Fatigue syndrome

For decades, people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome have struggled to convince doctors, employers, friends and even family members that they were not imagining their debilitating symptoms. Skeptics called the illness “yuppie flu” and “shirker syndrome.”

But the syndrome is now finally gaining some official respect. The Centers for disease control and prevention, which in 1999 acknowledged that it had diverted millions of dollars allocated by Congress for chronic fatigue syndrome research to other programs, has released studies that linked the condition to genetic mutations and abnormalities in gene expression involved in key physiological processes.

The agency has also sponsored a $6 million public awareness campaign about the illness. And last year, it released survey data suggesting that the prevalence of the syndrome is far higher than previously thought, although these findings have stirred controversy among patients and scientists.

Some scientists and many patients remain highly critical of the C.D.C.’s record on chronic fatigue syndrome. But nearly everyone now agrees that the syndrome is real.

“People with C.F.S. are as sick and as functionally impaired as someone with AIDS, with breast cancer, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” said Dr. William Reeves, the lead expert on the illness at the disease control agency, who helped expose its misuse of chronic fatigue financing.

Chronic fatigue syndrome was first identified as a distinct entity in the 1980s. (A virtually identical illness had been identified in Britain three decades earlier and called myalgic encephalomyelitis.) The illness, which afflicts more women than men, causes overwhelming fatigue, sleep disorders and other severe symptoms. No consistent biomarkers have been identified and no treatments have been approved for addressing the underlying causes, although some medications provide symptomatic relief.

Patients say the word “fatigue” does not begin to describe their condition. Donna Flowers of Los Gatos, Calif., a physical therapist and former professional figure skater, said the profound exhaustion was unlike anything she had ever experienced.

“I slept for 12 to 14 hours a day but still felt sleep-deprived,” said Ms. Flowers, 51, who fell ill several years ago after a bout of mononucleosis, “I had what we call ‘brain fog.’ I couldn’t think straight, and I could barely read. I couldn’t get the energy to go out of the door. I thought I was doomed. I wanted to die.”

Studies have shown that people with the syndrome experience abnormalities in the central and autonomic nervous systems, the immune system, cognitive functions, the stress response pathways and other major biological functions. Researchers believe the illness will ultimately prove to have multiple causes, including genetic predisposition and exposure to microbial agents, toxins and other physical and emotional traumas. Studies have linked the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome with an acute bout of lyme disease, Q fever, Ross River virus, parvovirus, mononucleosis and other infectious disease.

“It’s unlikely that this big cluster of people who fit the symptoms all have the same triggers,” said Kimberly McCleary, president of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Association of America, the advocacy group in charge of the C.D.C.-sponsored awareness campaign. “You’re looking not just at apples and oranges but pineapples, hot dogs and skateboards, too.”

Under the most widely used case definition, a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome requires six months of unexplained fatigue as well as four of eight other persistent symptoms: impaired memory and concentration, sore throath, tender lymph nodes, muscle pain, joint pain, headaches, disturbed sleeping patterns and feelings of malaise after exertion.

The broadness of the definition has led to varying estimates of the syndrome’s prevalence. Based on previous surveys, the C.D.C. has estimated that more than a million Americans have the illness.

Last month, however, the agency reported that a randomized telephone survey in Georgia, using a less restrictive methodology to identify cases, found that about one in 40 adults ages 18 to 59 met the diagnostic criteria — an estimate 6 to 10 times higher than previously reported rates.

Many patients and researchers fear that the expanded prevalence rate could complicate the search for consistent findings across patient cohorts. These critics say the new figures are greatly inflated and include many people who are likely to be suffering not from chronic fatigue syndrome but from psychiatric illnesses.

Increase metabolism naturally

The problem with fad diets is that many actually cause the metabolism to slow down, a decreased metabolic rate is often the very reason that weight loss progress grinds to a sudden halt. Because the net loss of protein in the muscle continues to lower your metabolism, the body will adapt to the lower calorie intake.

What are the benefits to increasing your metabolism?
Permanent fat loss will occur if the metabolism is increased beyond normal, it’s a physiological fact that when we loss weight, we also loss protein from our muscles. And the quicker the weight loss, the greater the loss protein, because there is less intake of protein from dieting, the protein in the muscles is broken down and used for energy or to create new proteins for our immune systems. Unfortunately, a net loss of protein will always decrease the body’s metabolism.

As protein is lost from the cell, it gradually lowers the total lean body weight, this affects the body composition and lowers the body metabolism, because of this process, we gradually require fewer calories to maintain the body weight.

If the current diet is continued, weight loss will eventually stop, in fact, it’s even possible to slowly gain back weight if a dieter sticks to a very low calorie diet.

Increase the metabolism for less chance of water loss, the more protein that is lost from the muscle, the more fluid that is also lost, because protein holds around four times its weight in water, protein and its fluid replacement is the main reason that many dieters regain weight after a diet.

Glance of food allergies

Food allergies

Are common among children, but whit proper care and attention, food allergies can be managed, and there is no reason why your child cannot grow up healthily and happily.

Although food allergies can pose a serious problem, only 6% of children are affected, some of these allergies can be avoided or outgrown, although recent findings suggest that fewer children are out growing allergies to milk and eggs.

Toddlers are more likely to develop food allergies than adults because allergies usually occur early I life when the immune and digestive systems are not mature.

Many mix up food allergies with food intolerance, an allergy is an immune system response symptoms can occur just a few minutes after eating the trigger food.

Food intolerance, on the other hand is a reaction to food that does not involve the immune system.

Symptoms caused by food allergies can very greatly, they can differ in severity, timing body location and amount of food eaten, allergic reactions to certain food can be mildly irritating, but they can be life threatening in some children and symptom appear within 10 minutes to 2 hours after eating the allergenic food.

Ear pain

Ear pain is usually caused by infection of the outer or middle ear.

Left untreated, ear infections may lead to pus building up behind the ear drum and within the middle ear, causing it to burst and result in hearing impairment.

Outer ear infection is inability to hear can affect your child speech development, so do take ear infections seriously.

The skin on the outer ear canal becomes inflamed, swollen and red if your child has an outer ear infection, he will also experience pain and itchiness inside the ear.

The infection may have been caused by scratches or frequent swimming in chlorinated or unclean water.

If your child has eczema, he is likely to get an outer ear infection if water gets into his ear.

The solutions are:

• Take your child to a doctor and give him the recommended dose of pain killer to ease the pain.
• Do not let water get into your child ear during baths and use a sponge to wash his hair.
• No swimming until the infection clears up.

Middle ear infection is mostly middle ear infections occur with or shortly after a cold, the cold virus spreads from the nose and the throat to middle ear via a tube called the Eustachian tube.

There maybe severe ear pain with rubbing or tugging at the ear, high fever, loss of appetite, or even partials deafness.

Discharge from the ear usually indicates that the ear drum has perforated.

The consequences of middle ear infection are persistent ear discharge, impaired hearing, and even meningitis (inflammation of the coverings of the brain).

Preventing ear infections: if your child prone to ear infections, you may want to discourage him from swimming for a while, also apply menthol drops or rubs when he has a cold to unclog his nasal passages, this cuts down the risk of an infection spreading to the ear, or the alternatively, give him nasal decongestants obtained from doctor.

Another cause of ear infections is the pneumococcus bacteria, your child can be protected from this infection by immunization.