Chronic fatigue syndrome is a disorder that makes one feel extreme fatigue that cannot be explained by an underlying medical condition. The fatigue associated with chronic fatigue syndrome does not go away with rest and could worsen with any physical or mental activity.

Also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, it affects about one million individuals in the United States. Although the percentage of chronic fatigue syndrome is higher in women, it is not a “women’s disease” as 35 to 40 percent diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome are men.

The cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is unknown, and the disorder can affect one’s quality of life significantly. However, there is a treatment that has been extremely beneficial to those who are diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome that brings hope.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms

To understand how chronic fatigue syndrome affects the quality of life, it is best to realize its symptoms. Knowing the symptoms helps others who do not have the disorder understand what exactly chronic fatigue disorder sufferers are going through and the challenges they face each day.

Symptoms associated with chronic fatigue syndrome include:

  • Fatigue that never goes away with rest
  • Loss of memory or concentration
  • Headaches
  • Unrefreshing sleep or difficulty sleeping
  • Unexplained muscle or joint pain
  • Sore throat
  • Enlarged lymph nodes in neck or armpits
  • Extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical or mental exercise

While the body feels fatigued, many other issues could be present. Even experiencing extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours could occur even after normal amounts of exercise and activity.

Those who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome could experience depression, social isolation, many lifestyle restrictions, or have an increase in work absences as their body and mind feels worn out.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treatments

The most common treatment to help chronic fatigue syndrome is a combination of cognitive training and graded exercise. Cognitive training focuses on speaking to a counselor who may help you find options to work around some of the limitations the disorder causes.

This training can help you feel more in control of your life and make an impact on your outlook.

With graded exercise, you will see a physical therapist who will determine exercises best for your situation. Over time, the exercises will become more intense in hopes to reduce the feeling of being completely worn out after minimum exercise.

With cognitive training and graded exercise, these treatments hope to relieve you of some of the most common symptoms associated with chronic fatigue syndrome. While these treatments can help, there is one other treatment that helps what could be the underlying trigger of your chronic fatigue syndrome: upper cervical treatments.

Upper Cervical Connection to Chronic Fatigue

The upper cervical spine is located right underneath the base of your skull (the neck area) and houses your brainstem. When an upper cervical misalignment occurs, this can place pressure onto the brainstem – causing it to be unable to send proper signals to your body.

The brainstem helps send proper communication between the brain and the body, so if this communication is disrupted, many issues may occur and can lead to various health problems, including the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome.

With pressure causing signal disruption, the body is unable to get the information it needs to perform proper functions, fight against foreign invaders, heal injuries, and repair itself.

In addition, automatic functions such as proper blood pressure can be affected by the compressed brainstem causing the person to feel tired or develop headaches even if they are not diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.

How Does an Upper Cervical Treatment Work?

An upper cervical treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome works as follows: First, you will see an upper cervical professional who can give you a physical consultation and scan to see if your brainstem is being harmed by an upper cervical misalignment.

The goal of the upper cervical chiropractor is to adjust the patient as little as possible and allow the body to repair and heal itself over time without the use of medication or surgery.

In order to ensure the body can repair and heal itself properly, upper cervical misalignments are corrected to release pressure off the brainstem and restore its proper communication functions.

Unlike general chiropractic, upper cervical adjustments are small, gentle, and precise. Upper cervical adjustments are also safe for any age and are a great treatment option for those who want to stay away from medication or surgery.

Because upper cervical adjustments allow the body to naturally recover as best as it can, many patients who have had medications and surgery still had amazing results. This is thanks to the body’s natural ability to heal and repair things we often cannot see.

For those suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, an upper cervical adjustment will help the body regulate blood pressure, normalize your central nervous system, and can change the way you feel from head to toe helping your energy level and mental clarity.

If you or a loved one has chronic fatigue syndrome or believe to have it, it is best to consult a professional as soon as possible. With upper cervical adjustments, the number of adjustments needed is based on how long you have had the misalignment and its severity.

While everyone has a chance in improving their body’s current condition with upper cervical adjustments due to releasing any interference on the brainstem, your body can heal more successfully if it is fixed before it worsens over time.

For those who have had a misalignment for quite some time, some patients have had a misalignment for years and have still noticed improvements in as soon as one adjustment. An upper cervical chiropractor will continue to adjust your misalignment (only when needed) until your upper cervical spine grows strong enough to hold the adjustment all on its own.