Multiple sclerosis can seem like the cruelest disease. We’ve all heard of cases where a young adult, once in the bloom of health, becomes disabled and confined to a wheelchair. And while it’s true that MS attacks healthy young people, fortunately very few cases lead to rapid disability. By far the common MS “story” is one of flare-ups followed by very long disease-free periods, so that disability, if it does occur at all, may not happen for decades. Although the cause of MS remains unknown, physicians believe it’s an autoimmune disease, where the immune system winds up attacking its own central nervous system. Doctors are far less helpless in the face of MS than they once were. Disease “modifiers” such as the interferon-based medications Betaseron or Avonex and the drug glatiramer acetate (Copaxone), all have been shown to reduce flare-up rates dramatically and delay the time to disability.
Tag: fatigue
Fibromyalgia
If the muscles in your upper back and neck ache all the time for inexplicable reasons, it’s possible you have fibromyalgia. Virtually every day, patients (mainly women) come into the office with what turns out to be this condition. Either they describe long-standing symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, or they’re aware of their diagnosis but were told by their doctors that nothing could be done to help them. While at present no doctor, including me, can cure fibromyalgia, there is plenty we can do to help you feel better. In fact, our integrated approach, using conventional medicines, supplements, and other measures we recommend at WholeHealth Chicago, has produced real benefits for hundreds of my patients.
Diabetes
Most of the people with diabetes that I see have the adult-onset type 2, which typically develops after age 40. Conventional medical treatment for this condition is certainly very good, and someone with well-controlled adult-onset diabetes can expect a perfectly normal life span. But too often, both physicians and patients consider diabetes a “medical problem”–meaning all a patient has to do is take his medicine, watch his sugar intake, and check in with the doctor every so often.
Crohn’s Disease
We don’t understand a lot about Crohn’s disease, but we do know that more and more young people are being diagnosed with it. Crohn’s is a chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. It strikes mainly adolescents and young adults, and manifests itself as abdominal pain, fever, diarrhea, and weight loss. The small intestine is primarily affected, and the patient develops real problems in absorbing important nutrients. Physicians use the anti-inflammatory drugs sulfasalazine and steroids to reduce the inflammation. As the disease seems to be related to alterations in the immune system, they sometimes add medications to suppress immunity as well. Unfortunately, the disease often progresses despite drug therapy, and surgery is frequently needed for infections and intestinal obstruction.
Congestive Heart Failure
Treating congestive heart failure (CHF) is one of the first skills a young doctor learns in medical school. This process essentially involves balancing one group of medicines to clear excessive fluid (the “congestion” building up behind the weakened heart) with another group of drugs to strengthen the heart’s role as a pump. And often within a few hours many patients treated for severe CHF feel better. So despite its scary sounding name (“heart failure”) most primary-care doctors can probably sleepwalk through a treatment of CHF. But don’t you try it; CHF is definitely not in the do-it-yourself category of common ailments. However, if you agree to work with your doctor using the information from this WholeHealth Chicago Healing Center, then certain herbs, supplements, and lifestyle changes can make a positive difference.
Candida Overgrowth Syndrome
At least once a week, a patient comes in, saying, “You’re the fourth [or seventh or tenth] doctor I’ve seen. I feel simply terrible but am always told that my tests are normal, and there’s nothing wrong with me. Recently I read about yeast overgrowth, and the symptoms seem to fit my case exactly. The doctors, however, all tell me there’s no such illness.”
Arrhythmias
The steady lup-dup, lub-dup regularity of our heart’s pumping beat is reassuring, and we don’t mind it speeding up for exercise or slowing down for sleep, as long as its rhythm remains steady. Any glitch in that rhythmic throb, whether too slow or too fast, is called an arrhythmia.
Anemia
Anemia is when you don’t have enough red blood cells. Since red blood cells carry oxygen, you can probably guess what the symptoms of anemia might be: no energy, easily out of breath, pale and washed-out looking–in other words, long-lasting general blahs. Anemia is always due to some other condition, and this is why you need a doctor’s help to find out just why you’re anemic.
Your Brain: Maybe You’re Depressed
Depression is the result of low levels of the stress-buffering brain chemical serotonin trying, but failing, to protect you against assaults of unchecked stress.
The same holds true for similar disorders, like anxiety, fatigue, and fibromyalgia.
D-ribose: New Supplement of Note
Any primary care physician will tell you the number one symptom that prompts a visit to the doctor is fatigue, expressed as “I’m tired all the time,” “I crash at three in the afternoon,” or “My get up and go just got up and went.”
Q&A: Increasing Your Energy
Q: I’m wondering if you could summarize all the ways I might go about increasing my energy level. I’ve had a lot of fatigue recently. Would you list supplements that could help, along with food and anything else? Thank you so much.
Solving Adrenal Imbalance
They’re about the size of walnuts, your two adrenal glands. Picture them there, resting comfortably, one on top of each kidney. If you reach around your back with your hands open, your thumbs will be about where your adrenal glands are perched.