medical advice.