Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Myth or Malady?

It is only in recent years that the medical profession has come to commonly recognize the condition of chronic fatigue syndrome but people who are afflicted by the condition have been only too aware of the debilitating effects for years.

There are still many doctors who question the validity of chronic fatigue syndrome and, among doctors who do believe the condition exists, there is still fierce debate over whether its origins are of a physical or psychological nature. This lack of unity in medical circles leads to great confusion among the public. There are still a lot of people who believe that sufferers of this condition are nothing more than malingerers. For the sufferers of this disease, this creates added stress and confusion.

The sufferers of this condition experience continuous physical tiredness. In fact, one of the first symptoms is an overwhelming, incapacitating tiredness but this is only one aspect of the disease. This may be accompanied by aching muscles. This often affects the lifestyle of the sufferer so much that they are unable to work or to take part in social activities. For some, they become totally incapacitated.

It is quite common for a normally healthy person who generally leads an active life, to one day wake up with what they believe is a case of influenza characterized by a sore throat, swollen glands, headache and fever. He or she is too tired to even get out of bed. Obviously, the first thoughts are that they have the flu but, when weeks pass without the symptoms going away, it is a sign of chronic fatigue syndrome.

A lot of people who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome also experience severe mental tiredness which may be related to emotional turmoil that arises either from the condition itself or from the frustration sufferers can feel because of the physical exhaustion.

One of the complications that accompany this disease is that of serious cognitive problems. Processing and retention of information can become very difficult, creating even more emotional problems for the sufferer. Often, the sufferer finds it difficult to engage in a conversation as they struggle to focus on the words or to process those words. This problem also extends to written word as the sufferer may have to read the same sentence several times in order to process its meaning.

Memory loss, particularly short-term memory loss is common among sufferers of this illness. Many describe not being able to remember people's names or the names for common things. They may also find it difficult to contribute to a conversation as they often forget words or what they are actually saying.

In the past, many people with chronic fatigue syndrome were diagnosed as having myalgic encephalomyelitis. Encephalomyelitis is an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord and that is not a characteristic of chronic fatigue syndrome so the diagnosis was incorrect. Sometimes, chronic fatigue syndrome is referred to as postviral fatigue syndrome as it often follows viral infections.

The real cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is unknown. What is known is that it generally follows a viral infection or, more often, a series of infections.

It is important for the sufferer to follow a healthy diet in order for the recovery from this condition. It is also important to look after the health of the mind as well as the body. Time and rest are the only real treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome.

Copyright 2006 Anne Wolski

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About Anne Wolski

Anne Wolski has worked in the health and welfare industry for more than 30 years. She is a co-director of http://www.magnetic-health-online.com an information portal with many interesting medical articles and also of http://www.pharmacybyweb.com which has online physicians who can help you with any questions you may have.


And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Why Cold Calling Is Dead

Our world of selling is closed off from other areas of business that continue to adopt and embrace new, efficient ideas. I was reminded of this recently while re- reading Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing." Here's a book that was intended for business owners and marketing executives, yet it provides a much-needed dose of common sense that would be of great benefit to sales organizations, especially sales managers, who continue to cling to very old, and, in their minds, very right, ideas. Unfortunately, our brave new world has made these old ideas very wrong.

Seth Godin talks about Interruption Marketing versus Permission Marketing. Interruption Marketing is traditional advertising that interrupts your day in an attempt to get your attention and sell you something. In other words, it is the marketing equivalent of Cold Calling. Permission Marketing is systematically getting prospects to give you permission to present to them. In other words, it is marketing's equivalent of what I teach salespeople to do. In the book, Seth uses the metaphor of someone trying to get married to describe the flaw in Interruption Marketing, or Cold Calling. The bachelor goes into a singles bar and asks every woman in the place to marry him. When they all say no, he blames his clothes, buys a new suit, and tries again at another bar, only to fail again and again, just like a cold caller.

Are you getting the point he tries to make in that story? Think about it. A salesperson spends weeks cold calling with dismal results. The salesperson goes to the sales manager for advice on what to do differently to start getting results. A conversation ensues about what the salesperson is doing. A lot of old ideas begin to surface. Ideas such as "Initial Benefit Statement," "Elevator Speech," and other concepts that once upon a time were the right answers, but have since become very wrong answers. Working on these things is the equivalent of the man in the story blaming his failure on the suit, changing into a new suit, then going to a different singles bar to do it all over again.

With the business world in its present state, I really don't see how salespeople can afford to keep fooling away their time on old ideas that were once right but are now fatally wrong. It is this very feature of capitalism that is causing salespeople, managers and organizations to fail in record numbers. Capitalism is essentially "creative destruction." In other words, capitalism is a perpetual cycle of destroying old, less-efficient businesses and ideas and replacing them with new, more efficient ones. People and companies are clinging to old, obsolete ideas and are being dragged down to failure by them. Yet they still won't let go. I think the reason they can't let go is simply because it wasn't all that long ago that they really did have the right answers. It reminds me of a story I once heard about Albert Einstein when he was a professor. One of his student assistants who was preparing for an incoming class said, "Professor Einstein, what test are we giving them?" To which Einstein replied, "The same test we gave them last week." Bewildered, the student assistant replied, "But Professor Einstein, we already gave that test." Einstein simply said, "Yes, but the answers are different this week."

The bottom line is that the answers are different. The rules have changed. Time is running out for those who do not adapt to the new rules. As Napoleon Hill put it so well, "Whenever a nation, a business institution, or an individual ceases to change and settles into a rut of routine habits, some mysterious power enters and smashes the setup, breaks up the old habits, and lays the foundation for new and better habits."

If you're not achieving the sales success you desire, perhaps it is time for you to lay the foundation for new and better habits.

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About Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.

Frank Rumbauskas is the author of Cold Calling Is a Waste of Time: Sales Success in the Information Age. He is the founder of FJR Advisors LLC, which publishes training materials on generating business without cold calling. For more information, please visit http://www.nevercoldcall.com.