chronic fatigue syndrome or adrenal fatigue

anybody here with CFS or AF? how was it diagnosed and how are you treating it?

Hi, are you still having problems? Have you seen your MD and discussed these things with him - including CF/AF? You can try to diagnose yourself til the cows come home, but unless you have a doctor's say so, you won't get treated, or if you treat yourself with who knows what for whatever you think is wrong, you could be not treating something else that needs dealing with, and causing other conflicts with your 'treatment'. The two problems you mention are complex ones and shouldn't be assumed to be present (or absent) by polling us here - you need testing and real lab work to learn about them. There are thousands of MD's out there who still don't understand CFS well, and have to refer patients to specialists to get properly diagnosed (and treated), and that goes double for AF (if in fact it is even a real diagnosis - and now Socknitser or someone is going to jump all over me for suggesting that )!

My endo says CFS is a cardboard box in which everything is dumped when ones toredness cant be explained. she was also very dismissive of adrenal fatigue-i assumebecause its more commonly refered to in alternative medicine.

Yes, im still having problems- i went for a full suite of blood tests and everything was normal.

But yet Im still tired-no shes suggesting a better diet and exercise

After 20+ years fighting chronic pain, fibro, etc. this is one of the overall best understandings I see out there. The link is to the "Health Care Providers" section. You almost have to be your own.

http://www.med.umich.edu/painresearch/pro/over.htm

The only ones who have helped me at all are Rheumatologists, who take a systemic approach. The problem is that all of the symptoms are systemic issues that could be caused by many different stressors (look at Hans Seyle and his GAS.)

Adrenal could be the cause, but I think in most cases it is an effect of longterm stress on the system. FMRI imaging has shown that part of the brain shrinks progressively, year over year, with chronic pain. Th doctors can tell hoe long you have been in pain by reading the scan. OSA causes other systemic brain changes over a period of years. And so it goes.

Meditation, diet, CBT, exercise, yoga, acupuncture, medications are all tools to great tge symptoms. They help. But you also need to find root cause. (See differential diagnosis, for example.)

Sleep is citical! You need to solve that before anything will help. I finally got the OSA diagnosis after 20 years of insomnia. Now 4 months after getting the ASV (that took months), I can start to work on mechanical pain problems - torn shoulder, cervical stenosis, sciatica. Allergies, asthma are falling away with sleep. I had even injected HGH (human growth hormone) for 1.5 years a few years back to keep going - at the cost of sbout $1,000 month. Took thyroid med. Just treating symptoms - the root cause for that part of the problem was sleep deprivation.

Look at Hans Seyle. He says that all of the stressors are cumulative. Pain, bad diet, allergies, etc. You have to find **the** major stressor in your system. Celiac disease? Etc.

Meditation is the only real tool that kept me alive through the mess.

Good luck!

Wow, I was just getting ready to post a question on this very topic. I am now wondering if I might not be suffering from CFS or Fibro. After almost 3 yrs on cpap I still do not feel rested or refreshed. I suffer from chronic muscle aches, memory problmes, horrible fatique, and mild depression. All of these I have attributed to lack of sleep. On the rare( and I do mean RARE) days that I wake feeling somewhat rested I notice that many of these symptoms seem to be less severe. I know that sleep is the key , but I never can seem to get regular restful sleep for any length of time. My cpap stats are very good and with the results I get I SHOULD be feeling much better than I do.
I have had physical exams and recently was tested for celiacs disease since my oldest daughter suffers from that. But my endoscopy came back negative. Most doctors say it is because I am in menopause and that I should expect to feel tired, but I don't think they truly understand the extent of my fatique even after I try to explain it to them.
I have been unemployed now since Jan. and cannot take on any large medical expenses at this time so a battery of tests is out of the question.
I know that there are no real answers to my post but I would just like to hear from anyone who has suffered with either of these two conditions. Please let me know some of the things that may have worked for you-diet, medications, physical therapy, etc. etc. I am anxious to know if there is hope out there!!! Thanks- GG

Hi grumpygirl...
I ran the full gamut of doctors telling me my fatigue was due to peri-menopause, thyroid, menopause, my hectic schedule as a teacher, you name it.... All logical but after getting through peri-menopause, having my thyroid balanced, becoming post-menopausal, and retiring from teaching...guess what? I am still just as fatigued as ever. I, too, have been told I have fibro. There really isn't a test to confirm that, but I have all the sore points on my body, and my massage therapist tells me my muscles feel like her other fibro patients. So..... now I learn I need cpap therapy after my sleep study showed my AHI at 16. I certainly hope once I begin therapy, I will feel better... I believe just getting my O2 normalized will be huge since I was seriously low on O2 during my study (76%). Certainly O2 affects every cell in our bodies so getting that normalized will be a big step in the right direction!

I came across some interesting articles on fibro and how it may be correlated to magnesium and malic acid deficiencies. Interesting since both of those are needed for muscle energy output. Mag is very hard to absorb via supplementation, but using transdermal magnesium oil is very absorbable. I am experimenting with it and have found my pain level much lower. Worth a try....

Vitamin D is also a hard one to absorb, and new guidelines say we need up to 2000 IU's a day post-menopause to help our bones. Vitamin D is also essential for energy. D3 is the one you want to take!

I get regular massages which really help with my pain and stiffness, but they can be pricey. Perhaps asking loved ones for gift certificates for birthday/holidays to a local massage therapist who understands fibro techniques would be an option. If there is a massage therapy school near you, you can probably get massages done by LMT students for a very nominal fee.

Best of luck to you..... I hope you feel better soon!!