Many people visit the hospital following a long holiday. Some people have delayed their visits because there are no hospitals open during the holidays, but most of them are patients who come because they are tired. A male patient in his mid-40s complained that he suffered from pain and helplessness in various parts of his body as soon as the holidays were over, even though he did not go home during the Chuseok holiday and spent a peaceful time at home with his family. As such, the symptoms of patients visiting the hospital following the holidays are pain, fatigue, headache, dizziness that occurs when standing, gastrointestinal disorders, cold hands and feet, poor concentration, memory impairment, and general weakness.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is diagnosed when 4 or more of the above symptoms persist for more than 6 months at the same time. Chronic fatigue syndrome is distinct from fatigue caused by overwork, lack of sleep, infection, or stress.
It is normal for general fatigue to recover with rest. However, chronic fatigue syndrome does not recover even with rest, and is continuously maintained by exacerbating mental and physical activities such as holidays. In addition, through medical examination, the specific cause of fatigue is not identified, and fatigue that is not clinically explained continues, seriously affecting daily life.
The cause of chronic fatigue syndrome has not yet been clearly elucidated. However, functional medicine suspects chronic inflammatory conditions such as mitochondrial dysfunction, thyroid dysfunction, adrenal insufficiency, neurotransmitter imbalance, and leaky gut as possible causes of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Mitochondrial dysfunction refers to a condition in which the mitochondria, the organelles that produce energy, fail to produce energy properly for some reason. Even if you consume enough calories from food, if your mitochondria do not produce them as energy, you will feel fatigued.
The thyroid and adrenal glands are hormone-secreting organs that activate our body, and when their functions are reduced, we feel chronic fatigue.
Leaky gut is a condition in which intestinal bacterial imbalance worsens, excessively increased intestinal cell permeability, and microscopic inflammation persists, which can cause delayed food allergy or brain fog.
An imbalance of neurotransmitters leads to brain fatigue, not body fatigue. Brain fatigue is caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and GABA.
It is difficult to detect these imbalances in the disease state with a general examination. If you are suffering from chronic fatigue but have not found any abnormalities in the examination, I would recommend that you find the cause and correct it through a related examination at a functional medicine hospital.
Jae-cheol Lee, President of the Korean Society of Functional Medicine, President of BanH Clinic