Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Are you suffering from it?
Jan 9, 2018
Have you experienced any of this scenario before?
“Your legs seemed ‘like’ to stick to the floor and you have to strain mightily to lift them. You couldn’t tell whether the muscles were too weak to raise the feet, or whether the signal to move was getting lost during its traveling from the brain to legs.”
“You always feel ever-lasting tiredness, even after proper bed rest. You are not able to focus on your daily physical or mental activities. At some point in time, you could be even felt extremely exhausted but still facing difficulty to asleep, feeling like the mind is so restless”
It is normal to feel tired or fatigued, from time to time; but severe tiredness that does not ease with proper rest and even worsened with daily physical and mental activity, and it is not caused by other illnesses – this fatigue is not normal at all. This type of fatigue is known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
Till date, there is still unable to identify the underlying cause of CFS; some experts point out that it may be caused by viruses, others say may be resulted from the immune response that causes inflammation activity in the nervous system, physiological stress or a combination of factors. It is difficult to diagnose as no tests for it, so the majority of the doctor will have to rule out other causes for confirming the chronic fatigue syndrome among his/her patients.
CFS is common among the population in their 40s and onwards. Gender also plays a key role as women are at least twice as likely to develop CFS as men. Other factors include genetic predisposition, allergies, stress and environmental factors may also increase the risk.
Generally, people are sometimes affected by CFS in cycles, with periods of feeling worse and then better again. The symptoms may even disappear (remission) for a short period of time and relapse again. And this remission and relapse cycle makes the CFS even more difficult to be managed by the patient.
References
In a prospective study by Maric et al. (2014), women diagnosed with CFS who were treated with multivitamin mineral supplement for 60 days. In the study, they were assessed on their CFS symptoms and oxidative stress levels. As increased oxidative stress is a confirmed marker that usually featured in CFS, which is modifiable by nutritional therapy. At the end of the study, there was a significant improvement in oxidative stress levels and decreases in fatigue, sleep disorders, nervous system, headaches and subjective feeling of infection.
Meanwhile, one of the best known medicinal plant worldwide, ginseng especially this species Panax ginseng C.A Meyer, is known for its anti-fatigue benefits. A study conducted by Kim et al. from Korea has reported the evidence of the anti-fatigue effects of Panax ginseng C.A Meyer. In the 4-week supplementation of Panax ginseng C.A Meyer, the extract significantly increased the body total glutathione, a type of antioxidant that helps to overcome the oxidative stress which is commonly persisted among CFS individuals.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is not an incurable illness. It can be managed with multivitamins and minerals with Panax ginseng C.A Meyer, such as BiO-LiFE Premiton. Furthermore, BiO-LiFE Premiton not only formulated with vitamins, minerals and standardized ginseng extract; it is also providing with the add on of alpha lipoic acid (ALA), a potent universal antioxidant. It is responsible to protect the body cells from free radical damage and recycle other antioxidants (eg. vitamin C, E, CoQ10 etc) in the body.
References
- Maric, D. et al. 2014. Multivitamin mineral supplementation in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Med Sci Monit. 14: 20:47-53.
- Kim, H-G. et al. 2013. Antifatigue effects of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. PLOS One 8: 1-8.
