Fatigue

Chronic fatigue requires a detailed, holistic look if you want to do more than just put a Band-Aid on it. At the EuroMed Foundation, we offer more than alternative cancer treatment – we also address issues such as chronic fatigue which detract from your optimal health. Chronic fatigue has been linked to candida, anemia, hormonal imbalance, low thyroid, viral infections, trace mineral deficiencies, allergies, chemical pollutants, nutritional deficiencies, parasites, heavy metal toxicity, the Epstein Barr virus, stress, and more. Chronic fatigue is often the result of several issues that weaken the body.

To learn more about fighting chronic fatigue, request your free personal orientation at the EuroMed Foundation online. One of our physicians will be happy to address your questions and concerns over the phone or during a visit to our center.

It takes a lot of energy to run a human body – the muscles, brain, immune system, lungs, heart, and other systems all require energy. Every day we experience a significant drain in energy when we eat. The stomach diverts a huge amount of energy to digest food. That is why parents keep their kids out of the swimming pool for an hour after they eat to avoid muscle cramps. In that hour, food becomes energy – fuel for the muscles when the kids play Marco Polo in the pool.

So what’s going on when you feel tired all the time? For many people, the energy you lose to digestion is not returned in the way of fuel. Why? Most blame the poor nutrition of the Standard American Diet. First, processed convenience foods easily turn into sugar. Let’s pick just three negative things that happen next:

• The pancreas works harder, pumping out more insulin to keep the body’s blood sugar within the narrow range acceptable for life
• The body’s pH becomes more acid – an acidic interior feeds every manner of disease from candida to cancer which saps your energy
• The immune system becomes depressed which means it has to work harder to fend off invading bugs and germs

Second, trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are found in many processed foods. Trans fats have an unnatural configuration that makes cell walls hard, less flexible. So it is difficult for the body to move nutrients into – and waste out of – the cells which are where the body’s energy factories – mitochondria – are to be found.

Third, the Standard American Diet is not nutrient dense. Processed foods have little or no life in them that they can impart to a human body. The soil in which food is grown has been increasingly sterilized by use of fertilizers; so food grown in the ground today imparts less nutritional “oomph.” And many nutrient-dense foods have fallen out of fashion. People prefer French fries for example to liver, yet liver contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food. Liver’s as-yet-unidentified anti-fatigue factor makes it a favorite with athletes and bodybuilders. Liver was mischaracterized as a bad food by many “health food” writers because they did not understand it. The liver neutralizes toxins – drugs, chemicals; whatever the body considers a poison – but the liver does not store toxins. Poisonous compounds that the body cannot neutralize and eliminate are likely to lodge in the fatty tissues and the nervous system. The liver is a storage organ for many important nutrients – vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as copper and iron.

Chronic fatigue syndrome affects perhaps as many as 1 million people in the U.S. It is characterized by unexplained fatigue that lasts for at least six months, fails to get better with rest, and interferes with daily activities. It is also accompanied by at least some of these symptoms:

• Extreme fatigue after exertion
• Difficulties with memory and concentration
• Unrefreshing sleep
• Headaches
• Muscle pain
• Joint pain
• Sore throat
• Tender lymph nodes

At our Arizona cancer center, we address chronic fatigue syndrome as part of our holistic approach to optimizing health and fighting disease.

Chronic fatigue syndrome came to attention after a 1984 outbreak which affected several hundred people in Incline Village, Nevada. It initially was called the Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus Syndrome (CEBVS). But, as it turned out, many people tested did not show elevated levels of Epstein-Barr antibodies. In 1988, the name was changed to the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Meanwhile, people in England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada had been writing and talking about a disorder which they called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Epidemics of this disorder developed in the United Kingdom, in Iceland, and Australia. The names differed, but the symptoms were a carbon copy.

Enter William G. Crook, MD. He heard reports that that some doctors had found success treating CFS patients with a sugar-free special diet and antifungal medications including Nystatin, Nizoral and Diflucan. He went on to author a breakthrough book, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Yeast Connection (1992).

Carol Jessop, MD, a leading CFS clinician and researcher, showed that chronic fatigue syndrome can develop in individuals who give a history of:

• Repeated courses of antibiotic drugs
• Recurrent vaginal yeast infections
• Diets loaded with sugar and alcohol

Dr. Jessup treated 1,000 chronic fatigue syndrome patients with anti-fungal medication. She found that up to 75 percent of those patients also had candidiasis.

Dr. Crook wrote, “I feel that CFS and fibromyalgia are often yeast-related. People with these disorders seem to develop them because their immune systems are weakened (by yeast overgrowth), viruses are activated, yeasts multiply, food and chemical allergies become activated, and nutritional deficiencies develop.” Clearly, candida, an overgrowth of a normally present yeast, plays a large role in many cases of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Because chronic fatigue is a disease of our modern era, we look in many nooks and crannies for healing. For example:

• Betty Martini is an advocate who works to educate people about the dangers of synthetic sugars, particularly aspartame, a component of many diet soft drinks. “If you are using aspartame and have headaches, depression, chronic fatigue, slurred speech, loss of memory, fibromyalgia type symptoms, loss of sensation in lower legs or shooting pains, loss of equilibrium, etc.,” she says you are experiencing aspartame poisoning. Martini has a boatload of personal case histories to back up her assertions. During Operation Desert Storm, truckloads of diet drinks cooked in the Arabian sun. At 86 degrees, aspartame liberates methanol in the can. Thousands of service men and women returned home with chronic fatigue syndrome and other symptoms. How many of us have consumed soft drinks that sat outside convenience stores in the hot sun?
• The group “Beyond Pesticides” reported that chronic fatigue syndrome could be caused by common household pesticides. Professor Abou-Donia of the Duke University Medical Center, who studied rats exposed to insecticides, found the rats suffered brain cell death that he says is consistent with “muscle weakness, joint pain and problems with the central nervous system.” Stress causes further susceptibility to chemical injury by breaking down the blood-brain barrier, he says. Stress allows the chemicals easier access to the brain that can cause damage resulting in chronic fatigue syndrome. Abou-Donia also compared chronic fatigue syndrome to Gulf War syndrome and found many similarities.
• It is estimated that some 80% of the industrialized world’s population suffers from adrenal fatigue because, thanks to stress, many of us are in a constant state of “fight or flight.” Adrenal glands secrete 50 different, delicate hormones – including sex hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline. Constant secretion leads to a state of fatigue that can last for decades. Women are most vulnerable; most women with sub-optimal adrenals will complain of PMS and a decrease in immune function. Adrenal fatigue affects people in many different ways and for many different reasons. CFS seems to be one.

We also look beyond issues of food and environment. Studies have shown that exposure to traumatic events multiplied a patient’s risk of succumbing to CFS as much as eightfold. Is a past trauma affecting your health today?
Chronic fatigue syndrome is often debilitating, and misdiagnosed. With proper diagnosis and treatment, we give you your life back. Each person is unique, thus each treatment plan is unique.

To learn more about treatment for CFS at our Arizona cancer center, click here to request your free personal orientation online. Or you can call our office at (602) 404-0400 to schedule your orientation with one of our doctors.