02 Aug Chronic Fatigue, can you help?
Fatigue is a very common condition for acupuncture treatment. Fatigue has wide range of symptoms: not feeling revitalized after waking in the morning, brain fog and inability to focus, tired and dizzy in afternoon, or feeling exhausted all the time. Fatigue can also cause migraines, body pain, decline in vision, depression, anxiety or other physical and mental discomforts. But all western exams and tests results are normal.
Fatigue is a very common condition for acupuncture treatment. Fatigue has wide range of symptoms: not feeling revitalized after waking in the morning, brain fog and inability to focus, tired and dizzy in afternoon, or feeling exhausted all the time. Fatigue can also cause migraines, body pain, decline in vision, depression, anxiety or other physical and mental discomforts. But all western exams and tests results are normal.
Fatigue, in Chinese Medicine we refer to it as “low Qi”, can be caused by constitutional weakness, prolonged illnesses, post emotion or physical trauma, heavy medical treatment such as Chemo therapy, chronic stress, long term insomnia etc.. The goal of treatment is to strengthen body energy, rebuild balance and help heal the system. Acupuncture is effective in helping chronic fatigue, even better in combination with Chinese herbal mixture. I recommend patients eat well, exercise regularly and learn to relax and enjoy fun events.
Case 1: Female, 52, a manager in large retail store. Since she was in college, often felt more tired than other girls and needed more sleep. She kept pushing herself, got a degree, found a job and raises a family, but always needs to go to bed early, and sleeps a lot over the weekend. She went to doctors, was diagnosed as adrenal fatigue and depression, and was put on a number of supplements and different anti-depressants. Starts to experience serious afternoon bloating, more food allergies, sometimes so tired after a meal that she needs to lie down immediately. She is so exhausted every day, and frustrated that nothing seems to help. A friend refers her to my office. After evaluation, I noticed that she is typical case of “Qi deficiency”, Earth-Taiyin constitution. We make a plan, acupuncture once a week for 8-10 sessions, then every two weeks. I instruct her to take Chinese herbal mixtures for three months, eat warm and cooked food, enough quality protein, and take short walks two to three times a day as well as sleep at least 7-8 hours a day. After a few months of work, she improved significantly, and said ,“did not feels this good for a decade”.
Another cause of feeling “Low Qi”, is stagnation. The actual Qi is not low, but stagnated, unable to flow freely to the brain, major organs and four extremities; this lead to feeling a general lack of energy, combined with depression, anxiety, and some kind of congestion or distention. It is like, the river bed is blocked by a falling tree or rocks and thus blocks normal water flow, so downstream gets small and weak, eventually dry. The goal of treatment is to unblock the channel allowing the Qi to free flow normally. Acupuncture is the best approach.
Case 2: Female, 21, college student. Chief complaint: depressed, tired, needs to sleep 10-12 hours a day, cannot finish school work, decides to take a semester off. Currently on two anti-depressants, if she wants to go out, either drinks a lot of coffee or need energy drink like five hour energy. Late she gained more weight, and feels more anxious, stop all exercises. She shows typical “Qi stagnation”. We start acupuncture twice a week for 2-3 weeks, then once a week for a while, take herbs daily, take walks 3-4 times a week, go to bed on time. After 2.5 months, she felt much better, started running again, found a job and quit taking all drugs, plans to go back to school soon.
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