easy CFS test

I worked on the downstairs powder-room wallpaper removal a little while today, i was feeling so much better!  Afterward, i sat down with a glass of iced coffee and enjoyed the rest.  I came up with an interesting idea, too....

Which is the best answer to the following questions -- do you find:

• getting a great new haircut/style, exciting or ... exhausting;
• a walk on the beach with your beloved, romantic or ... exhausting;
• finding the perfect pair of jeans while out shopping, exhilarating or ... exhausting;
• a night out on the town with your friends, fun or ... exhausting;
• a romp in the playground with your kids or grandkids, GREAT or ... exhausting;
• a productive day doing work you love, satisfying or ... exhausting;
• dinner and a show with your husband or lover, one of the best things life has to offer or ... exhausting?

Life is supposed to be worth living, not something to drag yourself through.  Unfortunately, when you reach a certain point of illness, mustering the energy even to do things you SHOULD find life-affirming becomes almost overwhelming. This is ... bad.

HOW can the medical industry at all levels, GPs to the CDC, rationalize their point of view that people with this problem are MALINGERERS?  Who the hell WANTS to live this way?

...I don't see any hands in the air, here....

ongoing search for health and fitness

Since i began writing here, things have changed in the paleo blogosphere.  It's kinda funny, really -- some very fervent advocates have deserted the cause, some continuing believers have slowed their rate of publishing, others have largely lost their audiences (you can tell from the volume and variety of commenters), and some "anti's" have crowed that they just KNEW paleo was BS and it was only a matter of time....

Meanwhile, there are still seekers after improved health, some of whom have also moved on to other schemes, and some like me who have experienced improvement but insufficient wellness to satisfy ourselves, who keep tweaking and telling you about it.

Since returning from our son's farm in VA where our dog Spenser picked up a bacterium which nearly was an end to him, both my husband and i have also dealt with some health issues which i can't help but suspect of being related.  J (the last one to catch "something" as he usually is) ended up with what looked like a virus that settled in his lungs, and which he recalls began when i got the super-vacuum that stirred up all the nasty stuff that was living in our bedroom carpet.  I (earlier) got that horrible exacerbation of allergy which i subsequently identified as histamine/tyramine intolerance, which INSPIRED the purchase of the vacuum and bedroom super-air-filter.  My studies into histamine intolerance led me into beginning a study of "chronic fatigue syndrome" -- something i think i've been dealing with for most of my 58 years, but which i've been too "proud" to admit widely.

I haven't even finished reading "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome:  a Treatment Guide" but i've learned some interesting things which i'm beginning to put into practice.  Don't get me wrong -- the book is far from perfect (like, the authors aren't very savvy about diet), but i AM a big proponent of looking at the experiences of others and considering whether their tweaks might be helpful to me too.  There's a LOT more reading to do, and i think i can safely promise to keep passing along what i've found valuable and helpful.  ;-)

For now my message is, paleo isn't wrong, it's just incomplete.  "Coincidentally," paleo foods -- "non-neolithic" foods -- ARE lower in toxins than what people have been eating for the last couple of thousand years ... ESPECIALLY the last 100.  A big part of our modern malaise is because:

• "neolithic" diet foods are much higher in histamines, tyramines and salicylates as well as overt toxins;
• modern reliance on antibiotics for TOO MANY things have completely messed up our microbiota;
• "recent" cultural ideals promote health-eroding behavior;
• expecting drugs/medicine to be "the answer" cause society as a whole to hand over our responsibility for wellness to those who have a vested interest in promoting antagonistic practices.

I won't be surprised when i find that few people besides me find this a compelling reason to limit diet and influence behavior.  My biggest problem is knowing that a lot of the suffering around me is self-inflicted, and that although i know my findings COULD help others it will be widely ignored.  :-(

"post-viral fatigue induced food intolerance with hypotension" ... and variants?

In the CFS/ME world, there is agitation to change how people refer to their illness, and i can't blame them.  Doesn't "chronic" ANYTHING imply "oh, you're always bitching about something"?

Even more obnoxious are some designators that GPs are inclined to call it -- "bored housewife syndrome" ... "yuppie flu" ... then there's "20th century syndrome" and the ol' reliable "hysteria."  If i were one of the sufferers who is barely able to leave her bed without passing out, and i were described that way, i'm afraid i'd end up incarcerated for killing someone -- or at least hiring it done.  ;-)

I'll give credit to the writer of the article i just read for having more sensitivity and compassion than a lot of "authorities" -- especially in the CDC and other national- and international-level alphabet-soup organizations.  He objects to too much inclination to call chronic fatigue a psychosomatic illness, though psychosocial aspects exist for many physiological problems.

http://www.sswahs.nsw.gov.au/rpa/allergy/research/RoleOfFoodIntoleranceInCFS.pdf

conditions have to be just right ... i.e. wrong?

I'm currently reading "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a Treatment Guide" and it's interesting stuff.  It brings out in me the qualities of the gentleman who read a medical book on a rainy afternoon and found in himself symptoms of all the illnesses described ... except Housemaid's Knee.

Being introspective is helpful when it comes to self-diagnosis.  After all, if one's natural focus is outward it's good for some things but not necessarily observing one's own body's reactions to stimuli.

In discussing the search for causes and defining characteristics, the authors point out the frustrations of the researchers and physicians doing the investigating -- sometimes they see this and sometimes that, but "never always."  As a "paleoid" thinker, i can't help but add my own paradigms to their basic science and say, what happens when you start with a virus, add a bacterium or mycoplasma, THEN complicate with a diet full of lectins (or not), AND reduced native proteolytic enzyme production (from simply being over 30 years old)?  The latter two conditions certainly cause the subject to be more susceptible to any and all infections.

Being a rapidly aging individual having a faulty body to work with, i'm interested in avoiding all the stumbling-blocks i can and getting all the mileage-enhancing tips possible.  This book promises some insights i'll find useful!  I'm afraid my readers will have to put up with this subject while i work my way through the book and record my thoughts along the way.  ;-)

the chicken or the egg

There are so many things which cause a body to dial back on its thyroid production and T4-to-T3 conversion!  Malnutrition (ie inadequate raw materials), illness, infection, excessive omega-6 or insufficient saturated fat, stress, a very-low-calorie diet, too-heavy exercising....  Anything which makes the body think it's in danger of hard times coming and needs to garner its resources -- a siege situation -- is enough to make it slow metabolism via the thyroid.

As i read about the assaults that "tainted" foodstuffs make (my histamine studies), and the postulated infective origins of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME), i can't help but connect dots until i get back to thyroid function.  (It may not be my only tool, but i DO have a hammer....)  I had already supposed that there was a chicken/egg situation going on before, and this complicates the matter further.

Bad nutrient absorption (amino acids, vitamin A, iron or B12 perhaps) because one has poor stomach-acid production due to low thyroid will lower thyroid function which will lower stomach acid which will ... ad infinitum.  Or h. pylori infection can lower stomach acid which will also ....  Or other viral, bacterial or mycoplasma issues -- whew.  All roads lead to Rome.

So for those of us who suffer from thyroid misfunction (low, high or fluctuating), does the trouble originate in a faulty body, or do infective or nutritional influences cause the poor function which snowballs into worse function?  I suspect all the above.

pleasant fatigue and ... the other kind

This morning i was having a bit of trouble with fatigue.  Caffeine wasn't making any impression on it, nor carnitine nor tyrosine.  I decided to try some nicotine, and all of a sudden i had an urge to get out of my chair and work on the powder room some more.  The rest of the afternoon flew!  I finished removing the wallpaper from all of the west wall i could reach without a ladder, and called it a day.

When we're feeling more-or-less GOOD, with "normal" energy levels, work and exercise feel good too.  People who don't have chronic fatigue issues probably only experience this kind of weariness, which carries with it the satisfaction of accomplishment and the promise of good rest and returned vitality tomorrow.  This is the way it should be.  Unfortunately, some don't share this experience -- theirs is completely otherwise.

And this is one of the reasons that normal people can't empathize with "chronic fatigue" sufferers.  Hell, even the name of this problem is felt by its victims to be a minimization of the disease;  while some have widely-varying day-to-day energy levels, others are completely prostrated by the lack of available energy for the essential activities of living.  Their lives are devastated by inability and they're not even taken seriously by much of the medical establishment -- they're constantly told that they're malingerers and it's all in their heads.

So many medical problems have fatigue as a significant symptom, i can imagine that pinning down the diagnosis IS tricky.  As a hypothyroid, i've always had energy issues, and my fatigue has waxed and waned in a manner not at all predictable.  Fatigue crops up in association with neurological problems, too, and with mitochondrial issues and in concert with difficulties in energy-retrieval and ... innumerable others that i'm not qualified to list.

In the last few decades, CFS/ME [(Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) and its aliases  post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS), chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS), or by several other terms] HAS gained some ground, though the whole situation is far from well-defined OR understood.  The sufferers and their doctors have amassed quite a few techniques for improving energy and quality-of-life, and i'm hoping to be able to pick their brains for some good pointers.  It's turning out to be a very interesting study!

You see, i WANT to be able to enjoy more afternoons like i did today -- expending some energy i actually have TO SPARE, and accomplishing things.