CFS - What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, often referred to as CFS, is huge problem for millions of people. People who are trying to live a normal life but who are tired all the time, who have concentration drop outs during the day, who have aches and pains and seem to be often sick and who have food allergies and sensitivity to environmental conditions where they did not have them before.

Currently the medical advice on CFS is that:

• The cause or causes of chronic fatigue syndrome have not been identified and no specific diagnostic tests are available.
• CFS is normally diagnosed by exclusion which means that when all alternatives have been ruled out then, by exclusion, the problem must be chronic fatigue syndrome.
• There is no single treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome so treatment is aimed at symptom relief and improved function.
• Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in America indicates that less than 20% of chronic fatigue syndrome patients in this country have been diagnosed.

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Clearly the medical information is saying that there are no answers and no cures BUT in our experience there ARE some proven alternative health self care strategies that DO sort this problem out, so keep reading, there IS hope!

Look first at the medical information and then we will review alternate health strategies in more depth.

This page has been drawn directly from material published by the US Government “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”. It is one of the major operating components of the American Department of Health and Human Services.

The Center advises that “CDC and other government information included on the NPIN Website is in the public domain” and as such we have used their information here to give a clean overview of where medical thinking is currently sitting with regard to CFS.
The specific link to this information is http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/cfsbasicfacts.htm

It is a great set of information for you to look through to see the medical symptoms and to get an overall feeling about your own condition and if you, or the people you care about are likely to suffer from CFS.

When you look at this be aware that the CDC quotes numbers like this one: ”Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) affects more than one million people in the United States. There are tens of millions of people with similar fatiguing illnesses who do not fully meet the strict research definition of CFS.”

Introduction

Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is a debilitating and complex disorder characterized by profound fatigue that is not improved by bed rest and that may be worsened by physical or mental activity.

Persons with CFS most often function at a substantially lower level of activity than they were capable of before the onset of illness. In addition to these key defining characteristics, patients report various nonspecific symptoms, including weakness, muscle pain, impaired memory and/or mental concentration, insomnia, and post-exertional fatigue lasting more than 24 hours. In some cases, CFS can persist for years.

The cause or causes of CFS have not been identified and no specific diagnostic tests are available. Moreover, since many illnesses have incapacitating fatigue as a symptom, care must be taken to exclude other known and often treatable conditions before a diagnosis of CFS is made.


Definition of chronic fatigue syndrome.

A great deal of debate has surrounded the issue of how best to define CFS. In an effort to resolve these issues, an international panel of CFS research experts convened in 1994 to draft a definition of CFS that would be useful both to researchers studying the illness and to clinicians diagnosing it. In essence, in order to receive a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, a patient must satisfy two criteria:

1. Have severe chronic fatigue of six months or longer duration with other known medical conditions excluded by clinical diagnosis; and
2. Concurrently have four or more of the following symptoms:
• substantial impairment in short-term memory or concentration;
• sore throat;
• tender lymph nodes;
• muscle pain;
• multi-joint pain without swelling or redness;
• headaches of a new type, pattern or severity;
• unrefreshing sleep;
• and post-exertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours.

The symptoms must have persisted or recurred during six or more consecutive months of illness and must not have predated the fatigue.

man Similar Medical Conditions

A number of illnesses have been described that have a similar spectrum of symptoms to CFS. These include fibromyalgia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis, neurasthenia, multiple chemical sensitivities, and chronic mononucleosis. Although these illnesses may present with a primary symptom other than fatigue, chronic fatigue is commonly associated with all of them.

Other Conditions That May Cause Similar Symptoms In addition, there are a large number of clinically defined, frequently treatable illnesses that can result in fatigue. Diagnosis of any of these conditions would exclude a definition of CFS unless the condition has been treated sufficiently and no longer explains the fatigue and other symptoms.

These include;
• hypothyroidism,
• sleep apnea and narcolepsy,
• major depressive disorders,
• chronic mononucleosis,
• bipolar affective disorders,
• schizophrenia,
• eating disorders,
• cancer,
• autoimmune disease,
• hormonal disorders,
• subacute infections,
• obesity,
• alcohol or substance abuse,
• and reactions to prescribed medications.


Signs & Symptoms

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• CFS is marked by extreme fatigue that has lasted at least six months; is not the result of ongoing effort; is not substantially relieved by rest; and causes a substantial reduction in daily activities.
• In addition to fatigue, CFS includes eight characteristic symptoms:
o postexertional malaise (relapse of symptoms after physical or mental exertion);
o unrefreshing sleep;
o substantial impairment in memory/concentration;
o muscle pain;
o pain in multiple joints;
o headaches of a new type, pattern or severity;
o sore throat; and
o tender neck or armpit lymph nodes.
• Symptoms and their consequences can be severe. CFS can be as disabling as multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, congestive heart failure and similar chronic conditions. Symptom severity varies from patient to patient and may vary over time for an individual patient.

In addition to the eight primary defining symptoms of CFS, a number of other symptoms have been reported by some CFS patients. The frequencies of occurrence of these symptoms vary from 20% to 50% among CFS patients.

They include;
• abdominal pain,
• alcohol intolerance,
• bloating, chest pain,
• chronic cough, diarrhea,
• dizziness,
• dry eyes or mouth,
• earaches,
• irregular heartbeat,
• jaw pain,
• morning stiffness,
• nausea,
• night sweats,
• psychological problems (depression, irritability, anxiety, panic attacks),
• shortness of breath,
• skin sensations,
• tingling sensations,
• and weight loss.

Prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) affects more than one million people in the United States. There are tens of millions of people with similar fatiguing illnesses who do not fully meet the strict research definition of CFS.


Possible Causes of chronic fatigue syndrome?

• Despite an intensive, nearly 20-year search, the cause of CFS remains unknown. Many different infectious agents and physiologic and psychological causes have been considered, and the search continues.
• Much of the ongoing research into a cause has centered on the roles of the immune, endocrine and nervous systems may play in CFS. More recently, interactions among these factors are under evaluation.
• Genetic and environmental factors may play a role in developing and/or prolonging the illness, although more research is needed to confirm this. CDC is applying cutting-edge genomic and proteomic tools to understand the origins and pathogenesis of CFS.
• CFS is not caused by depression, although the two illnesses often coexist, and many patients with CFS have no psychiatric disorder.


Risk Factors:

• People of every age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic group can have CFS.
• CFS affects women at four times the rate of men.
• Research indicates that CFS is most common in people in their 40s and 50s.
• Although CFS is much less common in children than in adults, children can develop the illness, particularly during the teen years.


Diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome:

• There are no physical signs that identify CFS
• There are no diagnostic laboratory tests for CFS.
• People who suffer the symptoms of CFS must be carefully evaluated by a physician because many treatable medical and psychiatric conditions are hard to distinguish from CFS. Common conditions that should be ruled out through a careful medical history and appropriate testing include mononucleosis, Lyme disease, thyroid conditions, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, various cancers, depression and bipolar disorder.
• Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that less than 20% of CFS patients in this country have been diagnosed.


Treatment/Therapy:

• Since there is no known cure for CFS, treatment is aimed at symptom relief and improved function. A combination of drug and nondrug therapies is usually recommended.
• No single therapy exists that helps all CFS patients.
• Lifestyle changes, including prevention of overexertion, reduced stress, dietary restrictions, gentle stretching and nutritional supplementation, are frequently recommended in addition to drug therapies used to treat sleep, pain and other specific symptoms.
• Carefully supervised physical therapy may also be part of treatment for CFS. However, symptoms can be exacerbated by overly ambitious physical activity. A very moderate approach to exercise and activity management is recommended to avoid overactivity and to prevent deconditioning.
• Although health care professionals may hesitate to give patients a diagnosis of CFS for various reasons, it’s important to receive an appropriate and accurate diagnosis to guide treatment and further evaluation.
• Delays in diagnosis and treatment are thought to be associated with poorer long-term outcomes. For example, CDC’s research has shown that those who have CFS for two years or less were more likely to improve. It’s not known if early intervention is responsible for this more favorable outcome; however, the longer a person is ill before diagnosis, the more complicated the course of the illness appears to be.

Recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome

• CFS affects each individual differently. Some people with CFS remain homebound and others improve to the point that they can resume work and other activities, even though they continue to experience symptoms.
• Recovery rates for CFS are unclear. Improvement rates varied from 8% to 63% in a 2005 review of published studies, with a median of 40% of patients improving during follow-up. However, full recovery from CFS may be rare, with an average of only 5% to 10% sustaining total remission.



Self Care strategies for Living with chronic fatigue syndrome

I have co-authored a book that details all the best proven CFS treatments that you can apply to help you better cope with CFS.

Learn more here about my book available on Amazon in Printed book or Kindle download; "How to Beat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome...and get your life back!"


Diet change strategies:

Vitamin & Nutrient Associations

Now you have an outline of what current medical advice on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome we are going to look at it from another totally different direction.

(The material below is based on the personal experience of Warren Tattersall who has 15 years of experience of working with nutrition supplementation with a world wide nutrition company.)

It appears from medical advice that there is nothing we can really do to alleviate the condition but this has not been my experience all.

As a distributor of quality nutrition products I have worked with well over 50 people with chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms (some diagnosed, many just suffering in silence). Where people have begun on a broad spectrum nutrition program and continued with it for long enough to let it work we have seen, in almost every case, a dramatic improvement in their condition.

In many cases, including my own personal case, the symptoms of the chronic fatigue syndrome have alleviated to the point where there are now no apparent symptoms at all.

To clarify what we are talking about here I am going to use may of the topic heading we used above and relate what I have found through my experience and give anecdotal information about other people’s experience so you can assess if the nutritional solutions may be an answer for you with your own problems.

What is chronic fatigue syndrome?

The fatigue and tiredness that is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome was for many years put down to malingering and laziness. Popular press talked about “Yuppie Flu”.

Lady This was because people with the complaint are not able to function at the normal activity levels that our work and our daily lives require. It looked like the suffers just didn’t want to be involved with things.

Since there was, and still is, no definitive medical test that will confirm the presence of chronic fatigue syndrome it sometimes appeared that the individual had a lack of motivation rather than a true sickness.

Employers and family often became impatient with the sufferer as they couldn’t relate to what the problem really is.

It also appears to be much more prevalent in modern times than it has been historically so it took some time for the medical profession to pick up on an illness that they could not diagnose and they had no treatment for.

As more and more people presented with a range of symptoms that could not be denied the label of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis ("ME") was applied to the condition. This is nowadays used in many places as an interchangeable term for chronic fatigue syndrome.

There are few blood tests that are being developed that seem to indicate that the condition may be present but they are not generally accepted as definitive enough for most medical practitioners to accept them.

Even if the condition of chronic fatigue syndrome is shown to be present medical practitioners tell us that there is nothing that can be done in a medical sense to “fix”, or cure, the problem and they try instead to just relief of symptoms of the condition.

I will show you here that with nutritional supplementation you can be much more proactive than this.


Signs & Symptoms

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a difficult thing to define as all the information has shown.

The medical symptoms are shown above and are very comprehensive but here I want to talk about this on a much more personal level. People want to know what is happening in their own lives and what their own problems are coming from.

What I find normally when talking with people is that there seems to be several histories that are common to people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

That means that the sufferer will have had a high stress time and during that time they will have had an “incident” that involved the use of antibiotics.

Separately, but still falling into the same stress/incident category, are people who have had a viral infection that appeared to clear up but that they never felt they recovered from. They then slipped into a down hill path that has left them with all the conditions of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Finally there is a group who has had chemical contamination and this is the group that is most difficult to draw back from the edge of immune system collapse.

With all of these cases there are answers but we will look at them in much more depth so that you can assess if these things are relevant to you in your own condition.

If someone has a long term problem then they are very familiar with the symptoms and many people have had them since childhood.

What I will do now is to look closer at the symptoms that I commonly see in people who think they may have recently acquired the problem and are trying to come to terms with it.

These can often be a lot more subtle than the clearly defined symptoms outlined in the medical condition review section above and often look a bit like the individual is just getting run down and working too hard.

You know there is a potential problem when things start to go beyond that “Just run down” point:
• When you have a full nights sleep but still wake up tired,
• When you have energy/concentration drop-outs in the middle of the day.
• When you start having food allergies that had not been a problem or not apparent before.
• When you start reacting to environmental conditions that had not affected you before. This may be hay fever, asthma or just sensitivity to pollution or sprays or even skin care products.
• When your immune system starts to drop away it seems fairly common for people who previously did not get colds and flues to find that when anyone around them sneezes they pick up the bug from it.

Lady I was talking to a lady one day who I think summarized the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome extremely well.

She said that she has always done her weekly shopping and then come home, put it all away and then sat and made herself a cup of tea.

Now she was finding that she would do the shopping and then come home and she needed to make that cup of tea when she first came home and to rest so that she had the energy to put away the shopping!

This sense of something being wrong and knowing that it is getting worse is a terrible feeling.

To then have medical checkups and to be told there is nothing wrong and just to take things a bit easier actually sharpens the fear that there is something fundamentally wrong.

If you relate to this then I suggest you do actually have a problem. We will talk about what you can do about it in a moment.


What Causes chronic fatigue syndrome?

In my experience there are three conditions that seem to precede someone having chronic fatigue syndrome:

1. Life challenges, Stress and Antibiotics.

This is the area where most people seem to trigger the condition that we now call chronic fatigue syndrome.

These people are at the tip of the iceberg and are probably not the person who has been identified as having chronic fatigue syndrome or who has been dealing with it for years.

These are the people who know they have a problem, are often scared and a little isolated, and who want to do something before it gets out of hand.

tired When you read though is likely that you will recognize yourself and your symptoms.

I find many people are just relieved to be talking with someone and reviewing information that explains what they are living with and that there really is a specific problem here that can be identified and dealt with.

There can be from a number of factors leading to the problem and for the sake of clarity I will list a range of incidences that I have personally encountered.

• People who have been under long term stress and worry.
• People who are working shift work especially nurses and people whose shift changes week to week so they do not develop a solid routine.
• People with broken sleep patterns, especially is their eating habits are irregular.
• People who have someone close to them who has been sick for some time – especially if the current sufferer was a carer for the person with the long term illness,
• People who have gone through marriage or relationship breakdown,
• People who have had a sudden death in the family,
• People who have been under long term work pressure.
• People who have gone through a financial or similar crisis.
• Students who have been pushing themselves with extended study habits.
• People living in a dysfunctional relationship that causes constant pressure.
• People in a job they hate.
• People who are have sick family member that has caused them to worry on an ongoing basis.

What we are talking about here are people who are living a life under stress.

This condition in itself is not enough to bring on the chronic fatigue syndrome problem.

Medical trials have not been able to identify the causes of the problem as within a group of people who are under stress some will fall to this problem and most of the others will not. There does not seem to any consistency to it.

Clearly these life stresses alone are not enough to trigger chronic fatigue syndrome.

What I have found though is that the issues of lifestyle stress are commonly in the background of virtually everyone I have ever talked with who have CFS, except for where viral infections or chemical contamination are involved.

These conditions are not uncommon though so we need to ask what is it that triggers the CFS for these people?

antibiotics What I do nowadays when talking with people who have chronic fatigue syndrome, or who have all the symptoms of onset chronic fatigue syndrome, is to ask them when and why they took antibiotics.

They often look confused and I ask them to think back to about 6 months before the symptoms became really obvious and then they can normally tell me what it is that caused them to use antibiotics.

Some people initially don’t recall using antibiotics but then a few minutes later will say, “Oh yes, I forgot that …… and I used antibiotics then.”

Now antibiotics in themselves are lifesavers and for many of our health problems require the use of antibiotics. If you have infection, have an operation, have an accident with broken bones and other problems then you have no choice but to use the antibiotics.

One of the side effects through of the use of these drugs through is that they damage our digestive systems.

A little side lesson. When we eat our food we chew it up to break it down, saliva from the mouth gives enzymes to start breaking down the food. From there it goes to our stomach and the acids break it down to a soup like consistency which passes through our small intestine, large intestine and the waste goes out to the toilet.

Villi
















The majority of the nutrition we absorb is through the small intestine. We have a hair like protrusion on the walls of our small intestine called villi and on them micro villi that draw the nutrients out of the food we eat and pass it through the walls of the small intestine and absorbed into our blood if they are water soluble or small fat fragments and/or to the lymph glands if they are fat soluble.

From there the nutrition is delivered to our cells.

To understand this in more depth we have a great little article that is very enlightening called Nutrition for your cells.that I recommend you read.

The key to this is the Villi. If they become stressed and damaged (see the article) then they can be in a condition we call “Energetically impaired” where they are broken off and often get coated with mucus from your digestive system and fats from our food and so we cannot absorb our nutrients.

Antibiotics damage our villi.

If the villi are healthy they will normally deal with it but when the preconditions I described above exist then it appears that we often suffer full energetically impaired villi.

My personal belief is that this is the trigger factors that, in combination with the pre-existing issues listed above, trigger the condition we call chronic fatigue syndrome.

People have a health problem that they use the antibiotics for and they seem to get better but, as we said, the spark is not in the eye and spring is not in the step.

Lady After some time, often 6 months or so, they start to find they are weary all the time, they wake up tired, they have aches and pains.

Food allergies often appear.

Pre-existing issues like asthma, blood disorders, weight control get worse.

They have energy of concentration drop outs in the middle of the day.

Often they find it hard to perform at the mental and physical levels they had previously enjoyed.

Now we are talking about onset Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

In my experience it appears that with this problem there is nearly always the pre-existing problems discussed above, often poor sleep patterns, often poor diet or irregular eating times, normally high stress and when a crisis comes and especially when that crisis leads to use of antibiotics then the conditions exist that often precede a case of chronic fatigue syndrome.

This final category appears to cover 60% to 70% of people who have some level of what appears to be chronic fatigue syndrome.

In my experience, using a nutrition program like the ShapeWorks QuickStart or the ShapeWorks Advanced Program generally results in the symptoms beginning to turn around and more normal energy begin to reappear within 3 to 10 days of beginning to use the programs.

We will talk in more depth about what to expect when you start using these programs later in this article.

2. Viral infection.

unwell There appears to be a fairly clear link between viral infections like glandular fever (Epstein-Barr virus), regional encephalitis outbreaks, in Australia we have Ross River Virus which is normally transmitted by mosquito bite and many areas of the world have local viruses that people succumb to, appear to get better and then slip over time into chronic fatigue syndrome. Even a bad case of influenza can be in the background of a case of chronic fatigue syndrome.

This is not uncommon with people who have traveled and when traveling have had a viral infection that they have recovered from but still there is something lacking in their health, the spark in the eye, the spring in the step. It is too subtle to be clearly defined but there is a sense of something just not been fully back to normal and the health challenges that gradually become the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome may not show for 6 or 8 months and it may be even a couple of years later that the condition becomes a real problem.

Because of this time separation people often do not see the two conditions as being linked.

I have found that the time it takes to start to see results with nutrition products and these problems seem to vary hugely. Some people will see initial improvement within a few days or a week while others will find that it takes 30 days before they really start seeing their symptoms show improvements.

1. Chemical contamination.

I live in a country area and out in the bush where the air is meant to be clean and life more simple. My experience is that there can be a higher incidence of chronic fatigue syndrome here than in city areas.

Spraying In particular where a community lives in an area surrounded by hills and mountains, where the farm chemicals are held in the valley, seem to be at a higher risk of suffering with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Industrial chemicals appear to be another causative factor. How often do we see people who have been “less that careful” with industrial chemical in their youth who then has immune system and wellness issues in later life?

It is interesting that the statistics show that around 75% of people with chronic fatigue syndrome are women, the incidence of people who appear to have a history of chemical contamination preceding the condition tend to be male much more often than 1 in 4.

Another area where the chemical contamination may have been introduced is in the home setting, maybe household chemical, pesticides or fumigation.

This chemical contamination can also come from the abuse of recreational drugs. Intravenous drug uses who have broken free from the drug habit appear to be a high risk group for suffering with chronic fatigue syndrome. This particular group needs special care and attention if they are going to use nutritional supplementation to help assist with the problem and we will discuss that below.

If someone is suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome that has come from chemical contamination it can be a very bad thing.

As their immune system drops and their general health deteriorates there are a whole range of health issues that present themselves.

Immune system problems are common.

Food intolerances are very common, celiac disease, wheat and dairy intolerances.

Yeast intolerances, thrush, urinary tract infections, all sorts of other infections are common.

I have know people who have been so bad that they cannot be in a room where any chemical is sprayed, cannot have skin contact with plastic, cannot tolerate yeast that is airborne in a kitchen.

This sensitivity can lead on to intolerance to even high quality and hypoallergenic soaps & personal hygiene products so that people cannot put any, shampoo, soap, creams, oranything much else on their skin.

Tired In one case the lady was living in the country side as she could not tolerate pollution and her diet was down to 4 different vegetables that needed to be steamed for her and the only drink she could tolerate was filtered water.

The good new is that the last time I met that lady she was sitting in a restaurant with me eating pizza. There ARE answers for people who are even this bad but the road to recovery is a rocky road and is going to take some perseverance.

Living with the problem is not acceptable but you will have to understand that it was a long road to becoming so sick and it not going to clear up over night.

In such cases it will probably be 30 days before there are clear signs that things are improving and it may be up to 90 days before it is clear that recovery is happing.

In my experience it will happen but it is going to take time and patience.


Prevention:

The way to avoid these issues is to keep your immune system strong and your metabolic rate healthy.

If you have a strong immune system when the problem occurs with the issues discussed above then you are likely to be able to handle a crisis if it occurs.

If you think there is a chance that you are on this road I suggest that you check out nutrition programs like ShapeWorks QuickStart or the ShapeWorks Advanced Program and get onto one for at least an initial month to clean and balance out your system.

These programs are targeted for use with weight control, to lose or to gain weight. If you are interested in those things then you can “kill two birds with one stone” and achieve both outcomes at the same time.

We will discuss nutrition supplementation below.


Treatment/Therapy:

Coming out of chronic fatigue syndrome can sometimes be deceptively simple and can sometimes be a difficult process.

What I can tell you after working with a lot of people is that through using nutritional products virtually everyone I’ve dealt with has had a measurable improvement and most are able to bring themselves back to normal activity.

Energetically impaired Villi

vili If you have not yet read our article Nutrition for your cells then it is time to go and read it now and then come back to this page.

Medical advice I have been given is that the villi cannot be healed easily.

I am told that you need to find a supportive environment and have six to twelve months of rest, with full nights of regular sleep and nutritious meals eaten at regular times.

This time needs to be stress free.

I don’t know about you but I don’t know where there is a stress free environment. I live in country town and have friends who live on beautiful country properties and I can promise you that it is definitely not stress free out on the farm.

Cities are busy, life is busy. I don’t know where you will find a stress free environment.

The quickest way I know to heal energetically impaired villi is with the use of properly balanced nutrition products.

We will talk more about this later but it seems a good time to give an anecdotal story of health results and I’ll stop here and tell my own story

I had a problem with my own health that had plagued me for all of my life.

My elder and younger brother had high energy levels and I had low energy. I didn’t understand why, and I still cannot explain it, but it had been with me all my life and I lived with it.

As a schoolboy I had unexplained energy drop periods where I would just go to bed and sleep for 24 hours. Blood tests showed a drop in the red blood cells in that period but no-one could tell me anything about it.

When I was going out with the girl who became my wife there was an occasion that I fell asleep in a restaurant. This is an embarrassing thing but when there are only the 2 of you there it is something that keeps being recalled in conversation for 20 years!!

In my 30’s I went to my General Practitioner. I am 6 ft 2 in (187 cm) and he is much shorted than I am. He did all the blood tests and then patiently explained to me that I was tall and he was short. He did not like being short but there was nothing he could do about it. He said that he had high energy and I had low energy and that was just the way it was. Live with it!!

When I started to use a full nutrition program it was just to see what it did and because it may have given a benefit for my martial arts.

4 or 5 days later I remember standing at my cupboard getting out a shirt and just freezing up. I realized that I could not remember getting out of bed! I had never in my life just woken up and got out of bed. Every day I came slowly to consciousness and then fought myself to get moving. This day I just woke up rested and alert. It was one of those moments that you remember for ever.

Since then I can stay up late, work half the night, do pretty much anything and I will still wake at the same time and am able to bounce out of bed at 7am. This has lasted for nearly 15 years now and all my blood profiles are a lot better than they were 20 years ago.

Obviously that means I have an emotional attachment to nutrition products that can do this.


The key seems to be to repair the villi and when your digestive system is working normally (even if that is not normal for you) then your body will heal.

Have you had the experience of having an indoor plant that you have forgotten to water and it is all drooping with the leaves just hanging down? You water it and 10 minutes later it is all standing up, looking healthy and happy again.

I have seen people who have just done that, many, many of them. Instead of 10 minutes the process takes 3 to 10 days in many cases but the effect is as dramatic.

Medical advice seems to be that you need 6 to 12 months of rest in a stress free environment with regular nutritious meals and lots of sleep to do this.

I am walking testimony to say that the villi can be rebuilt in less than a week, provided the problem is not chemical contamination.

Self Care strategies for Living with chronic fatigue syndrome

Use of Trageted Nutrition Products for people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Mild or on-set chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms

Many people with mild chronic fatigue syndrome who have conditions that don’t appear to be chemical or viral based. For these people the road to recovery can appear to be, and may in reality actually be, a fairly simple one.

I’ll move foreword for now on the assumption that energetically impaired villi is at the heart of the problem. We know that the resultant lack of nutrition getting to the body on a cellular level has a direct effect on an individual’s health. If the villi is restored to reasonable condition then this will very often lead to quite significant turn around in the condition.

I have worked for a long time with targeted nutrition programs that all have the core nutrition factors that will address the villi issue and with that will break the back of the nutrition problem.

Amino The fundamental building block for this if the Amino-Protein Nutritional Shake Mix . It is an amino protein powder that has the essential amino acids that the body needs every day. They cannot be created within the body and need to be supplied through the food we eat.

Getting the full range of amino acids in the right balance is critical to turning this problem around.

The second batch of products that are packed in the nutrition programs that I have worked with and that are critical to the initial healing is the vitamin and mineral supplementation that accompanies the Amino-Protein Shake.

The packaging of these vitamin and mineral tablets varies from country to country as th suppllier always creates products that fit into the health guidelines in each country. In some countries a single vitamin and mineral tablet with botanical factors carries everything required. In India there is a Multivitamin, Mineral and Herb supplement. In Australia there is a formula 2 which is a Vitamin B6 complex in a herbal base and also formula 3 (vitamin & mineral) that work together. In USA these products are often packaged with slight variations in the formulation of the specific products to ensure they are 100% compliant with all health and packaging guidelines.

Whatever country you are in and however the base nutrition products have the same combination of ingredients, are used the same way, and achieve the same outcomes.

Whatever program you chose will have the core nutrition in it.

Check the QuickStart Program and the Advanced Program.

We would expect to see a change of energy levels within 3 days of commencement for normal healthy people though with chronic fatigue syndrome this could take up to 7 days (assuming the problem does not have a base in chemical contamination.)

Established chronic fatigue syndrome

tired

For people with established chronic fatigue syndrome, who are showing many of the symptoms listed in the medical sections above, but who are still able to function with a basically normal life then there will still be some issues with introducing anything different into the diet. This means a slightly cautious approach is recommended.

We are talking here about people who have had the condition for some time and the longer term effects of lowered immune system and lowered metabolic rate are becoming apparent.

In these case there is likely to be food intolerances. Using these products will not cause any harm but with a low immune system and fragile metabolisms then “change of diet” is always something to approach carefully.

There will also be a clear fatigue problem. This will turn around but a steady program that will allow the body to heal itself over time is the most secure path to follow.

It is wise to begin with a Amino-Protein Shake Mix shake and a set of tablets just once a day for a couple of days.

This will begin the detoxification process to let the body start to cleanse itself and also allow the system to adjust to the nutrition that is being added into the diet.

After a day or two, if there are no problems, then the shake can be taken a couple of times a day and the tablets can be taken 3 times which is the normal recommended use of the products.

If there is any sign of the body reacting to the nutrition products then look through the section below on “What to expect when you get started:.”

Severe chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms

When people have more advanced severe chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms then there are like to be food allergies that lead to lactose (milk) intolerance and Celiac Disease and similar conditions (Wheat and gluten intolerance).

The food allergies are part and parcel of the condition and they do not present a major problem but you need to pay attention and show some common sense.

If there is any chance that the condition has roots in chemical contamination or drug use or if it is just a fully developed case of chronic fatigue syndrome then the sufferer already knows that they have serious problems and that it not going to sort itself out over night.

In extreme cases it is best to use a couple of specialty products for the first few days or week to begin a gentle detoxification process.

The first of these products is Aloe Vera Juice .

Aloe heals where it touches. If you cut or graze your hand and there is an aloe vera plant near by you can cut the succulent leaf and rub the internal gel on the wound and the discomfort will reduce quickly and the rate of healing will normally be dramatically faster than without the use of the aloe products.

Internally it is a little more to difficult to apply aloe so you need to use a high quality Aloe Vera Juice

A quality product will be clear to look at and pleasant smelling. If you find an aloe juice that is a cloudy solution that smells and tastes poorly then you will have an extract of the full juice. This is very good for cleansing the lower bowel and is a much cheaper product but it will not deliver the same cleansing and healing properties as a juice that is extracted from just the heart of the plant.

It also cleans through your system. It has been likened to giving your body a shower on the inside. This is a good foundation to preparing to recover from chronic fatigue syndrome though it will not generate the core healing that is required by itself.

The Aloe will also cause a very gentle detoxification to begin in the body. With chemicals and drugs this will gently leach them into the blood stream where they can be flushed out of your system.

In addition to the Aloe Vera Juice another product that will help to balance the irritable bowel problem is acidophilus.

One product that works well as it does not need refrigeration in normal conditions is Florafiber.

These two products together will promote healing through the entire digestive tract and will, in many cases, assist in bringing irritable bowel syndrome back under control and aid in preventing “flare ups”.

One note, the Florafiber.tablets absorb water from the bowel so if you have diarrohea problems taking one or two tablets with only a small water will help reduce the fluid in the gut.

If you have constipation problems then Florafiber is a gentle fiber that will give the added roughage you need in your diet.

Taking one or two tables with two large glasses of water for each will dramatically increase the fiber and fluid in your system and help alleviate a constipation problem (though you may wish to stay near a toilet for half an hour after taking two Florafiber with a large amount of water.)

Finally, as the Florafiber tablets absorb liquids you need to not take them at the same time or the Aloe Vera Juice will absorb the aloe and pass it out of your system. Separate the two buy 20 min or half an hour.

Once you have a basic cleansing and healing process happening then you should look at adding in some nutrition products to heal your whole system.

For some people a couple of days will be enough to get things moving but if you think there a high chance of chemicals or drugs being involved then using the Aloe Vera Juice and Florafiber for 5 days or even a week prior to adding CN to your diet is a good idea.

The problem has taken a long time to establish and it will continue to do immense harm to your system if you do not deal with it so taking enough time to work conservatively with the healing and get it right is a very advisable.


What to expect when you get started:

Here we are looking at what to expect when you change your diet and when you introduce broad spectrum nutrition products into the diet of someone suffering chronic fatigue syndrome.

Fit

When someone starts on nutrition program like the ShapeWorks QuickStart and/or the ShapeWorks Advanced Program they have the basic building blocks for good health. They should not be thinking in terms of medications. They should be thinking in terms of giving their body what it needs to heal itself.

In the first few days your body will work to rebuild the villi so that it can absorb nutrition. As soon as it is able to do this then your body will start to repair itself.

An interesting, though slightly unsavory, sign of how things are going it to watch your urine once you are on a nutrition program.

When you put the vitamins and minerals into the diet then many of them will pass straight through your system and into the toilet. It almost seems that you can “cut out the middle man and just throw your tablets straight into the toilet!!” I constantly meet people who have been on nutrition supplements for extended times, sometimes years, and they are still seeing this highly coloured urine. This means that their body is passing the vitamins and especially the minerals rather than absorbing them.

With the these nutrition programs I expect people to see this high colour urine for a couple of days, or even up to a week, but as the villi rebuilds and the body starts to absorb these mineral the colour reduces. This means your body is absorbing what it needs to rebuild from the cells up so you can be well and healthy again.

People with Chemical contamination, or past drug issues, have deep problems. Part of dealing with the health challenge is to detoxify the toxins out of their system. In that detox process they will often trigger complications from the chemicals that are being released into their bloodstream. This can cause health problems that they thought they had got under control to appear to reoccur. There is a process for working through this that needs to be followed.

As the contaminates in your system leech out into your blood steam in the process of eliminating it from your body then the load of toxins in your system will be higher than normal.

During this time it is important that you drink lots of clean water. A minimum of 3 liters (2 quarts) – 8 large glasses a day – is recommended.

If you are not drinking the water then you can have symptoms like dull headaches, muscle stiffness, clouded thinking, just generally not feeling very well.

These are good signs as it means that things are happening but you do not need to put up with them.

For more information on these issues there is more information at our article symptoms to expect when you change your diet that I recommend you read for more detailed information.

Dealing with chemical contamination can be tough and can, in some cases, take 60 to 90 days before the benefits are apparent but not dealing with it leaves you open to continuing problems, maybe immune system collapse and if the gamut of scientific studies that are currently being run are any indication then the contamination may be linked to incidences of cancer. Doing something about the problem is critical.

Handling recovering

After having a health problem for so long there is a mental aspect to this that needs to be addressed.

When you are not well with chronic fatigue syndrome then you have good days when you can almost feel normal and bad days when the world is almost too much to bear.

When you begin to recover this cycling of good and bad days does not stop.

Woman

I often see people who have been sick and had no answers for the longest time who get on a nutrition program and then one day wake up feeling fantastic.

They have energy, they do not have pain, they actually slept and are now refreshed. It can feel almost miraculous. Actually it is miraculous but it the miracle of the body healing itself to function the way it is designed to function.

While this seems really good there is a danger here.

There is a huge temptation to do things, to clean house, to do the jobs that have been waiting till you have the energy, to just get out and do things with friends and family.

That is great but often people over do it.

Next day they wake up feeling they were back where they were. The spark of energy is not there, they did too much the day before, they are tired, often they have muscle pain, it can seem that they are worse than they were before.

It feels like you have been given a present and then had it snatched away.

If you are not prepared for this you can lose heart and it can even trigger a day of depression.

You need to understand this up front.

You have been having good days and bad days.

You will keep having good days and bad days.

When you get a great day then give thinks to God and treat yourself with care and respect.

Allow the process to take its course.

What I can tell you is that when this begins to work with you then there will be more good days. There will still be bad days. Over time though you will find that the good days get better and the bad days are not as bad. The time comes when the bad days are still better than the good days used to be.

It took a long time to get to the bottom of your health problems and recovery is not going to happen over night.

Be patient.

It is a really good idea to Take a snapshot of where you are now.

What I mean is to write down everything that is wrong with you; the food allergies, the bowel problems, the split hair and nails that shatter, your skin condition, your concentration issues, the colds and flu you catch, the yeast and Candida infections, the hormonal issues.

Then, when you have a day that you think you are slipping back to where you were you can pull out this list and look though it and you will be amazed and encouraged by just how far you have come and well things really are going.

Next Step

If you think that the things we have been talking about here describe your situation then it is time to look at your own problems more closely.

We will be happy to give you in depth information on how to use nutrition products in a way that will keep the detox as gentle as possible, help you rebuild your villi to give effective digestion, rebuild your immune system and get back on the path to living a normal life.

Our role is to be your personal coach and to guide you through this process as you turn your health around.

Many people who find what appears to be an answer to their problems just want to buy some products and get started.

I have not put any links here for that to happen as I think it is important that we have personal contact so we can discuss your problem and assess together what the best option is for turning your health around.

We can chat on the phone if you like or if you would prefer to have contact by email that's fine also.

Since we are a global company time differences can sometimes be a bit of a problem. What I'd like you to do is fill out the CONTACT box below with your history and your details.

If you are sending your phone number please add the time of day that is best for you to talk or just write "Please email" and we can chat that way.

Life can get a little busy here as I am sure yours does also so I'll send a response to your mail and will be able to make phone conact within a day or so. We will then be able to find what we are dealing with in your case and move on from there.

When you have filled the form look through some of the stories people below from have submitted below of the results they have has using these products.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Warren Tattersall

I have co-authored a book that details all the best proven CFS treatments that you can apply to help you better cope with CFS.

Learn more here about my book available on Amazon in Printed book or Kindle download; "How to Beat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome...and get your life back!"

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Below here are examples of Health Success Results other people have had with using a self care strategy for dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome:

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Relief from Nutrition Supplements I had been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, candida, allergies, migraine headaches, PMT and a myriad of other health problems over a period of many years.

Life was a constant struggle. I would need to be woken in the morning (never a pretty sight) and then would begin the battle of mind and body. One determining to arise, the other refusing to oblige. This could often go on for several hours before my body could or would roll out of bed.

Share *YOUR* remedy & health success story!

We are on a world-wide mission to source and tell our readers about as many as possible of the natural remedies & self care strategies available, so please help us to grow and improve our health information on this subject.

If you have a proven home remedy or natural treatment or have a great Health Success story, we would love to share it with our readers.

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SITE DISCLAIMER: Do these CFS products “cure” anything? Of course not… but it stands to reason that if you cleanse your body and feed it the finest nutrition available, giving it everything it needs in balance, on a daily basis, that your body will do what nature intended, and give you the best possible chance to fend off sickness and disease. This CFS information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The CFS content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any CFS questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read.
The CFS resources on this site are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. While all attempts have been made to verify CFS information provided in this CFS publication, neither the CFS author nor the CFS publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the web site CFS subject matter herein. The site chronic fatigue syndrome contents are solely the opinion of the CFS authors and should not be considered as a form of advice, direction and/or recommendation of any kind. If expert advice or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. The author and the Publisher assume no responsibility or liability and specifically disclaim any warranty, express or implied for any products or services mentioned, or any techniques or chronic CFS practices described.
The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these CFS materials and CFS information. Neither the CFS author nor the CFS Publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these chronic fatigue syndrome materials. There is no guarantee of validity of accuracy. Any perceived slight of specific people or organizations is unintentional. This website and its creators are not responsible for the content of any sites linked to. Since natural and/or dietary supplements are not FDA approved they must be accompanied by a two-part disclaimer on the product label: that the statement has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product is not intended to "diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."
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