Chronic Fatigue, Burn-out and Stress

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Chronic Fatigue.

Chronic fatigue means being tired for a long time. The word "chronic" refers to a long period of time rather than to the degree or severity of something. It differs from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) because:

1. The cause is usually something well recognised amongst the medical community.

2. It is usually not associated with a multitude of other symptoms. 

Unfortunately CFS sufferers may have one or more of these causes of chronic fatigue in addition to the main factor(s) producing the actual CFS. burnout

Causes of persistent fatigue that CFS sufferers need to watch for (in my experience/opinion):

• B12 deficiency
• Burn-out (also spelt "burnout")
• Coeliac Disease
• Coronary heart disease
• Dehydration.
• Hypothyroidism
• Iron deficiency
• Lyme Disease.
• Male Menopause.
• Pharmaceutical Drugs. Many can -- ask your doctor.
• Protein deficiency.
• Sleep apnoea
• Sugar consumption (excessive)
• Urinary tract infection
• Vitamin A consumption (excessive)

Possible causes of persistent fatigue (NOT an exhaustive list!):

• Addisons Disease
• Adrenal Insufficiency
• AIDS
• Alcohol consumption
• Allergies
• Anemia.
• Aspartame consumption
• B12 deficiency
• Brucellosis.
• Burn-out (also spelt "burnout")
• Cancer
• Candida albicans proliferation
• Cardiac arrhythmia
• Cerebral Insufficiency.
• Coeliac Disease
• Constipation (chronic)
• Cool White Fluorescent Light (excessive/prolonged exposure - probably)
• Coronary heart disease
• Crohn’s Disease
• Dehydration.
• Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD).
• Depression.
• Diabetes
• Electromagnetic Radiation (prolonged exposure - probably)
• Excessive exposure to Inorganic Chlorine (excessive exposure to - including Chlorinated Water in swimming pools).
• Exercise (excessive). It can cause a decline in net potassium.
• Fat consumption (excessive)
• Gilbert’s Syndrome (some).
• Glandular Fever
• Glycine (excessive). Non-excessive consumption of glycine may alleviate fatigue.
• Grief
• Giardia
• Hepatitis
• Hypoglycemia.
• Hypothyroidism
• Illicit drug use
• Infection (chronic)
• Insomnia
• Insulin Resistance.
• Iron deficiency
• Jet-Lag.
• Junk food diets
• Kidney disease
• Leukemia.
• Liver disease
• Lung/Breathing disorders.
• Lyme Disease.
• Magnesium consumption (excessive). Non-excessive consumption of magnesium may alleviate fatigue.
• Malabsorption (inability to absorb nutrients)
• Malaria
• Male Menopause.
• Menopause
• Metal poisoning (lead, mercury, cadmium, copper, aluminium).
• Mineral deficiency: Iron, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc
• Mitral valve prolapse
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
• Musculoskeletal System
• Myasthenia Gravis.
• Obesity
• Pharmaceutical Drugs. Many can -- ask your doctor.
• Poisoning
• Poor Blood Circulation.
• Protein deficiency.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
• Sleep apnoea
• Stress (excessive).
• Stroke
• Sugar consumption (excessive)
• Surgery
• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)
• Urinary tract infection
• Vitamin A consumption (excessive)
• Worms

Burn-out and Stress

1. In this web site burn-out (also spelt "burnout") refers to a condition of constitutional exhaustion secondary to excessive stress.

2. People inherit different amounts of vital energy. You might call this your "constitutional endowment" (see diagram below). This means that some people are going to be more prone to burn-out  than others.

3. Long-term negative stresses tend to wear down the vital energy and get you closer to the "critical threshold" for the onset of burn-out. Examples of this kind of stress include marital and relational problems, problems inherited from illness in infancy or before birth, malnourishment, toxin exposure, long-term infection, financial worries, extended court proceedings, other long-term diseases (e.g.. diabetes, epilepsy, and CFS), long-term medication use (eg. oral contraceptives¹, tetracycline) and guilt. 

4. Often a sudden stress will precipitate Burn-out especially if the inherited vital energy is small and the person has been subject to long-term negative stresses. Examples of precipitating stresses include operations, infections, relationship crises, toxin exposure, accidents and bereavements.

How do you treat burn-out? Like anything the adage "prevention is better than cure" is applicable here. For many people, including CFS sufferers, burn-out is simply an almost inevitable side-effect of illness. This is because of the illness itself and because they are usually forced to continue to try and do what they have been accustomed to do despite feeling so awful. Since CFS (and other illnesses) do not have bandages, plasters or other outward notices of ill-health many people think they should just "pull their socks up, stop moaning and get on with the job"! They do not realise that this is IMPOSSIBLE! Ideally, CFS sufferers should, early in their illness, be able to shed huge amounts of responsibility and get the time to rest and sort out their health. But alas, this rarely happens.

But this time to rehabilitate must be provided some-how or they will not properly recover. CFS sufferers need specific treatments and opportunity to rejuvenate their vital force by rest and reduced stress. Solo mothers must have others to regularly care for their children, executive and manual workers need sickness certificates and social welfare support so they can stop work, students need a year off from university or school, and family members need to drop other responsibilities so that they can give the support and attention needed to assist the recovery.

See also the section on rest in Basics of a Healthy Lifestyle. 

Footnotes.

1.  In patients I have seen, the pill seems to be a major contributor to their ill-health. Amongst other things it tends to promote "thicker" blood (hence the increased risk of clots in the legs), deplete the body of zinc, magnesium, B vitamins, folic acid, and vitamin C.  It also appears to adversely change the microflora of the bowel. If you've got CFS and want to go off the pill, see your GP first and discuss options as getting pregnant may be the last thing you want to do.

The contents of this web page may be freely copied and distributed on the condition that it is copied and distributed in its entirety. Please ask if you want to use just part of it.

Last modified: 16 January 2002.

Disclaimer: These notes are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Such advice should be obtained personally from a qualified health professional. If you have fibromyalgia or CFS I do not advise following any of the suggestions contained herein without first consulting a suitably qualified health professional.

Dr David Bird Mb.Chb.  D.C.N.  F.A.C.N.E.M. compiled the web site. Copyright © 2000, David Bird. Web site address: www.burnoutsolutions.com.au  

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