Do you have the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)?

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS is very hard to diagnose as there are no laboratory tests for this painful and debilitating disease, there are no physical signs identifying CFS, and because chronic fatigue symptoms can vary widely from person to person.

What's more, people who suffer the symptoms of CFS must be carefully evaluated by a physician because many treatable medical and psychiatric conditions are hard to distinguish from CFS. Common conditions that should be ruled out through a careful medical history and appropriate testing include mononucleosis, Lyme disease, thyroid conditions, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, various cancers, depression and bipolar disorder.

Defining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

There has been a lot of debate about how best to define Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. An international panel of CFS research experts was convened in 1994 to draft a definition of CFS that would be helpful to both researchers studying the disease and doctors who were trying to diagnose it. What was decided, according to the Centers for Disease Control was that a diagnosis of CFS would be made only if a patient satisfied these two criteria. First, you must had extreme fatigue that has lasted at least six months that is not the result of ongoing efforts; is not substantially relieved by rest; and that causes a substantial reduction in daily activities.

Second, you must have had four of the following symptoms concurrently:

1. Substantial problems with short-term memory or concentration
2. Sore throat
3. Tender lymph nodes
4. Muscle pain
5. Multi-joint pain without swelling or redness
6. Headaches of a new type, pattern or severity
7. Unrefreshing sleep - which is to say you sleep but wake up tired, and Post-exertional malaise (relapse of symtoms after physical or mental exertion)

Also these symptoms must have persisted or recurred during six or more consecutive months of illness and it must not have predated the fatigue.

There are other symptoms that have been reported by CFS patients. These include:

• Abdominal pain
• Alcohol intolerance
• Bloating
• Chest Pain
• Chronic cough
• Diarrhea
• Dizziness
• Dry eyes or mouth
• Caraches
• Irregular heartbeat
• Jaw pain
• Morning stiffness
• Nausea
• Night Sweats, Psychological problems (depression, irritability, anxiety, panic attacks)
• Shortness of breath
• Skin sensations
• Tingling sensations
• Weight Loss

Again, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the frequencies of these symptoms vary from 20% to 50% among CFS patients.