Chronic Fatigue
Firstly it is necessary to realize that this condition is known by a number of different terms. These terms include Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Secondly, most of the authorities in Western Medicine do not actually have consensus as to what are the specific required signs and symptoms to verify that Chronic Fatigue is actually the official diagnosis.
There is no known biological test. From a Western medical perspective, there is no known cause of Chronic Fatigue but it is expected to be viral.
In summary, Western medicine can’t agree on the diagnosis, doesn’t know what causes it and can’t treat it. This is confirmed in the Journal of The Royal Society of Medicine, where researchers concluded that no western medical intervention had been shown or proven to be effective in any way.
The fundamental symptom that these patients experience is extreme fatigue coupled with insomnia and un-refreshing sleep.
Other symptoms include headaches, muscle and joint pain, muscle weakness and increased sensitivity to light, smells and sounds. The mood and mind is also affected and varying degrees of depression and difficulty in concentration and memory are key note symptom markers.
Traditional Chinese medicine views patients with these symptoms very differently to that of western medicine. One fundamental factor in viewing health and disease in traditional Chinese medicine is what is called the zheng qi verses the xie qi. This in simplified translation terms is known as the good energy verses the bad energy. The good energy includes the individual’s constitutional body strength and immunity strength whereas the bad energy includes weakness and diseased organs combined with invasion by viruses and bacteria.
Chinese medicine talks about latent pathogens and warm evils penetrating the body. This is more easily understood as a bug like a virus coming into the body and then lying dormant in the body. When the bug is strong and the good energy weak, sickness and illnesses become chronic.
One mistake that some natural health practitioners make is to give tonics whether in the form of herbal preparations or vitamins and minerals. Chinese medicine has the view that if you give tonics when the body is consumed with bugs, the bugs also feed off the tonics and get even stronger!! This is why patients with chronic fatigue usually feel worse when they take herbs like Ginseng and Echinacea. The bugs love it, as they get stronger. Many patients with chronic fatigue often take a whole host of vitamin supplements with little change. The reason being, the condition of chronic fatigue is not due to a vitamin deficiency, it is due to a bug in the body.
Chinese herbal medicines have special categories of medicines known as neutralizing toxins, acrid dispersing and expelling damp. These are the type of herbal medicines that are prescribed to Chronic Fatigue patients. On the other hand, tonic herbs like ginseng as prescribed to patients who have over worked which has led to depleted reserves of strength.
When a practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine diagnoses, an assessment is made on the strength of the patient’s good energy verses the strength of the pathogenic factor is inside them. A formula comprising of about 10-15 different herbal medicines is prescribed and may include some regulating and tonic herbs in combination with expelling herbs.
An acupuncturist views the body as being made up of meridians and further details can be explored on the How Does Acupuncture Work section of the website. One meridian called the yin walker vessel starts at the bottom of the foot and travels up the body to the eyes and enters the brain. It also connects with the yang walker vessel at the eyes. These particular meridians store bugs and pathogens and also are to do with the ebb of the day and night. The meridian itself is saturated with toxins so to say and during the day it makes you tired and at night you can’t sleep. Because the bug is clogged in the meridian, the patient experiences pain and weakness. And as the meridian goes through the brain, the bug causes the patient to have memory problems, difficult concentration and depression.
Millions of dollars each year has been spent since for decades researching chronic fatigue and still no treatment or breakthrough has been achieved.
The symptoms associated with chronic fatigue have been treated for thousands of years with Chinese herbs and acupuncture.
