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Fatigue Syndrome Permanently Exhausted When Chronic Fatigue Is Morbid
Patients who suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are usually constantly exhausted, have difficulty concentrating and have muscle aches. They can hardly handle their everyday life. But there are ways to better manage Chronic Fatigue. Can help, among other things, medications. Those affected should also learn to use their energy reserves more gently.
Patients can hardly cope with their everyday lives
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterized by persistent mental and physical fatigue, but also accompanying symptoms such as fatigue, headache, joint, muscle and limb pain, sleep, concentration and memory disorders. When loaded, the complaints of the patients usually increase. Often, those affected can hardly cope with their everyday lives. Edelgard Klasing also found this difficult. As the news agency dpa reports, the woman from Dortmund could neither sit on a chair nor hold a spoon or raise her arms. She was constantly exhausted, had severe pains in her arms and legs and every movement was agony.
Chronic tiredness - what to do when the tiredness gets bigger and bigger. Image: pathdoc - fotolia "My husband had to feed me, and I crawled to the bathroom because I just did not have the strength to walk." The then 35-year-old was bedridden for over half a year. The diagnosis was Pfeiffer's glandular fever, but the long illness phase did not speak for it. Although people infected with the glandular fever-inducing Epstein-Barr virus also suffer from chronic fatigue and other similar symptoms, patients recover from this viral disease at the latest after three months. At Edelgard Klasing, however, there was no improvement. "I had no hope for the future anymore." That changed when a doctor diagnosed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
About 300,000 Germans suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, around 300,000 people in Germany are affected. However, the diagnosis of "fatigue syndrome" is often not met so quickly. It's hard to prove why patients feel so tired and battered. Therefore, some physicians have long considered CFS to be an imaginary disease. Although the syndrome is now recognized, the diagnosis has still not become easier. "For CFS to qualify as a diagnosis, the performance level of a person must be more than 50 percent limited, and the reduction in performance must have stopped for at least six months," explained immunologist Wilfried Bieger from Munich in the dpa message. A few years ago, scientists from Stanford University reported that the fatigue syndrome was evident in the brain. With imaging techniques this is easily recognizable.
Causes of the disease are not clearly understood
For physicians, CFS is clearly differentiated from classic burn-out, "fatigue" after cancer treatment, or the complications of multiple sclerosis. While there are only a few explanations for CFS, the cause of the chronic fatigue in the other diseases mentioned can be reasonably explained. In addition, the symptoms are quite unspecific. CFS is therefore still confused with other syndromes today. "However, CFS differs from states of exhaustion in the context of diseases such as tumors or chronic inflammation in that affected persons have to recover disproportionately long after a physical exertion," says Bieger. You can not equate CFS with depression either.
"Depressed people lack the inner drive to act, but they could do it physically," Bieger said. People who suffer from CFS can not do that, their bodies are completely exhausted. So far, the causes are not clear. Joachim Strienz, a specialist in internal medicine from Stuttgart, said: "It is probably an overactivation of the immune system." It is said that subsequently mitochondria, which supply the body's cells with energy, are thought to be damaged. However, cell structures in the brain, nervous system and muscles in particular need a lot of energy and therefore have many mitochondria. "So when they shut down their energy supply, it can lead to the mental and physical fatigue that also occur in CFS."
No special therapy of CFS
Because exhaustion also occurs in other conditions, CFS is an exclusion diagnosis. "Thus, if no clear clinical pictures or severe iron and vitamin deficiencies are detected in the nervous, immune or endocrine system and yet there is an increased immune activation, CFS is a possible finding," explained Bieger. "To make matters worse, we can not clearly objectify the nonspecific symptoms of patients." The diagnosis therefore often extends over years.
There is no special therapy for CFS. "Rather, we try to compensate for irregularities and deficiencies, which we have found in previous studies, such as the blood count or liver and kidney levels," said Bieger. "Ultimately, this only treats the symptoms of CFS, not the causes." According to health experts, Traditional Chinese Medicine can help many sufferers. Thus, TCM contributes to the fatigue syndrome that sometimes patients feel relieved, vital and optimistic after just a few days. For some, a visit to the gym may be useful. For example, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, citing a study in the year before last, had pointed out that weight training can help breast cancer patients with fatigue. Many of these patients are struggling with the syndrome. However, as noted earlier, doctors distinguish between CFS and "fatigue", which is used after cancer treatments.
Carefully handle the limited energy reserves
In addition, according to the agency message, a drug makes hope, which is actually used in the treatment of lymph node cancer. "In a Norwegian study, patients were treated with rituximab, which had both lymph node cancer and CFS. The cancer was cured and the symptoms of CFS disappeared, "Strienz explained. "Presumably, rituximab shuts off certain white blood cells that are programmed incorrectly and cause damage," said the expert. "This calms the overactive immune system."
Its efficacy is assessed in further studies. In Germany, the drug is not yet approved for the treatment of CFS. Patients should basically learn to treat their limited energy reserves gently in order to get a permanent grip on their exhaustion. "Already with small everyday activities, it is worthwhile to save energy," said Klasing, who today is chairwoman of the Federal Association of patient organization "Fatigatio" in Berlin. "For example, you can sit instead of stand, drive a car instead of running or just leave off ironing." It also helps to make a plan of upcoming events and tasks in the coming days and weeks. "So, if I have an important appointment the day after tomorrow, I know today that tomorrow I will have to reduce my energy consumption and can not go to the full on the day after the appointment." Thanks to her discipline, the now 57-year-old can do well with Chronic Exhaustion syndrome live. She can work again, go shopping and visit friends. "Not as often as before, but life is not passing me now, but I can see it again." (Ad)