I know in my case that it was definately a physical thing. After being neglected and wrongly treated (antibiotics for everything)by my MD I found a naturopath that cleaned me up.
I'm back to my old self through a natural nutritional approach and getting the flora of my digestive track alive and doing its job again.
Of course the MD thinks I'm a whack job for going to a naturopath & chiropractor....
ping
I've had cfs for the past 7 years. I've researched the thing to death. I'm really happy for the ones who change their diet, improve their gut flora, etc and get better. However, there are others for whom none of that makes a lasting improvement - and I am in that category. I have good days, bad days and hell days. Some of the good days last for months. Some of the bad days just seem to last for months. I see an integrative medical specialist, an acupuncturist, a chiropractor, got a diploma in herbal medicine so I can figure out which herbs to use (and they definitely help me feel better than meds do), take as few meds as possible (because I react bizarely to them), changed my diet several times over and try to live a life that has some enjoyment in it somewhere. I'm sorry for the woman who died. At the same time I can't help but be relieved - at last...proof that it's not all in my head, no doc I'm not depressed, really I can look great and feel miserable all at the same time.
She didn't die of Chronic fatigue syndrome.
She had a debilitating neurological disease with fatigue as a major side effect.
This type of false news reporting will allow all my neurotic patients the joy of saying "See, I was really sick".
For every TRUE chronic fatigue syndrome (often starting after a viral illness) I see a dozen neurotics.
They always want a fancy diagnosis. It used to be hypoglycemia then it was chronic candida,then it was "fibromyalgia", then it was food allergies then it was whatever. You can see this type in feminist meetings where "no perfume" is the rule, and weird ideas abound.
Now, I have food allergies, (break out in hives after eating too many big Macs) perfume makes me sneeze, and hypoglycemia (on Glucose tolorance test I went down to 37 and got shaky and threw up) and I have muscle pain when storms come thru. so I can sympathize with people with real disease.
All of these things are "real" disease, and we don't have good treatments for any of them. But the neurotics often have mild forms of any or all of these, and you don't know where to start, since their lives revolve around their symptoms.
But I don't build my life around these things.
You know why? Because I've treated people with REAL disease, and know the difference.
Crocks are always waiting to be filled.