Chronic Fatigue

Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia have become more common in the past few decades. Chronic Fatigue is characterized by severe and chronic fatigue but includes some pain too. I think of it as side of the a coin with the other side being Fibromyalgia. With Chronic Fatigue the fatigue is worse, with Fibromyalgia the pain is worse (but also has lots of fatigue). Western medicine hasn’t come up with a cause nor effective treatments. My experience has been that Chronic Fatigue usually starts with a severe cold or flu that takes a long time to recover.  From a Chinese point of view, it seems to be mainly a weakening of the lungs (and the immune system). Also, it seems to be somewhat related to inflammation since the pain that accompanies it is effectively treated with LI11 (a point that clears heat in the body usually associated with infections and inflammation). Both Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia are treated effectively by notifying the lungs and clearing heat. Acupuncture is not a cure, but it definitely helps improve the quality of life. Patients typically see some improvement with the first treatment with continuing improvement with followup treatments. Usually after about 4 treatments, the improvement lasts a month or two. At which point one treatment is usually all that’s needed. So to maintain the effect, treatment once every month or two is all that’s needed.