Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Incapacitating

Lourdes Salvador's Column ...Co-founder of MCS America discusses the latest Multiple Chemical Sensitivity issues.

 

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Incapacitating

 

by Lourdes Salvador

Post exertional fatigue is both a real and an incapacitating condition for women with chronic fatigue syndrome, according to Vanness and colleagues in a new Journal of Women’s Health study.

 

The exercise response of women with chronic fatigue syndrome is distinctively different from that of sedentary controls.  The fatiguing effects of exercise last for many days.  Recovery is elusive for chronic fatigue syndrome patients and sleep is not refreshing. 

 

While study participants without chronic fatigue syndrome recovered within a day, those with chronic fatigue syndrome had not recovered and suffered from increased fatigue, light-headedness, muscular/joint pain, cognitive dysfunction, headache, nausea, physical weakness, trembling/instability, insomnia, and sore throat/glands.

This is not surprising news for many chronic fatigue syndrome patients.  It’s something they have been saying all along. 

 

Chronic fatigue syndrome is an illness primarily characterized by profound, debilitating fatigue which has been ongoing for at least 6 months and is not relieved by rest.  Other symptoms include cognitive difficulties, impaired memory, poor concentration, joint pain, headaches, and sore throat.

 

The dramatic decline in activity level and stamina is often severe enough to result in substantial occupational, educational, and social limitations that lead to defining chronic fatigue syndrome as a major functional impairment.  At least one quarter of those afflicted are either unemployed or on disability.

 

References:

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 2008, November 18.  Retrieved January 21, 2009, from FirstGov -- The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal Department of Health and Human Services “Safer Healthier People” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/

 

Reeves WC, Jones JF, Maloney E, et al. Prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome in metropolitan, urban, and rural Georgia. Popul Health Metr. 2007;5:5.

 

Vanness JM, Stevens SR, Bateman L, Stiles TL, Snell CR.  Postexertional Malaise in Women with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2010 Jan 24. [Epub ahead of print]

 

 

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For more articles on this topic, see: MCSA News.

 

Copyrighted 2010 Lourdes Salvador & MCS America

 

 

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