Dr. Gupta on New Research about the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Dr. Gupta talks about the new research on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome on his blog, here is an excerpt…

Imagine feeling profoundly lousy for months, even years at a stretch. On many days, you can’t even get out of bed. Sleep doesn’t help. You go to the doctor, get tests, but a diagnosis remains elusive – and treatments incomplete. That’s what life can be like for people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

More than one million Americans have CFS, a debilitating illness researchers have been studying for some 20 years. There are few clues to what causes it (infectious agents? toxins?). And many questions (how do you treat CFS? Isn’t it really just a ‘fake’ illness?).

Now, researchers in California say chronic fatigue syndrome may be linked to the presence of enteroviruses — viral microorganisms that reside in your gut. Using endoscopies, researchers analyzed stomach tissue biopsy samples from patients with CFS – and found more than 80% of them had high levels of viruses in their digestive system. (All 165 patients had gastrointestinal complaints as part of their CFS litany of symptoms.)

Top Three Tips For Healthy Living

Hi everyone. I was honored to be asked to write a guest post for Life Learning Today, and this is what I came up with.

Catherine’s Top Three Tips For Healthy Living

1. You are what you eat, and it is never too late to start eating healthy. Every day, try your very best to put healthy foods and plenty of water into your body. When you have a choice between something healthy and something not healthy, go with the healthy choice. But, don’t be too hard on yourself on the days you fall back into old habits. There is no rule that says, to be healthy you have to be perfect. Even if you are eating healthy 50% of the time, that is still better than none of the time.

If you are one to never go for the healthy choice, then start today with a commitment to eat one thing that is good for you (just one thing that you would normally not eat), and do that for a week. After a week, start eating two things that are good for you, and so on, and so on. Before you know it, you’ll be eating healthy half the time…And that’s a great start.

You can start today, loving yourself and your family enough to stop poisoning your body with unhealthy foods. Heart disease is the number one killer in our country. And 80% of heart disease is due to eating an unhealthy diet that leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Start today, and take a bite in the right direction…Your heart will thank you.

The Science Behind Exercise Intolerance and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The Science Behind Exercise Intolerance and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The debate over the idea that exercise can help a patient with CFS, has caused many sufferers of this disease countless frustrations. As a patient myself, I can say that hearing a doctor claim that your symptoms will be better if you just push through the fatigue and begin to exercise regularly, is enough to make you want to scream.

Nobody tells a person with a broken leg, to just walk on it until it feels better. Or a person with lactose intolerance, to just drink milk until they don’t feel sick anymore. But for some reason, many doctors feel they need to tell patients with CFS that exercise will cure their fatigue, or the lack of exercise is what has caused it. It’s really infuriating.