About Chronic Fatigue
Our Clinic's Approach to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and More
Often patients seeking our clinic's help become very educated about what their doctors can't seem to figure out. For this reason, we are often required to offer our thoughts about diagnoses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), immune dysfunctions syndrome (CFIDS), fibromyalgia, neuroimmune syndromes, undermethylation, adrenal fatigue, and the list goes on.
While these terms are merely descriptive and the conditions themselves "waste baskets" for the doctor's "failed search," these conditions are real and significantly reduce one's quality of life.
Our clinic attracts patients from all over the country with conditions such as ME, chronic fatigue, and types of neuroimmune abnormalities. For patients ranging from children to seniors, our primary goal is to improve one's constitutional baseline by addressing genetic susceptibilities, repairing brain inflammation, improving immune regulation, addressing neurochemistry collapse, and rebalancing the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal-gonadal-thyroid (HPAGT) axis.
Our approach is intensive, but for the motivated patient it can truly increase the quality of one's life and reverse the impending health collapse.
Neurological Problems
Short-term memory loss, difficulty concentrating or thinking, pain, unrefreshing sleep, problems focusing vision, sensitivity to light or noise, problems with depth perception, muscle weakness, poor coordination
Diagnostic and treatment focus
Neurotransmitter collapse, vaso-cognitive impairment, histamine abnormalities, glial cell activation, infectious etiologies, innate immunity pathway abnormalities, chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), neurotransmitter intrapathway genetic susceptibility, and so on
Immune, Stomach, Or Bladder Problems
Flu-like symptoms, nausea, food sensitivities, frequent urination
Diagnostic and treatment focus
Sympathetic / parasympathetic imbalance, Th1-Th2 shift, IgA deficiency or excess, malabsorption, eosinophilic inflammation, gastrointestinal dumping, GI permeability problems, food sensitivity/allergy, and so on
Problems With Energy Production Or Energy Transportation Within The Body
For example, dizziness or lightheadedness, difficulty breathing, difficulty regulating body temperature
Diagnostic and treatment focus
Stressed or injured mitochondria, copper toxicity, metallothionine abnormality, cell membrane health, fatty acid deficiency, methylation genetic susceptibility, cellular oxidative stress, inflammatory stress, HPAGT axis problems, etc
Our clinic performs a number of conventional and functional medicine diagnostic tests to identify the root cause of illness. We cross-reference single nucleotide polymorphisms (genetic susceptibilities) with blood, urine, and stool tests. We use neuroimaging, brain electrical testing, survey assessments, and any number of tools to help us solve the puzzle. We encourage our patients not to give up.
Diagnostic Criteria for ME/CFS
In order to be diagnosed with ME/CFS, you must have "post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion." This means unexplained and severe fatigue after simple activities, not otherwise explainable by medical conditions like anemia, hypothyroidism, etc. In addition, a patient needs to present with at least one symptom from each of the following 3 categories:
- Neurological Problems
- Immune, Stomach, or Bladder Problems
- Problems with Energy Production or Energy Transportation within the Body
Regardless of the reason for ME, CFS, CFIDS onset – whether from stealth infection, vaccine reaction, brain injury, trauma, toxicity, stress, or simply genetic-susceptibility-meets-environmental-factors – patients can get their lives back if they play their (genetic) cards right. These are manageable conditions and a Precision/Functional Medicine clinic well-versed in genomics often has many tools and approaches to offer patients in this regard.
We Are Here to Help You!
On behalf of the Natural Balance team, we hope you have found this information helpful and we look forward to working with you. To schedule your new patient appointment, you can use our online scheduler, or if you have any questions, contact us at (734) 929-2696, extension 11.