Health Articles:
Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
by Dr. Adam Kerievsky N.D., L.Ac
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia ( CFS / FMS ) is not a single illness but rather a mix of different processes that can be triggered by many causes. Some illnesses are caused by infections while others are caused by an injury that was enough to disrupt your sleep and trigger this process. Both are usually associated with hormonal deficiencies such as low thyroid, estrogen, testosterone, and cortisone despite normal blood tests. In others, it may be associated with chronic stress, antibiotic use with secondary yeast overgrowth, and/or nutritional deficiencies.
What these all have in common is that most of them can suppress a major control center in your brain called the hypothalamus. This center controls sleep, your hormonal system, temperature, and blood flow / blood pressure. When you don't sleep deeply, your immune system can work improperly and pain may occur. To treat you must look at these four important categories.
1--Disordered sleep. Most patients with these illnesses find that they are unable to get 7-8 hours of deep sleep a night without taking medications. In part, this occurs because hypothalamic function is critical to deep sleep. Unfortunately, many of the most common sleep medications actually aggravate the sleep problems by decreasing the amount of time spent in deep sleep. For patients to get well, it is critical that they take enough of the correct sleep medications to get 8 to 9 hours sleep at night!
2--Hormonal deficiencies. The hypothalamus is the main control center for most of the glands in your body. Most of the normal ranges for our blood tests were not developed in the context of hypothalamic suppression or these syndromes. Because of this it is usually necessary to treat with thyroid, adrenal, and ovarian and testicular hormones -- despite normal blood tests! These hormones have been found to be reasonably safe when used in low doses.
3--Unusual infections. Many studies have shown immune system dysfunction in FMS / CFS . The immune dysfunction can result in many unusual infections. These include viral infections (e.g. –HHV-6, CMV, and EBV), parasites and other bowel infections, infections sensitive to long-term treatment with the antibiotics Cipro and Doxycycline (e.g. mycoplasma, chlamydia, Lyme's, etc) and fungal infections
4--Nutritional supplementation. Because the western diet has been highly processed, nutritional deficiencies are a common problem. In addition, bowel infections can cause poor absorption, and the illness itself can cause increased nutritional needs.
These four important categories must all be addressed in CFS / FMS.
Adam Kerievsky N.D., L.Ac specializes in treating FMS / CFS . Please contact the office at 602-493-2273 Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm , for more details on our FMS / CFS 3-week treatment program.
