Posted by bleauberry on May 4, 2008, at 15:32:34
In reply to plenty of sleep/ still tired, posted by PsaltyChips on May 4, 2008, at 12:44:06
> But I can't help but wonder if everything is connected somehow....
>Well said. Chronic fatigue is one of the mystery illnesses. Maybe 100 years from now they'll have it figured out. Right now it seems like every specialist has his/her own favorite theory and treatment. But overall it does appear to me that everything is indeed connected...the sleep, the fatigue, depression, allergies, etc.
Causes of CFS are many. Ongoing allergies. Hidden bacterial or micro-organism infections. Hypoadrenalism. Hypothyroid. Autoimmune dysfunction. Longterm accumulation of mercury from amalgam fillings, which actually causes all of the above and more.
The Marshall Protocol treats it with the antibiotic Minocycline for a couple years along with another med and avoiding bright light and avoiding vitamin D....somehow resets the immune function and kills the undetectable critters causing the illness.
Web naturopaths and integrative docs treat it with hydrocortisone, licorice root, adrenal cortex extract, armour thyroid or prescription thyroid meds. Their belief is that it is hypoadrenalism or hypothyroidism or both, even when the lab numbers are within the normal range. They go by symptoms, not labs. Which is cool I think.
Mainstream pdocs and GPS usually don't try to figure it out but instead fight the symptoms with things like antidepressants for mood, stimulants for energy, and sedatives for sleep.
Hundreds of people undergo longterm low dose frequent dose chelation to remove heavy metals believed to be the root cause of their illness.
For starters, I think you need to find out as much about your body as you can before attempting treatment. The basics...
*24 hour 4 sample salive Cortisol (to diagnose hypoadrenalism)
*Thyroid freeT3, freeT4, totalT4, TSH, and thyroid antibodies. If they are not optimum, yet normal, you need treatment. The symptoms are there and speak louder than paper.
*A complete routine blood test.
*A look inside your mouth to see if there are any silver fillings which are 50% mercury sending out vapors 24/7.Since you specified you are at this time only interested in natural options, they would probably include one or several of these:
Licorice root extract (hypoadrenalism)
Adrenal cortex extract (hypoadrernalism)
Adrenal glandular extract (hypoadrenalism)
Hydrocortisone (hypoadrenalism)
Armour Thyroid (hypothyroid)
Various herbs well known to kill candida, bacteria, and viruses, such Pao Darco, Oregeno oil, Olive leaf extract, and half a dozen other powerful critter killing herbs.
CFS friendly diet: No sugars, low caffeine, low carbs, high proteins, low dairy, heavy on raw veggies and fruits.
CoQ10 (energy)
Aceltyl-L-Carnitine (energy)
SAMe (energy and mood)
St Johns Wort (mood and kill critters, but it usually lowers cortisol so not good if hypoadrenalism)Even without spending money on tests you can get a good idea if something is wrong in the adrenal/thyroid axis by doing this: Take your temperature with a digital thermometer at 9am, noon, and 3pm every day for 2 weeks. Record each reading on a chart. Take the three readings for each day and calculate their average. If unable to do all three readings in a day or at the correct times, do the best you can and record something for that day. After two weeks you can see patterns that spell trouble. For example, if you average temperature is below 98 degrees, you need treatment. If your temperature never gets up to 98.6, you need treatment. If your waking temperature, right out of bed, is 97.6 or lower fairly consistently, you need treatment.
poster:bleauberry
thread:827135
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20080326/msgs/827151.html