natural treatment for diseases viral diseases of the brain

you’ve had the flu before, right? well,now imagine feeling worse than that all the time. i’m talking about “chronic fatiguesyndrome,” hereafter referred to as cfs for the sake of my brain not exploding allover the camera lens. maybe you’ve heard of this disease and thought,“huh, i’ve been a little tired lately. maybe i’ve got it?” well hold on thereboss, because to be properly diagnosed with cfs you have to be sick for at least 6 monthsstraight. cfs is so debilitating that bed rest doesn’t even make it better. it's not even worth the netflix binging, people. and here’s the kicker: we barely know anythingabout how to diagnose it, what causes it or

how to treat it. some people don’t eventhink it’s a real biological disorder. skeptics called it the “yuppie flu” or “shirkersyndrome” for awhile. and for years doctors thought it was psychosomatic. less than half of today’s medical textbookshave any information about cfs as well. and only one-third of medical schools even teachit in their curriculum. one thing we sort of know about cfs are itssymptoms. obviously, because of the name, “fatigue” is a big one. but that wordbarely does it justice, because patients are so weak it interferes with their daily activities,as well as their concentration and stamina, causing at least 50% incapacitation.

in addition you’ve got to have 4 or moreof the following major symptoms over here. i’m not going to say them all out loud,or else we’d be here for a week, so just hit pause and check them out. now these are all the possible minor symptomsthat could coincide with what we’ve already covered. as you can see, they’re both physicaland psychological. so you get an idea of how difficult it isto diagnose this thing. it gets even more complicated because cfs affects its victimsin cycles. they’ll have periods of illness, followed by feeling okay, with sometimes evena total remission of their symptoms. “jeez cristen, that sounds terrible,”you’re probably saying to yourself, “what

causes this awful disease?” well... i don'tknow. scientists haven’t identified what causes cfs. and they’ve studied all sortsof things as triggers: viral infections like mono, immune system disorders, allergic sensitivity,stress and even nutrition. one thing we do know is there’s no evidencethat cfs is contagious. but it affects way more women than it does men. current estimatesby the institute of medicine say that somewhere between 836,000 and 2.5 million people inamerica have it. but less than 20% of them are diagnosed, because this thing is so hardto pin down. so ok, how do you cure a disease that comesand goes, has a myriad of complex symptoms and can barely be diagnosed because it resemblesmany other illnesses?

you don’t. at this time, all we can do is treat the symptomsof cfs as they vary over time. and if you think you have it, get ready to take a batteryof tests. the 2013 magill’s medical guide actuallyhas this quote about cfs in it: “medical treatment and diagnostic testing can be costlyas well as useless.” usually treating the disease is a combinationof the following: antidepressants, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, psychological counseling,physical therapy and a mix of homeopathic remedies. so that’s all the stuff we don’t knowabout cfs. oh, and we can’t agree what to

call it either. the cdc only uses “chronicfatigue syndrome” because exhaustion is the primary symptom. but some patients findthat misleading and prefer “myalgic encephalomyelitis.” yeah, trying saying that three times fast.or just one time slow. so what do you think we should call this miserablecondition? if you have any ideas that aren’t “first!” let us know in the comments.while you’re considering a name, why not stop by our home base at howstuffworks.com,where you’ll find more on being tired, feeling like crap and the failures of the medicalindustry.