Immune System Disorders
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Also known as post viral syndrome, CFS is linked to immune system disorders/weakness or a past or present viral infection. The cause of this illness is not understood. Extreme muscle fatigue, weakness, headaches, and trouble concentrating are all symptoms of this condition.
What to take: Huang qi is a tonic used in China to stimulate the immune system and restore energy to the body. Taken in conjunction with Ginseng and Echinacea, along with supplements of Guta cola, zinc, primrose oil and vitamin C, this powerful combination should help to revitalize the body, mind and spirit.
Fibromyalgia: Also known as FMS, this illness, which strikes women five times more often than men, was looked upon by most of the medical establishment until very recently as a fabrication by the patient due to her stress or delusion. If a physician couldn't find a recognized, labeled disease as reason for a patient's intense and chronic pain and debilitating fatigue, headaches, sleeplessness and other disorders, they would say the patient had fibromyalgia, hence, it became known as a “wastebasket diagnosis.” It was not until the late 1990’s that specific symptoms of FMS were truly defined and physicians took their patients and the disease seriously.
One common symptom to FMS patients is intense, chronic pain in the soft tissue of the neck and in the tissues connecting muscles to the bones of the arms, legs, buttocks, hips, thighs, knees, ankles, feet, wrists, elbows and chest wall. The pain from the buttocks radiates down the body following the path of the sciatic nerve. These are the trigger points, deep, debilitating pain in 11 or more of these 18 areas for several months is the key diagnosis of FMS. Other symptoms that accompany the muscle pain are insomnia and dysfunctional sleep, chronic fatigue, headaches, lapses of memory and the inability to concentrate, abdominal pain with constipation and/or diarrhea (IBS), swelling of the hands and sensitivity to the cold. Why patients develop fibromyalgia is still unknown, but there are several excellent herbal and natural healing remedies that will give you safe relief from the pain and discomforts of FMS.
Case history: My own road to recovery from this illness, which had not yet been diagnosed, began with a visit with a Johns Hopkins-trained nutritionist. At age 51 the symptoms were complicated with menopausal symptoms. For several months I spent more money each month on nutritional supplements than I did on groceries for the family of four, but I credit the nutritionist with saving my life when I had been to every medical specialist from Seattle to Virginia. The nutritional supplements boosted the life force from what I estimate was about 20% to 80%. I tried every supplement she recommended for a one month period; when the month's course was finished I did not repurchase it again immediately but went several days without it to see if there was a difference in my well-being. I kept a health diary to note ailments and what supplement helped correct them. Many I was able to give up after one month or only use occasionally as needed. A few were critical and continue to be so four years later: MSM for musculoskeletal pains, Vitamin E (800-1600mg/daily), Primrose oil, CoQ10 (100mg+ daily), and a high quality Multi-vitamin for Women (not your drug-store variety type); the cupboard is filled with supplements, herbs, and Chinese patent medicines that are used as needed.
Not finding any relief from the illness from the numerous MD specialists I had visited, I was reminded of a completely different medical system in talking with a neighbor woman. I went to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor licensed as a Naturopath in Virginia. Without needing to give a name to the illness I had, Dr. Yan listened to my symptoms, saw the patterns in what I was describing, and asked if I had other symptoms--which I had forgotten about in my long litany of ailments! After a two-year search I found a physician who 1) believed me--it wasn't all in my head because my ailment wasn't a already-known and labeled disease, and 2) understood how all the body's systems work together, an unknown concept in allopathic medicine. He prescribed herbs which I purchased at the area's Chinese apothecary and brewed for seven days' treatment. The reduction in pain, improvement in sleep patterns, and overall improvement in well-being was nothing short of miraculous.
The illness has not been fully overcome although I have weeks with no symptoms, I normally have my "body-scan radar" on alert to immediately notice symptoms that require a nutrition supplement, herb or TCM patent remedy, which are my routine maintenance medicines. WMB
