Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
The 6 Root Causes
9 Failed or Limited Explanations
Many people are suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome to varying degrees and many of these are not improving substantially given the current weak state of explanations and lack of complete solutions.
Sufferers of CFS are often going around in circles, wasting money in constant shopping based on guessing, getting on and off the practitioner merry-go-round lucky to receive few things that work without getting hurt from treatments even by those touted as natural.
Explanations for chronic fatigue offered by the medical paradigm are highly inadequate and will remain so because it is a flawed paradigm that cannot solve the problem.
Solutions for full recovery are also lacking in the alternative health field as a whole, which often still has one foot stuck in the medical paradigm. An alternative paradigm should begin with a systematic theory of root causes.
I offer here an explanation of chronic fatigue based on 6 possible root causes with each individual having a unique combination of between 2-6 root causes. I believe this model is sufficiently robust to encompass all cases with flexibility to capture the variation and complexity of a syndrome. The explanation of root causes here applies to health disease in general.
Chronic fatigue is a broad label that encompasses a range of cases under other names like adrenal fatigue or lyme infection. Different words do not necessarily refer to different things. Other terms usually refer to a theory of one cause, which is too narrow a way to approach it. I review 8 limited explanations here.
It is crucial to focus to all the root causes, which is still simpler than chasing 20-30 symptoms.
Persons with CFS have limited brain power to solve problems that are even too complex for their doctors.
Sufferers of CFS are often going around in circles, wasting money in constant shopping based on guessing, getting on and off the practitioner merry-go-round lucky to receive few things that work without getting hurt from treatments even by those touted as natural.
Explanations for chronic fatigue offered by the medical paradigm are highly inadequate and will remain so because it is a flawed paradigm that cannot solve the problem.
Solutions for full recovery are also lacking in the alternative health field as a whole, which often still has one foot stuck in the medical paradigm. An alternative paradigm should begin with a systematic theory of root causes.
I offer here an explanation of chronic fatigue based on 6 possible root causes with each individual having a unique combination of between 2-6 root causes. I believe this model is sufficiently robust to encompass all cases with flexibility to capture the variation and complexity of a syndrome. The explanation of root causes here applies to health disease in general.
Chronic fatigue is a broad label that encompasses a range of cases under other names like adrenal fatigue or lyme infection. Different words do not necessarily refer to different things. Other terms usually refer to a theory of one cause, which is too narrow a way to approach it. I review 8 limited explanations here.
It is crucial to focus to all the root causes, which is still simpler than chasing 20-30 symptoms.
Persons with CFS have limited brain power to solve problems that are even too complex for their doctors.
What Defines a Root Cause?
Body parts do not cause their own problems.
Problems originate from outside the body.
Causes impact body parts and processes where symptoms present.
These are Not Causes:
Body parts do not cause their own problems.
Problems originate from outside the body.
Causes impact body parts and processes where symptoms present.
These are Not Causes:
- “Adrenal fatigue” see 4 Myths about Adrenals
- Thyroid see Thyroid is a Symptom
- Leaky Gut is not the root cause ,even if you have it
- Inflammation
- Autoimmune conditions.
Root Causes come from 3 types of things from outside the body:
1) invading
2) missing
3) responses to stress
By these criteria there are 6 Root Causes
The 6 Root Causes Defined
The 6 possible root causes that may occur in any combination for each individual
- Nutrition Deficiencies and intolerances contribute to many physical and emotional symptoms.
- Toxicity Everyone has a toxic load with exposure to chemicals, metals, mold, electricity, lights.
- Infections of candida, bacteria, parasites. produce toxins and can manipulate your brain
- Misalignment of bone and muscle, from teeth to toes, can create pain, insomnia, constant stress, and weak organs.
- Emotional Trapped emotions and unproductive stress responses can drain your energy.
- Mind: how you make health choices based on what you focus on: symptoms versus causes, parts versus wholes, implementing what you have versus shopping for something new or just not doing what you are supposed to.
Root Cause Logic
This list of root causes is meant to be all inclusive and leave out no possibilities.
A root cause has no further cause if you keep asking "Why?"....until more causes cannot be identified.
Most root causes originate outside of the body:
Nutrients, toxins, infection, or emotional abuse or neglect, and missing developmental processes, physical or emotional.
The mind is counted as from outside the body since it can be wrong and not aligned with the body.
Problems with 9 Explanations
If the definitions of root causes does not “grab” you or seem convincing it is because an existing assumption in your mind is in the way. This is a problem of a paradigm shift, not simply of evidence, but the entire framework in your mind, conscious or unconscious, you use to interpret and value information. Most people have misconceptions stuck in their heads that need to be removed before the new information can enter.
Epstein Bar Virus
This the is the oldest explanation for chronic fatigue. I can’t think of any personal stories of people who recovered through this focusm yet this is almost the only thing doctors routinely test for.
Top virologists like Skip Virgin explain that virologists cannot even agree that viruses are living organisms like bacteria.
This is the old medical paradigm with its infectious disease model that ignores toxicity, and even ignores infections that are not "popular," like lyme bacteria and parasites.
Lyme
Lyme bacteria infection is one possible root cause but is often an overused explanation and does not work as a single cause or even dominant cause explanation. It does not help much to admit there are coinfections. Lyme experts like Bernstein admit there are other causes like toxicity and nutrition. Many health practitioners like naturopathic doctors have to convince their patients that even though they test positive for lyme, that is not really why they are sick. I’ve heard numerous lymies explain that other things like detox are what finally helped. People sometimes seem to wear a diganosis like an identity.
Adrenal Fatigue, Thyroid, Hormones
Hormonal explanations have captivated the imagination of people in ways that make no sense upon further examination. Hormones don’t produce energy, they are messengers and coordinators, very small organs compared the much larger liver, kidneys and gut organs that do the work of producing energy. Gas pedal versus gas tank.
“Adrenal fatigue” is the catchiest self diagnosis going around for people who need to grasp onto something. Lab tests for low adrenal or thyroid hormone levels beg the question of what is causing low levels in the entire system. These are better treated by focusing on root causes like nutrition for every cell the body.
Autoimmune
Autoimmune in relation to CFS is often through the connection to autoimmune in thyroid known as Hashimotos, which is subject to all the limitations of hormonal diagnosis. No need to go down a rabbit hole of technical detail and lab tests when Hashi's is treatable with Iodine, even though people think it's not. The major qualification here is that "thyroid" is not usually cured with one thing but reflects a low metabolism due to systemic nutrition and toxicity, for example, it is the symptom not the cause. Iodine is for every cell of the body for energy and detox.
The body does not just attack itself without a reason, this is the medical paradigm of the body makes a random mistake that can only be solved by a doctor smarter than nature's design. A rational explanation is that when there are nutritional deficiencies that body borrows nutrients from some tissues to nourish more vital functions like the heart and circulation to the brain, as explained by MIT researcher Stephanie Senoff.
Autoimmune is often considered separate than chronic fatigue as a random attachment to words and hypnotic medical pseudo-science cult level attachment to diagnoses as an identity.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)
ME is described as problems with neurological, immune, endocrine and energy metabolism systems.
This is just a description of where symptoms present and its proponents admit they don’t have an explanation of the causes.
There is still commonly a bias in the old paradigm, as the MEAction website states, “It often follows an infection….: So they admit they don’t know but insert the infection explanation anyway because it is the default bias already installed in people's brains through the medical paradigm.
Methylation Genetic Mutations
The "23 and Me" genetic analysis is of symptoms.
Genetics is epi-genetics of genetic expression manipulated by the environment of toxicity, nutrition, stress, infection, etc.
Many people feel their report is a kind of terminal sentence because it is genetic and assume they will always have this problem.
Helplessness is reinforced by the common solutions not working: supplements to address deficiencies of folates, etc.
This is often ineffective and can make one worse.
There are many problems with supplements: impurities, biologically unavailable, too much at once, and lacking cofactor nutrients that work together as system.
Lab tests are not enough to prescribe supplements, energetic testing for biological compatibility is necessary.
Lab tests in general fulfill an image of scientific expertise but the theory behind them can be wrong or not enough.
Leaky Gut
Leaky gut and gut problems in general are very real and this is can be a good area to focus on, as long as root causes are addressed:
- toxins damaging the gut like glyphosate in the herbicide Round Up used in lawns and foods,
- nutritional deficiencies like lack of probiotics,
- autonomic nervous systems dysregulation that weakens the immune system and ability to repair everything.
Mitochondrial Dysfunction
There is a good and bad side to this focus.
The negative is in a narrow focus on what is wrong in the cell mechanics, which are endlessly complex and not fully understood. The solution would look like a pharmaceutical or nutritional supplement to fix it. But the problem cannot be found under the microscope, so this is a technical rabbit hole.
The problem is in the environment of toxicity and nutrition, both chemistry of toxicity and physics of non native electrical pollution and artificial light. Dr Jack Kruse has explained the physics of the environment disrupting mitochondria.
The focus on mitochondria is best understood as a focus on every cell of the body, that is, the entire system in its environment of nutrients on which it depends. This focus is on how lifestyle can capture energy from the environment including food and sunlight while reducing toxic exposures to electronics and artificial light.
Autonomic Nervous System dysreguation, ANS.
ANS is the stress response being turned on or off too much as a result of feeling and being unsafe in the world.
Usually ANS involves an overreaction to stress and failure to sleep, rest, digest, detoxify or immunize.
This is a symptom pattern that results from other root causes
Sometimes people make progress by focusing on brain retraining programs in relation to environmental or chemical sensitivities, and emotional reactions to conflict. While the emotional reactions focus is more root cause focused, the possible physical causes of nervous system dysregulation should be understood and addressed more directly:
- Metals and pesticides and other toxins affect the nervous system impairing its normal function and creating the experience of being stressed in a very general and non specific way that adds to the anxiety about an unknown threat.
- Electronic pollution from wired and wireless, and artificial light at night are excitotoxins that can create anxiety and insomnia.
- Misalignment of bones and muscle from the teeth and cranium down the spine to the hips creates a lot of tension that is only understood when you release it. This is not very clearly understood but very clear in practice.
- Parasites can manipulate the brain and gut brain in ways that are not fully understood but illustrated in the You Tube, Invasion of the Brain Snatcher.
- Unconscious emotional experiences are sometimes too deep to tame with the conscious mind alone focusing on reactions and behaviors without specific therapies to get at the root causes.
- Nutrition provides for the physical mechanisms of relaxation, sleep, and strength to feel confident and relaxed in life. Weakness leads to fear. Toxins and infections drain nutrients and require more nutrients to heal.
Nevertheless, ANS is a very important symptom pattern to understand and symptoms like sleep are a crucial focus.
ROOT CAUSES
Individual cases vary widely. Here are my observations about what is most common.
TOXICITY AND NUTRITION
No matter what root cause was first people with CFS have a toxic load and nutritional deficiencies, excesses, intolerances, or less than optimum sources of food, supplements and sunlight.
Once energy declines for any reason toxic load accumulates.
Everyone is exposed, especially to rapidly increasing electrical pollution in the human environment.
Nutrition is the main solution for detoxification, so deficiencies lower detox capability that gets worse as the liver and kidneys get further overloaded and damaged.
Toxicity is probably the largest root cause and the most denied because it questions conveniences like cell phones and wifi, and because humans are responsible and money is involved. Toxins in agriculture, food processing, medicine and dentistry are some of the biggest, so toxicology is given very narrow bounds in medicine: acute cases, not chronic accumulation.
Toxicity is driving an epidemic of modern diseases. Children are suffering from rapid increases in the 4 As: autism, allergies, asthma, and ADD. Autism among boys is escalating at an alarming rate.
INFECTION
Although infection is generally overestimated as an explanation for CFS, some people need to start by addressing infections in their gut so they can digest their food.
Dental infections can have a big impact on health because they cannot be fully contained by the immune system but require surgery to remove jaw bone infections or root canals.
One type of infection is not externally caused, but is a result of internal imbalances; healthy yeast and bacteria mutate into pathogenic forms under conditions of nutritional deficiencies, toxin induced weaknesses, gut flora imbalance, etc. These cannot simply be killed but require addressing the terrain consisting of the other root cases: nutrition, toxicity, emotions, etc, that strengthen the immune system.
MISALIGNMENT
Muscle aligns bone for posture of the spine, cranium, hips, feet, etc.
Misalignment of the cranium can cause pain, as with TMJ.
It can also contribute to unperceived and subclinical deep stress of ANS.
The two main causes of cranial misalignment are from the bite:
- Underdeveloped palate, evidenced by crooked teeth.
- Short molars, as seen in over and under-bites.
An interesting cause of narrow palates is bottle feeding babies. A child needs the hard sucking of breast feeding in which the tongue presses up on the palate to expand it and the width of the face to make room for teeth and cranial bones. This affects all of posture, breath, and how well you can sleep. Some treatments of bite problems affect pain, digestion and all of health. Holistic orthodontics treats orthopedics of the whole body through posture and nervous system.
The systemic postural problem is the typical S curve that begins with the forward head posture needed to keep the airway open when the palate is narrow. This leads to a sunken chest and forward hips, which also have causes that originate from below from chairs and shoes.
EMOTIONS
Emotional explanations can be a way to blame people in the medical paradigm when the doctor lacks the skill to assess physical causes.
On the other hand, the importance of emotions is often underestimated because it is more subjective and finding the right treatment can be overwhelming while the physical symptoms nag you constantly.
The 2 main benefits of treating emotions are to have a direct effect on energy and also to improve rational decision making about health. Awareness of self-sabotage is important. Emotionally abused people tend to be shattered and scattered, not able to focus on the right things to seize victory. Emotions can be the first cause for many people that dysregulates their nervous system to feel permanently stressed. Then a toxic load may take over as the main cause or biggest obstruction to recovery. It is often best to get physically stabilized first to focus better.
Emotions are closely related to Mind as the conscious aspect related to emotions.
MIND: Health Choices
Mind as a cause does mean that it's all in their heads, which is what people say that blame suffers with chronic fatigue.
Mind is about how decisions are made about health.
Decisions are based on one's paradigm as a set of assumptions for interpreting the world.
Everyone has conscious and unconscious assumptions about the cause of their problem as what a solution LOOKS LIKE even if they don’t know the detail. This how people focus and filter. If their premises are wrong or incomplete, they will continue to fail over and over until they go back and revise basic assumptions.
Paradigms are rarely explained systematically since there are very few good models of paradigms and systems thinking on which it depends, so I created my own. Read the section on my website New Paradigm and see the chart and medical versus holistic paradigm to see how at least 20 assumptions distinguish these.
FOCUS FOR SUCCESS
Success with complex health problems requires focusing on the right things: The few root causes that make a difference rather than the many symptoms.
More than one root cause has to be addressed to make a difference.
Solutions should be customized to the individual and specified and quantified in as much detail as possible
Strategic focus is important to leave enough time and attention to details of implementation because one weak link can blow the whole program-- not enough or too much of the right thing.
Success with complex health problems requires focusing on the right things: The few root causes that make a difference rather than the many symptoms.
More than one root cause has to be addressed to make a difference.
Solutions should be customized to the individual and specified and quantified in as much detail as possible
Strategic focus is important to leave enough time and attention to details of implementation because one weak link can blow the whole program-- not enough or too much of the right thing.
