The Three most Critical Chronic Fatigue and Headache Success Factors

Chronic Fatigue is like the quicksand of chronic health issues. The more you struggle to escape its grip the tighter that grip can feel. The combination of chronic fatigue and headaches can be devastating, robbing you of your ability to fully engage in life. 

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is also called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Sometimes when it seems medicine is frustrated they add another Latin name. 

According to Johns Hopkins Medical School the cause of CFS is not known. That means they have no solution for it since they have no idea what causes it. 

The CDC lists the these as the most common symptoms of CFS:

    • Severe fatigue not relieved by sleep or rest
    • Worse symptoms after even mild physical or mental activity
    • Sleep problems
    • Memory and thinking problems
    • Muscle and Joint pain
    • Headaches
    • Sensitivity to light

According to the Mayo Clinic “There is no cure or approved treatment for this condition. However, some symptoms can be treated or managed to provide relief.”

All that means is that they don’t understand what caused the CFS with Headaches and haven’t found a medication to “cure” it. 

Another Perspective on Chronic Fatigue

We’ve already established that there is no cure, only the goal of symptomatic relief. What if we looked at it from a different perspective? What if you looked instead at supporting the body’s healing and recuperative powers rather than defeating the demon of CFS?

Using medications can be a double-edged sword. If you are using meds to deal with any of the symptoms of CFS I encourage you to look up the “side effects” of those medications. Far too often some of the effects are eerily similar to what you are trying to relieve. 

Since there is no “medical cure” and the medical approach is limited to symptomatic relief it makes sense to look in another direction. Rather than try to identify the cause of CFS let’s look instead at what might be interfering with the body’s ability to recover from whatever precipitated the Chronic Fatigue and Headaches. 

With many chronic issues like chronic fatigue the cause is often long gone and even if you could identify the cause it wouldn’t help in changing the course of CFS.

Let’s look in another direction…

The Critical Role of the Nervous System

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is tasked with running your internal systems outside of your conscious awareness. Things like heart rate, respiratory rate, digestion, sleep, and immune function are tied into the ANS. 

There are two complimentary divisions of the ANS.

1. Sympathetic Nervous System: commonly referred to as the “Fight-or-Flight” system, the sympathetic system is tasked with survival and its responses are all directed to short term survival. Look at the sympathetic responses:

  • Increased heart rate
  • Increased muscle tension
  • Impaired sleep
  • Increased stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline
  • Impaired rest, recovery, healing
  • Impaired immune system

All those responses prioritize the possible need to fight or flee for one’s survival. Unfortunately, modern life is full of triggers that fire off the SNS many times a day. 

2. Vagus Nerve of the Parasympathetic Nervous System: also called the “Rest and Digest” system. The Vagus Nerve supports your health and well being with responses like these:

  • Improved digestion
  • Decreased inflammation
  • Improved sleep
  • Lowered heart rate 
  • Healthy immune response

It is easy to see that the Vagus Nerve offers us the opportunity to rest, recover, and heal from the challenges of life. When the SNS is repeatedly fired it causes us to lose optimum function of the very things that support our health, recovery, and healing. 

With CFS there is a combination of a fatiguing of the SNS so you no longer get the benefit of the energy boost of the SNS, along with a suppression of the Vagus Nerve. 

The 3 Critical CFS & Headache Success Factors

Imbalance of the Autonomic Nervous System is a factor in almost all chronic health issues and CFS is no exception. Rather than thinking of this approach as a cure for CFS, look at it more as supporting your nervous system in a return to balance. 

Let’s explore how to help you return to balance in your Autonomic Nervous System. Here are the top 3 critical factors in doing so.

Critical Factor #1: Reduce Irritation and Pressure: spinal tension almost always drives irritation of both the Sympathetic and Vagus Nerve. The Vagus Nerve is most often irritated in the upper neck and the Sympathetic system is irritated in the mid back most often. Removing this irritation and pressure will immediately bring greater balance and greatly facilitate recovery. Some of the modalities that can help:

  • Corrective Balancing Chiropractic with a focus on the upper neck and pelvis.
  • Craniosacral Therapy
  • Gentle Myofascial Structural Integration
  • Gentle Yoga

Critical Factor #2: Correct Improper Breathing Patterns: breathing is very often a driver of autonomic nervous system imbalance. How we breathe can easily keep us in a perpetual state of sympathetic overdrive. Improper breathing can drive up inflammation, interfere with sleep, and increase tension and pain. Some of the keys to proper breathing are:

  • Nasal Breathing: the nose was designed for breathing. It filters and warms the air and helps produce nitric oxide. The mouth was designed primarily for eating, drinking, and talking. 
  • Diaphragmatic Breathing: too many of us breathe using the upper chest, shoulders, and neck. This causes a perpetual activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Learn to breathe in and out through the nose using your diaphragm and that will set the stage for greater rest.

Critical Factor #3: Vagus Nerve Activation: The Vagus is critical to both your recovery and rebuilding your reserves and resilience. Due to the stress and over activation of the sympathetic system the Vagus Nerve has become “weaker”. Just like going to the gym to work out muscles you need to “wake up” and “activate” the Vagus Nerve throughout the day. This process will yield signs of benefits almost immediately and will take a while to shift. Some ways to activate the Vagus:

  • Gargling and humming both stimulate the Vagus
  • Submerging your face in ice water
  • Getting out in Nature: the fractal patterns of nature have a soothing effect
  • Fluid movement like dance or tai chi
  • Conscious Breathwork: this is my favorite as it can be done almost anywhere and at any time. 

Sometimes a condition like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome seems to come out of nowhere. The reality is that the conditions in the body that allowed this to manifest were in development for many months and likely years. 

Keep that in mind as you return to balance and slowly build your resilience. It is going to take a while with daily consistent effort. 

In addition to the 3 critical factors, hopefully it is obvious that you need to nurture your health in many ways to change this pattern. Here are a few other areas to put your effort into:

  • Diet: whole food, clean, low in refined carbs and sugar, with little to no nut and seed oils (sunflower, safflower, corn, soy, peanut, canola, etc)
  • Hydration: daily clean, filtered water; aim for ⅓ of body weight in ounces
  • Sleep Hygiene: timing, room, dark, cool, no electronics
  • Avoid stimulants and sedatives: coffee, alcohol, cannabis, medications

Good luck. What do you have to lose? Everything laid out here supports your health and has no downside outside of your effort to yourself. 

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