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Monday
Aug022010

Solving Chronic Fatigue Part 2  

DateMonday, August 2, 2010 at 5:12PM

If you are tired all the time you may have already heard the term "active rest". Studies show that  prolonged periods in bed for Chronic Fatigue sufferers are not beneficial. My experience and research as a Homeopath has led me to make certain recommendations to patients that seem to give good results. This article will focus on what active steps you can take, if you have been diagnosed with Chronic fatigue. If you want to know how important your Adrenals are in this illness read Part 1 here. Part 3 will focus on Nutrition.  

 

But I'm too tired to exercise!

 
As a previous sufferer of Chronic fatigue myself, I know really well how impossible it feels when people advise you to exercise. It's hard enough to walk to the post box let alone do something more physical. First of all you need to change your mindset. Your body at the moment is very very fatigued. This is because there are some major functional disturbances going on and some of your endocrine glands such as your adrenals are struggling big time. However, studies show that graded exercise programs really do help sufferers and within 4 weeks. If it's really going to help you, then it's definitely going to be worth it right? 
 

The Secret of Routine

 
One of the major tricks to helping yourself is to have a very structured routine. This means you eat the right foods (more of that in Part 3) at the same time everyday, you exercise and you actively rest at certain times. This way your body gets used to backing you up when you need it when you are exerting yourself and then regenerating itself when you are taking an active rest.
 

What is Active Rest?

Active rest is the term I use to refer to planned and regenerative rest periods. It is very different in its effect to sitting down because you cannot go on physically holding yourself up. It's a different way of approaching fatigue and it is based on the premise that you know you are going to get more tired ,so you STOP and rest before you reach the point when you physically cannot cope any longer. When chronic fatigue is very severe the patient feels tired ALL the time, but even with this severity there are still ups and down during the day in the levels of tiredness. Take advantage of these ups and downs and plan your rest periods to pre-empt the worst periods. Active rest is both a planned and scheduled rest or sleep, but also it can be a rest involving meditation. For very severe sufferers who are so incapacitated that they cannot work or go to school, I recommend the following:
 
  • Wake between 7-8am 
  • Breakfast within 30 minutes of waking 
  • Mid morning protein based snack followed by 30 -45 minutes active rest. 
  • Lunch at midday 
  • Horizontal sleep or meditation for 1 hour after lunch 
  • Mid afternoon protein based snack 
  • Dinner between 6-7pm 
  • Bedtime 10-10.30pm but in bed reading/resting 30 mins before
  • When you have activities that prohibit this routine try and schedule your time before the activity to include an extra rest.
 

The Benefits of Meditation

I have written before about the amazing health benefits of meditation on my blog. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT addition you can make to your life if you want to recover well from Chronic Fatigue. I suggest you buy a guided meditation CD or go to classes or better still check out these websites that have lots of free meditations that you can download onto your Ipod  or MP3 player. Here is one of my favourites:

So what Exercise can you do? 

 
Pilates, Yoga and walking are great forms of beneficial exercise for Chronic fatigue sufferers because they can involve the mind and the body and you can start small.  It is helpful to work out a 15 ,20 and 30 minute yoga workout with a teacher so you can start slowly and over 4 weeks build up to a group lesson with everyone else. The five Tibetan Rites are an excellent idea for sufferers.Your gentle exercise needs to be done DAILY by week 4, no exceptions except you can take one day off. In week one of the program try and exercise every other day, week two 4-5 times a week and week three almost daily if you can. This will bring you to week 4 where you are doing a small, gentle amount of exercise 6 out of 7 days. 
 

Remember!

Your exercise doesn't have to be fast, furious and aerobic. Choose something that gives you peace and focus on that. Everytime you move your body you will be encouraging your bodily systems to come back into line to take you towards health and healing. 
 
Next this Chronic Fatigue series part 3 I will write about the nutritional contribution you can make to getting yourself well from Chronic Fatigue.
 
Happy Homeopathic Prescribing! 
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© Sam Adkins 2010
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This article was brought to you by Sam Adkins The Homeopathic Coach who teaches families about healthy living and natural remedies using homeopathic medicine. An internationally renowned expert, her helpful articles are regularly syndicated online.  She publishes the ezine Homeopathy@Home to provide free Homeopathic tips, tools and resources to educate and inspire you to use Homeopathy at home. www.thehomeopathiccoach.com

 

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Reader Comments (9)

thank you Sam for all the information

August 3, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterDr. Beatriz Hernández Hill,Homeopath

There's an old saying of "rest before you need it" (Dale Carnegie) which sums up your post. I love that you have explained the why and how of this.

August 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterRod Sherwin

Thanks Rod and Beatriz. Chronic Fatigue is one of those conditions that seems so impossible to solve but with a comprehensive approach can be solved.I suspect some EFTon limiting beliefs would also help Rod!

August 6, 2010 | Registered CommenterSam Adkins

Hi Sam,
You have experience with successfully working your way to health from chronic adrenal fatigue. I also did the same once but have had 2 annual relapses since and each proved difficult to overcome than the previous one.
So am curious to know if you feel it possible to get rid of this adrenal condition permanently or are relapses going to be a part of life ? Of course, my knowledge about the underlying cause and the restraints to be exercised (e.g. dietary, physical exercise control etc.) has increased over these years. But I keep dreading if any next event would cause a relapse to occur - they are very debilitating and seem to take extremely long to go away.

August 9, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterB

Hi B,
I think of course that every case is different. Addressing the physical aspects is very important but just as much emphasis has to be placed on looking at the mental/emotional symptoms also. Sometimes insight on these levels is essential to prevent relapses. Have you done any work on these areas too?

August 9, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterSam Adkins

i) My first relapse was triggered by excess sugar intake. I was unaware of my sugar sensitivity that time, attended 2 parties in a week where I gorged on sweets, fruit juices etc. and by end of week, I had crashed with relapse.
ii) The second came when I adopted a daily evening walk into my schedule. I started upping from 40 min to more than 1 hrs/day and by third week of this religiously followed schedule, the adrenal fatigue had re-lapsed. Since then, I have learnt that patients of this ailment have to avoid physical exertions beyond a point since that increases the sugar requirements on adrenals and drains them.

Hence both of my relapses were triggered by physical factors. However, I am also working on the mental/emotional factors this time and have started daily meditation for last couple of months.
The intent of my query was : can the adrenals ever regain close to full health ? Or does one have to be wary of all stressors (dietary, exercise etc.) and relapses are a part of life for all…what has been the experience for your /any of the patients? Thanks !

August 10, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterB

Dear B, I believe so yes. However I do feel that some people seem to have overall 'systems' that are more sensitive and those individuals need to understand clearly their limits. I wonder if there are some other complex metabolic factors going on in your case also? By the sounds of the sensitivity of your adrenals I would not say that you were truly recovered before the relapses. It takes up to 2 years to fully recover. How quickly did you recover from the set backs? If it was slow then you have far to go but if each time it was faster than the last you are making good progress.. I wish you well:)

August 12, 2010 | Registered CommenterSam Adkins

Sam, I agree with your assessment that my adrenals may not have truly recovered fully each time, though I felt so. Each time, the physical fatigue was totally gone and I had gained energy and strength back, hence there was no reason to supect that the recovery had some steps left.

Unfortunately, there is no marker like blood tests etc. to diagnose adrenal fatigue, hence once can not measure the progress of healing extent. That is also a prime reason why traditional medicine does not recognize or treat adrenal fatigue as such. I had a tough time with many doctors, hence had to turn to healing myself by self-reliance.
I did find a local homeopath who listened to my symptoms and tried to treat honestly, but had never read or heard of adrenal issues, sugar sensitivity etc. So she could not go beyond trying alfa-alfa, avena sativa, and ashwagandha tinctures.

Thanks for your articles and responses..

August 13, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterB
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