Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

We all get tired. Many of us at times have felt depressed. But the mystery known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is not like the normal ups and downs we experience in everyday life. The early sign of this illness is a strong and noticeable fatigue that comes on suddenly and often comes and goes or never stops. You feel too tired to do normal activities or are easily exhausted with no apparent reason. Unlike the mind fog of a serious hangover, to which researchers have compared CFS, the profound weakness of CFS does not go away with a few good nights of sleep. Instead, it slyly steals your energy and vigor over months and sometimes years.

How CFS Begins and Its Symptoms

For many people, CFS begins after a bout with a cold, bronchitis, hepatitis, or an intestinal bug. For some, it follows a bout of infectious mononucleosis, or mono, which temporarily saps the energy of many teenagers and young adults. Often, people say that their illnesses started during a period of high stress. In others, CFS develops more gradually, with no clear illness or other event starting it.Unlike flu symptoms, which usually go away in a few days or weeks, CFS symptoms either hang on or come and go frequently for more than six months. CFS symptoms include:

Headache

Tender lymph nodes

Fatigue and weakness

Muscle and joint aches

Inability to concentrate

Who Gets CFS?

CFS was once stereotyped as a new "yuppie flu" because those who sought help for and caused scientific interest in CFS in the early 1980s were mainly well-educated, well-off women in their thirties and forties. Similar illnesses, known by different names, however, date back at least to the late 1800s. The modern stereotype arose. Since then, doctors have seen the syndrome in people of all ages, races, and social and economic classes from several countries around the world. Still, CFS is diagnosed two to four times more often in women than in men, possibly because of biological, psychological, and social influences. For example,

CFS may have a gender difference similar to diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and multiple sclerosis, which affect more women than men.

Women may be more likely than men to talk with their doctors about CFS-like symptoms.

Some members of the medical community and the public do not know about or are skeptical of the syndrome.

An increasingly diverse patient group will likely emerge as more doctors see CFS as a real disorder.