by Stephanie Brail

When you first find out you have chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia, you may be overwhelmed and confused with how to adjust your life to deal with your illness. Even after some time, it's easy to feel frustrated and alone.

Adjust Your Lifestyle
Depending on the severity of your CFS, you may need to make radical adjustments in your life. This may include leaving a full-time job to work part-time or from home. It may also mean a reduction in income and an increase in medical expenses. Be gentle with yourself. Don't expect to do it all and be it all.

How you craft a lifestyle to support your health will be individual. Here are some suggested lifestyle adjustments:

Find a job with flexible hours. Being able to take a nap in the middle of the day may be crucial to your health. Sleeping in after a night of insomnia may not mesh with a strict boss who expects employees to appear at 8 a.m. sharp, no exceptions.

Here's an email I received that I think many of us can relate to:

I truly love life and am so grateful for where I am today and at the same time I feel like I am constantly treading water. After all the positive changes I've contributed to my life I still feel like life is so hard and I can't catch a break and all I do is work and I am so physically tired cannot afford health care and make to much too qualify for assistance, I am mentally and emotionally drained and tired all the time yet continue to think positive and always smile ~~ what to do... Carol, Austin, Tx.

Boy, do I ever know what it feels like to tread water. It sucks, big time.

Carol, I am going to give you some extremely radical advice - stop smiling all the time! Go hit a pillow and cry for a bit.

Don't get me wrong, positive thinking can be very powerful, and we are often in a much more empowered space when we utilize positive thinking, but it's not the be all and end all.

As a woman, I have been absolutely shocked and dismayed at how Democrats have been responding to Sarah Palin. Hammer her on her pro-life stance if you will, but to go on and on about Palin's newborn child and insinuate that it was her daughter's is beyond tabloid - it's absolutely crazy!

I guess it's true that we often become that which we hate.

What really got me yesterday was when I read a comment in an article mocking the idea that Bristol Palin could have been out of school five months with mono.

I got mono when I was 17, Bristol Palin's age. The mono is what triggereed my chronic fatigue syndrome. I had to drop out of band camp when the mono hit. Then, it ruined my senior year of high school. I dropped out of the high school musical, I didn't perform in my yearly saxophone competition, and I had health problems my entire senior year.

by Stephanie Brail

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is more than just fatigue. To be fully diagnosed with CFS, a patient must exhibit symptoms that extend beyond just chronic tiredness.

While it's still uncertain whether chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are two manifestations of the same illness, many of the symptoms listed below are common to both.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms

To follow are the main symptoms of CFS. These must be present for at least six months for a diagnosis. They usually apply to fibromyalgia patients as well:

• Fatigue (that is not explained by another physical problem)
• Insomnia/unrefreshing sleep
• Memory problems and poor concentration, also known as "brain fog"
• Joint/muscle pain
• Headaches
• Tender or swollen lymph nodes
• Sore throat and other flu-like symptoms
• Post-exertional malaise following exercise or other exertion

Hey Stephanie.

Are you better? I've been floored with CFS for over 2 years now. I just began seeing an acupuncturist for about a month and taking chinese herbs for about 2 weeks but I can't say I see any significant difference. I was just wondering how you are feeling and how long it took for you to get better. This is very depressing. I have begun to feel a bit helpless. Any input/advice you could give me would be a great gift....

Thank you....

Thank you for the email. Yes, I know all too well how frustrating and depressing chronic fatigue syndrome can be. But don't give up! Two weeks is not long enough to see any significant progress from acupuncture treatments, if you have a very debilitating form of CFS.

by Stephanie Brail

It is a medical mystery worthy of House, M.D. - finding the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia. Researchers have been stumped for decades. Here are some potential culprits:

1. Viral or Bacterial Infection

For a long time, chronic fatigue syndrome was often called "Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus Sydrome" due to the elevated levels of Epstein-Barr antibodies in many CFS patients. While the specific Epstein-Barr theory has fallen somewhat to the wayside, researchers are still looking into the roles viruses and other infections may play in the development of CFS and fibromyalgia. Current thinking seems to lean towards the idea of an infection serving as a trigger for the disease in conjunction with other factors, but not necessarily being the sole cause.

2. Sleep Disorders

by Stephanie Brail

One of the most frustrating aspects of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or fibromyalgia is getting a firm diagnosis. While the outlook is better for patients these days, for many years complaints and symptoms were dismissed by some doctors as psychosomatic or female hysteria, and that still happens today. This is because many doctors are still uninformed about these illnesses. And, since the majority of sufferers of both illnesses are women, some patient advocates have speculated that female patients aren't taken as seriously by their doctors.

OK, I usually don't do commercial advertising here, but I must share. A lot of people who know me don't realize that in order to be healthy and chipper, I have days where sometimes I need 10-12 hours of sleep in order to control my chronic fatigue syndrome.

So when you need to sleep a lot compared to regular humans, what's the first thing to go out the window? Cleaning, especially the floors. What's important to do when you have CFS? Vacuuming regularly, to remove dust and allergens. Because if you don't, you might feel more tired...which ends up making it hard to vacuum...and thus a vicious circle is born.

Enter the miraculous labor saving device!

My friend got me a Roomba in thanks for helping her with something. A Roomba, in case you hadn't heard, is a robotic vacuum cleaner that sweeps your floors all by itself.

by Stephanie Brail

In our busy, hectic lives, it is common to experience fatigue as a normal response to the stresses and demands of daily life. Sometimes, this fatigue can last over a period of weeks or months, due to a pressure-filled lifestyle, acute stress, or some sort of loss or setback in life. This type of “chronic fatigue” is not the same as full-blown chronic fatigue syndrome, yet many people confuse the two.

The name “chronic fatigue syndrome” is actually a misnomer, because it does not fully communicate the multitude of symptoms other than fatigue that are present with the illness. A common frustration for sufferers with chronic fatigue syndrome is to be told by someone without the illness that they understand what it's like to have CFS because they've been tired before. It is very important to emphasize that chronic fatigue syndrome is not just about chronic fatigue.

by Stephanie Brail

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating illness that affects at least one million Americans. It is marked by severe fatigue that worsens significantly after strenuous exercise or other activities (this is called post-exertional malaise). Besides fatigue, CFS is accompanied by a number of other symptoms, including "brain fog" (memory and concentration problems), insomnia and sleep disorders, flu-like symptoms, and joint pain.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is also known as chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), although the latter term is more common in Britain. Fibromyalgia, distinguished from CFS by chronic joint and muscle pain, is potentially a variant of CFS, but that is currently not known for sure.

Who is at Risk?