CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

Chronic fatigue syndrome is somewhat of a mystery disease whose exact cause in unknown. It is also a complicated and debilitating disease.

Exhaustion appears for no apparent reason, in turn, affecting normal day-to-day activities. Normal sleep patterns do not alleviate the feeling of fatigue.

Risk Factors

It affects women more than two to four times more often than men, and can affect a person of any age and any race, however, because the exact cause of this disease is unknown, no definite risk factors have been determined.

Symptoms

Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome usually include extreme tiredness that develops suddenly and either comes and goes or is continual.

Although the cause is unknown, some patients report symptoms occurring after an illness such as a cold or the flu, or a period of increased stress. Others report nothing unusual prior to start of symptoms.

Other symptoms, in addition to severe fatigue can include:

• Muscle pain
• Joint pains without redness or swelling
• Recurrent sore throat
• Intermittent tender lymph nodes in the neck and armpits
• Depression
• Headache
• Loss of appetite
• Feeling faint or dizzy
• Feeling unrefreshed after sleep
• Impaired short-term memory and concentration

Prognosis

Unfortunately, the prognosis is unpredictable. Some people recover after a few months, while in others it can take a year or more. Some recover to a moderate degree, some minimally, and others become worse over time.

Summary

The exact cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is unknown. Because this can be a serious disease that affects the daily living routine of the people it affects, a physician familiar with the disease should be contacted.

New treatments are being researched, but how well they will work and for how many people affected with the disease is unknown.