Chronic fatigue syndrome

It is said that people who have felt excessive fatigue even after the most trivial of daily tasks, and have been experiencing the same feeling for at least about six months or so, suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (a.k.a. CFS).

The thing is, most people who are suffering from this syndrome don't even know it has a name. And that is exactly the point of this article. Namely, it aims to inform them victims of chronic fatigue syndrome of the symptoms and consequences of this disorder.

So what is chronic fatigue syndrome?

There is a number of disorders which are considered "complex disorders", and chronic fatigue symptom is one of them. This means that there is no real specific cause to it, but that it is rather a consequence, or a result, more like, of, say, a previous infection, or something like that.

As previously mentioned, having chronic fatigue syndrome involves constantly feeling tired for no apparent reason. It also involves having cognitive issues, such as for example those concerning short-term memory. The criteria that may lead you to believe that you've got it are as follow: having this feeling, combined with the feeling of sore throat, for an extended period of time (6 months or so), muscle pain, memory and concentration problems, headaches, depression, feeling constant tiredness (no matter how long one rests).

It has been statistically shown that this disorder affects women more than men, and mostly the ones in their early 20s.

What are the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome?

There are no specific, direct causes of this disorder, but rather, and as it has been noted above, it is most likely associated with infections, and may thus also affect the immune system. It is somewhat likely that its cause may be related to one of the following:

bacterium chlamydia pneumoniae

Epstein-Barr virus

bronchitis

diarrhea

adrenal insufficiency

malignancy

AIDS

liver disease

kidney disease

thyroid

psychosomatic illnesses.

What about the symptoms?

Since there is no firm cause of this disease, there is neither a single test that may be used to determine whether one is suffering from this illness. The diagnosis, thus, relies most heavily upon the presence of the following distractions:

fatigue

cognitive problems

postexertional fatigue

depression

persistent headaches

muscle aches

sore throat

and sometimes, even fever.