What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? – Video

What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? How to fight it…

 

Excerpt

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a serious, long-term illness that affects many body systems. Oftentimes, it can make you unable to pursue your usual activities. Sometimes you may not even be able to get out of bed.

Anyone can get chronic fatigue syndrome, but it is most common in people between 40 and 60 years old. Adult women have it more often that adult men.

Caucasians are more likely than other races to get a diagnosis, but many people with chronic fatigue syndrome have not been diagnosed with it.

What are its symptoms? How is it is diagnosed and treated? Dr. Vikki shares her personal experience in this video.

Transcript

Have you ever been sooooo exhausted? You’re just, I don’t know, your life just feels like you can’t live it anymore… And you push, and you push, and you push, and then you get to a point maybe where you can’t push.

Or you go to the doctor of course, and they run all these tests, and they say, “You’re fine”… “You’re tired; rest”.

Maybe you can’t rest. Maybe you’re not getting good quality sleep and, and time goes on. And then all of a sudden you feeling older and you’re feeling achy and you know, maybe you’re getting sick more easily.

There are a lot of things associated with this.

Chronic fatigue syndrome sets in…

So I’ll try to very much encapsulate the last year or so of my life, where I basically got into a chronic fatigue situation.

Yes, you can say that. I was developing our California clinic, when we moved into our new building [in Clearwater, FL]. I was the project manager, even though I had absolutely no training as a project manager.

So I’d wake up at the crack of dawn and talk to everybody who was working on the project. And then at the end of my full day at work, I would talk to everybody again, and basically never took a day off. And I actually love what I do, so this was never a trial.

Then we were building the new clinic in Clearwater — which is where I’m talking to you from now. Just, you know, life and being super super busy, and really not taking any “me-time” —which I’m not good at anyway— but here’s what I do have is… now I’m in my sixties.

One gets one’s adrenal health —which is  your stress gland health and your mitochondrial function— apparently genetically from your mother. And my mother had terrible <laugh> both of these.

Genetic testing

I did genetic testing. We do genetic testing here at the Clearwater clinic, to look at what’s called your “snips”,  little defects you get from mom and dad, that kind of set you up for certain issues.

And when I did them, at least a decade or so ago, there were these little indications of “Well, should you be under a lot of stress, then this might happen, and this might happen, and this might happen, and this might happen“.

And actually my health history was I was not a healthy child. I worked very hard for my health. I do not have a fast metabolism by any stretch of imagination. I very much practice what I preach. I exercise almost every day. I very easily gain weight, etc., etc., etc.

Fine. Again, love what I do, and I love feeling great… but I know what it’s like to feel terrible. And in my teens and twenties, I was like that.

So now fast forward decades… I used to joke “Oh, five o’clock, most of the staff is leaving, great. Let me get to work”. And then I’d work for the next two and a half hours. And then I’d cook dinner every night for my family. I love cooking, that was my relaxed time.

But then suddenly, at five o’clock, I was now ready to go home. And then all of a sudden it was, at four o’clock I was ready to go home. Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Epstein-Bar

Anyway, long story short, I did some blood tests. Nothing dramatic showed up, we finally found the Epstein-Bar virus, the virus you get when you have mono[nucleosis].

We’ve learned a lot about viruses during the pandemic, but they’re always there. So we’ve been exposed to a lot of viruses. They’re always in our system, which can freak some people out. It shouldn’t: viruses are kept under control by a healthy immune system.

But if your immune system goes down, you get in a weakened state [chronic fatigue syndrome], pop! Out they come! And that’s what mine did. The Epstein-Bar popped out after 4+ decades. Because I had it probably when I was 17 —I had a really bad case of mono actually. So that popped out, and basically I was just exhausted. I couldn’t keep up with my life anymore.

Fighting chronic fatigue syndrome…

And so I did a very in-depth nutritional program. There’s really nothing to change about my diet: it was more just realizing that I kind of burnt myself out basically, and the virus was opportunistically taking advantage of that.

I did a very extensive nutritional program. After about five, six months, I did IVs. We were just bringing IVs into the clinic. So I did the UVBI. That’s a UV light + ozone, it helps kill viruses and lime, etc. So I did that. I got a nice boost from that.

And during this time I gained 20 pounds. I had weighed the exact same since the day I was married —I’ve been married 35 years, and suddenly I was 20 pounds heavier! It really was sudden, it came on very quickly, as soon as I stopped doing my life and moving around. It just shot up, which has always been a tendency, I just never let it get out of control.

And weight gain…

But there was nothing I could do. I literally was eating the same. It just flew on!

So I very much always understand patients when they say “I changed nothing and the weight came on!“. It’s like, your body is under stress and it’s holding onto every calorie you’re eating. And it’s really slows your metabolic rate down because it is into “protect mode” and “hold mode”.

So I heard my own words in my head, which did not make me an ounce happier because my entire wardrobe is the exact same size. So nothing fit anymore.

I wasn’t really going anywhere, so it hardly mattered. So, yoga pants and a lot of rest and taking a lot of vitamins — full disclosure, I’m not very, very good at swallowing tablets. I’m great at capsules. So I had to actually learn how to swallow the best multiple that we have; which is big, but so worth it.

So I taught myself how to do that and came back. You know, a lot of people said, “Oh, you don’t look fat, so don’t worry about it“.

And I was like “No, I, I know I can get myself back to where I’ve always been. And I wanna be ideally healthy because I know I can do that“.

Why I share this…

I’m sharing this only because I’m very happy to say that I am back [I’m over chronic fatigue syndrome], and sleeping actually better than ever. I learned a lot of good things. I learned breathing techniques <laugh> to relax, something I had never done in my life.

I got a whoop band, there’s aura rings, there’s a lot of things that you can help as far as, um, seeing what your sleep is doing.

And I really learned that even though I put myself to bed for enough hours every night, my quality [of sleep] wasn’t that good. So I learned how to improve that.

I’ve been back to exercising every day for actually almost, probably nine months now. And it took time to finally get my weight back to where it had always been.

So that’s there. And I’m back in my wardrobe, which makes me happy.

But mostly what makes me happy is the fact that regaining one’s health, despite bad genetics and some other challenges that I had — just by the nature of mom and dad — that was it. Certainly not my diet however. I worked really hard on that.

So just predispositions… But instead of saying, “Well, I’m predisposed and there’s a lot of obesity in my family, so I gained 20 pounds, let’s buy a new wardrobe“. I’m not trying to fault anybody who just says “Okay, well, I’m in my sixties now… whatever“.  All I’m saying is great health is worth the fight!

In conclusion

I literally have just come out of a fight that lasted over a year against chronic fatigue syndrome. And I wanted to share my success with you, because that’s what we live for here at the Clinic.

We have these tools… And I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care how bad your genetics are…

If you’re willing to fight for your health, we are willing to fight with you. So if your health is not the way you want it to be, please give us a call. By the way, if you like this, please share it with others.

Root Cause Medical Clinic: Our Mission

At Root Cause Medical Clinic, we uncover the underlying root cause that is creating your body’s ill health or malfunction, ending the discomfort and inconvenience of poor health.

Our main goal is to identify the stressors overwhelming your body. They may be lifestyle or diet-related, or they may emanate from a malfunction of an organ or system, such as the nervous system.

The facts are, these stressors are inhibiting your body’s ability to heal itself. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is just a symptom.

Our team of clinicians share the same philosophy on health, and combine their experience in functional medicine, nutrition and dietetics, physical therapy and chiropractic.

Root Cause Medical Clinic is located in Clearwater, FL. Ask our team to create a custom health program to help you return to vibrant health.

We’d be more that happy to discuss with you regarding any diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome you may have received. Call us at 727-335-0400.

 

Information resources

More about fatigue

History of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome