Chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a non-communicable disease first discovered as a physical disease in the 1980s and is currently a controversial disease.

Currently, when the number of people diagnosed with this disease is increasing, there are still many people in the medical industry who are skeptical about its existence or still think it is psychological disease.

But studies that have lasted for many years have identified CFS as a physical disease, but it is still not fully understood. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the disease currently affects half a million Americans.

Signs of CFS are considered as symptoms such as irresistible fatigue, weak body that makes patients very difficult to perform daily tasks and activities such as waking up, changing clothes, Eating…

This fatigue did not improve better even though the patient was resting in bed. It strongly affects learning, work and other recreational activities, causing other physical and psychological illnesses that can last for months or even years.

CFS is more common among women than men and affects all racial and ethnic groups. Most people with this disease are between the ages of 20-40. It also occurs in teenagers. A disease similar to CFS is also confirmed to appear in children under 12 years old. Until now, the number of children and children in adolescents affected by this disease has not been counted.

Cause of CFS

The cause of CFS remains unknown. Current studies are aimed at the possibility that people with CFS may be affected by abnormal activities of the immune system and central nervous system. Scientists are also investigating metabolic abnormalities and other risk factors such as gene disorders, age, gender, medical history, environment and stress that may affect the development of development and process of this disease.

Some other researchers believe that there may be a virus that causes CFS, but they have not proven this hypothesis. For a time, scientists blamed the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), claiming that the virus plays an important role in the development of CFS, but many people are diagnosed with CFS without evidence. infected with EBV. However, the cause of CFS is because a virus is still a suspect because the symptoms of the disease are often similar to a viral infection. Scientists are still studying to prove that the virus is related to CFS.

There are also other theories that suggest that CFS factors include: iron deficiency in the blood, low blood sugar, environmental allergies, body-wide yeast infections, mental illness or problems. threads related to nerves.

Symptoms of CFS

Because the symptoms of CFS are quite vague and can vary widely from person to person, the CDC gave detailed statistics to help identify CFS in 1993 to help doctors diagnose the disease. Symptoms include: severe fatigue, chronic for at least 6 months or more, along with other diseases that can be diagnosed and treated, along with 4 or more of the following symptoms here:

- Forgetting or difficulty concentrating.
- Sore throat.
- Tumors in the neck or armpits.
- Muscle pain or pain associated with swelling or redness.
- Headache.
- Sleep is not good and vague feeling sick or depressed .

In addition, any of the above symptoms associated with fatigue that occurred for at least 6 months or longer is also considered one of the signs of CFS. Besides, constant fatigue should also be considered the first sign of the disease.

Other symptoms of CFS can be mild fever, poor vision, chills, night sweats, diarrhea, unusual changes in taste and weight.

Diagnosis of CFS

CFS is difficult to diagnose with a single test, and the cause of the disease is still unknown. Another reason is that other diseases also have symptoms similar to CFS such as viral infections, kidney disease, heart disease, depression and nervous system diseases. Therefore, the first thing a diagnostic doctor has to do is make sure that a person with fatigue and other symptoms is not caused by these diseases or other illnesses such as sleep disorders, hormonal problems such as Reduce the activity of the thyroid gland.

However, CFS can be identified with its own characteristics. 'Symptoms of CFS often develop suddenly and include obvious fatigue, coming and going or still for many months,' said Joel D. Klein, a medical doctor. Doctors can conduct a general examination, do many blood tests to identify the disease.

WALL VY ( According to KidsHealth )