Are you suffering from unrelenting fatigue that doesn’t seem to respond to any intervention?
Perhaps you’ve asked your doctor to check your thyroid function and it came back normal.
Perhaps you’ve been testing for iron-deficiency anemia this, too, was normal. Or perhaps you’ve been told that your adrenal function is sub-optimal. Maybe what you haven’t thought of is the fact that you could be harboring hidden pathogens in your body that are robbing your energy and stealing your steam!
If basic testing fails to reveal a cause of your fatigue, you may want to have your Health Practitioner test for occult infection. More sophisticated investigations can reveal the presence of all kinds of pathogens capable of colonizing the body and evading the immune system.
What are some common hidden infections that may be causing your fatigue?
- Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)
- Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
- Human Herpes Virus (HHV-6)
- Parvovirus (Parvo B19)
- Mycoplasma sp.
- Borrelia Burgdorferi
- Chronic mold and mycotoxin exposure
Why is it that some people who get an infection recover and have no fatigue and others may be colonized with pathogens and suffer from intractable lack of energy?
The initial infection followed by chronic inflammation of the immune system could explain the cause of fatigue in these genetically susceptible individuals.
The most common sequela to hidden infections is chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complicated disorder characterized by extreme fatigue that can’t be explained by any underlying medical condition. The fatigue may worsen with physical or mental activity, but doesn’t improve with rest.
Chronic fatigue syndrome has eight official signs and symptoms, plus the central symptom that gives the condition its name:
- Fatigue
- Loss of memory or concentration
- Sore throat
- Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits
- Unexplained muscle pain
- Pain that moves from one joint to another without swelling or redness
- Headache of a new type, pattern or severity
- Un-refreshing sleep
- Extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical or mental exercise
Chronic fatigue syndrome is just a label. It’s useful to identify a group of symptoms that causes significant fatigue and may affect one’s life dramatically causing inability to function or hold a job. It does not represent one clinical entity but the cause may be multi-factorial and different in each individual.
It may share a final common pathway of dysfunctional immune activation and inflammation that keeps on going in a self perpetuating manner (like the Energizer Bunny gone bad!) From a functional medicine perspective it’s important to get to the root cause of the chronic fatigue symptoms.
Most of these infections, including the inflammatory response (CIRS) to mold and mycotoxins can be measured by ordering conventional lab testing. Ask your health care practitioner to see if he can help you determine the root cause of your fatigue.
Treating the root cause (or infection in this case) just might give you back your life!
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