Everyone gets tired during the day ever now and then. Our stressed and fast-paced lifestyles inevitably means that we have late nights or interrupted sleep every now and again. But there is a definite tendency for more people to feel more tired more of the time!

But because you are feeling tired a lot does not necessarily mean that you have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Doctors and practitioners are not all in agreement about the existence of the disorder - although this statement will probably raise a cry of protest from the sufferers. The biggest problem with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is that there is no fixed marker or test that can be used to diagnose the illness, therefore diagnosis is done by exclusion of other illnesses, and then inclusion of four or more of the symptoms.

In other words, one other illnesses that could cause fatigue (of which there are many!) such as AIDS, Thyroid problems, various forms of cancer, substance abuse, medication and so forth have been excluded as possible causes, then the only way to diagnose Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is to evaluate all the symptoms and base the diagnosis on the presence of the symptoms that must be present for at least 6 months or more and should not have been present before the onset of the illness. Click here to read more about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms.

In previous years Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has often been referred to as ME - or Myalgic Encephalopathy and today these two terms are still used interchangably. There are lots of arguments that the name ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’ trivializes the disease - anecdotal evidence suggests that nurses and medical practitioners are more inclined to take patients that have been diagnosed with the Syndrome more seriously if the name of the illness is more ‘medically sounding’.

The original name that was coined for the illness in the 1980s was ‘Yuppie Flu’ - now THAT is a name to trivialize the illness! It is not being used any more since it has been recognized that the name is demeaning and misleading. The biggest point though is that stress is seen as a major contributing factor to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and stressors definitely worsens the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Whether you think you are suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or you are merely ‘tired all the time‘, it is therefore worth while to try and reduce the stress levels in your life, since stress definitely contributes to feeling tired and suffering from fatigue.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is notoriously difficult to diagnose since there is no underlying marker or pathological test that can be done to identify it without a doubt as being ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome‘.

And just because you are always tired or suffer from constant or chronic fatigue does not necessarily mean that you suffer from CFS.

Let’s do a quick rundown of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms so that you can see whether you suffer from any one, or more, of these symptoms.

Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome:

Symptoms are divided into 8 groups. Medical practitioners would consider diagnosing someone with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome if:

• All other testable diseases with similar symptoms have been ruled out
• If 4 or more of the following symptoms have persistently been present for 6 months or more, and have not manifested themselves individually prior to those 6 months.

These symptoms are:

1. Fatigue - tiredness, unexplained and persistent mental and/or physical exhaustion
2. Post exertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours at a time, in other words, feeling inappropriately tired after exercise, not being able to recover from exercise even in mild formats
3. Sleep dysfunction - not feeling refreshed and rested after sleep, or suffering from insomnia or having other disturbed sleeping patterns
4. Pain - generalized muscle pain, joint pain without swelling or redness, headaches
5. Impairment in concentration, ‘brain fog’, reduction in mental processing power.
6. Autonomic Nervous system related problems such as bladder problems, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness.
7. Temperature fluctuations, sensitivity to food, weight changes (loss or gain)
8. Immune system manifestations such as sore or tender lymph nodes, sore throat, recurring flu-like symptoms.

If you are suffering from any of these symptoms for a period longer than 6 months, it would be a good idea to see a medical practitioner who is familiar with the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

The difficulty comes in if you HAVEN’T yet suffered for longer than 6 months, since then it might be difficult to persuade a doctor to take your symptoms seriously.

If you definitely feel that something is wrong, that you are suffering from tiredness, constant flu-like symptoms and brain fog, but do not think that you can take these symptoms to a medical practitioner at this stage, then you might want to check out two natural solutions for tiredness and for stress, since both of these might just help you cope with these nagging persistent symptoms and maybe even overcome them:

To end tiredness: http://www.stopconstantfatigue.org/end-tiredness.php

To beat stress: http://www.stopconstantfatigue.org/beat-stress.php