Welcome to Elan Vital Wellness. This forum cites holistic health studies and trends as well as chronicles my experience with adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, and exhaustion. Never attempt to treat yourself for any condition--always get help from a qualified practitioner. This post mentions my new doctor who is both a western medicine doctor and alternative health practitioner, so it is possible to be treated by someone who is qualified in both natural and conventional modalities.
I invite you to read this blog as you may possibly read parts of your own story:
After three years of investigating, the exhaustion mystery has finally been solved!!! This week I went to see Dr. David Edelberg in Chicago. He is a board certified western medical doctor as well as an alternative medicine practitioner. A leading expert in women's health, he has written the books Healing Fibromyalgia and The Tripple Whammy Cure.
This blog has explored holistic health and discussed adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance and borderline/sluggish thyroid levels. Estrogen dominance is common amongst women (causing exhaustion and bad PMS) and, over the past couple of years, I have been treated naturally with bio identical hormones, and an eating plan high in protein to balance blood sugar and stimulate the thyroid. (The natural hormonal protocol I was using is called the Kalish Method.) My functional nutritionist, Kristie Yaakoby was helping me with my an extensive protocol. In this blog, I've also talked about the environmental causes of estrogen dominance, as well as adrenal fatigue in prior posts of this blog. (Men with so called man-boobs are estrogen dominant, so this is a pretty relevant issue for men as well.)
The eating plan I have been using to regulate blood sugar--low blood sugar spikes cortisol, and exhausts the adrenals and thyroid--is a diet high in protein, and I have also been eating a fruit with the meal to keep up my blood sugar to stimulate the thyroid according to the research of biologist Ray Peat. I've also taken the MRT food sensitivity test and done acupuncture, but after 2 1/2 years of holistic eating and treatment, I was still exhausted and needed something more.
Now, thanks to Dr. Edelberg, I have a new protocol and a diagnostic name to explain why I was so exhausted all these years and why felt like I was "beat-up" when getting less than 10-12 hours of sleep.
My formal diagnosis is hypothyroid (sub clinical.) Many women who are in the so called "normal-low" range of thyroid hormone tests actually need to be treated as hypothyroid. In fact, this situation is an epidemic that is making women (and men, too) think they are crazy because they are exhausted and their test results are coming back "normal." (See the book The Tripple Whammy Cure because hypothyroid often goes hand-in-hand other conditions like adrenal fatigue or hormonal imbalance and low serotonin.***)
I like to call my experience with adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, and hypo-thyroid the Three-Headed-Dragon, because any one condition can be exhausting, but this is exhaustion that begins to build exponentially.
I was told also that I was "on the foothills of fibromyalgia," but not diagnosed with, it since Dr. Edelberg said my symptoms are totally reversible. This explains the muscle pain in my upper back and neck all the time, as well as feeling like I have the flu when tired. Not a good thing. I have cut back on my activities radically over the years, and not been able to have a full schedule--only doing one small activity on the weekends, and then sleeping. This kind of exhaustion is not easily understood by someone who hasn't experienced it.
It has been hard to talk about the chronic fatigue, because most people have not experienced it--responses I've heard are," "you're lazy," "you're imagining it," "you sleep too long," "if you sleep less, you'll feel better," and the ever popular, generic "Yeah, I'm tired too." And it is also very hard to talk about it considering that I know people who are dealing with much more serious health issues. In addition, several people in my family have had much more severe chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. So in light of these more serious conditions, it seems better not to bring it up. For me, this kind of moderate chronic fatigue is truly "an invisible condition," and can go undiagnosed for years.
I never would have considered myself "on the foothills of fibromyalgia" because, as I said, the people I know who have fibro are in severe pain and on pain meds. Fibro often begins as pain in the upper back/neck, and my pain scale in that area is only about a 4, no big deal. Feeling like I had the flu when tired was worse for me.
More women have fibromyalgia than diabetes, and it is commonly not diagnosed, mis-diagnosed, sometimes diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis, or they are told they are imagining it--there are also aggressive and abusive treatments that are totally inappropriate that are being done by physicians who are ignorant about fibromyalgia.
Dr. Edelberg offers healthy, progressive solutions in order to completely reverse fibromyalgia and the triple whammy exhaustion of adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, possible low serotonin, and/or hypothyroid. The triple whammy can lead to fibro, and fibro patients often have low serotonin. Normal levels of serotonin are needed as a stress buffer. Men generally have higher serotonin than women and are therefore more protected from stress.
My protocol, as prescribed by Dr. Edelberg, now includes small doses of natural medicines: A very small dose of natural thyroid hormone, a tiny dose of natural cortisol [this must be given in very small doses], and St. John's Wort to boost serotonin.
The boost in serotonin will help with the flu-like symptoms, and the PMS. My low serotonin levels were not low enough to be diagnosed as depression [I am, in fact, not depressed, but tired, which is very different, and aderenal fatigue/hyopthyroid may possibly misdiagnosed as depression.] Dr. Edelberg will have me continue with natural progesterone and natural DHEA for the PMS also.
The magnesium supplements he gave me will possibly stop the muscle aching/cramping. This and the flu-like feeling is why he said I am "on the foothills of fibromyalgia." He said not to worry about these symptoms because I will feel better in a month.
Today is day 3 of his protocol, and I no longer feel the flu-like feeling when tired, and the muscle pain in my neck/back has been reduced by at least 50% so far!
A month's time for recovery is an extremely short time considering I have dealt with fatigue and exhaustion that has increased progressively since I was in high school! (At one point I was diagnosed as a healthy "long sleeper" at a sleep disorder clinic, so I gave up trying to look for relief, since I thought my life would always be like this.)
And considering that I have been actively searching and continuously experimenting for 3 years with holistic treatments that weren't working for me--although I was doing the right things, but Dr. Edelberg added a couple of crucial things to them--a month's time for feeling better is miraculous! Dr. Edelberg has been working for many years with women with exhaustion, having incredible success at it. For people with "mystery fatigue" who's test results are coming back normal, I highly recommend his books, and if you can, get to Chicago to see him if you think these books might apply to you.
Again, my diagnosis is hypothyroid (at the sub clinical level) caused by low blood sugar, not fibromyalgia (only the "foothills" of fibromyalgia, meaning some muscle pain and also aching as if I had the flu, which is caused by somewhat low serotonin resulting in bad PMS but not depression.) I will write another post with an update in 6 weeks at my followup appointment. I hope to say then that I am totally better. Dr. Edelberg says I probably will be better then but one exception might be the brain fog--which is another thing I don't like talking about, since it is very hard for people to relate to if they haven't experienced it to the same extent. But not to worry, he has another protocol for that as well.
If you liked this article and have friends with "mystery fatigue," please pass this along!
A Votre Sante (Here's To Your Health), Alix
***As a side note, Ray Peat has done work on serotonin dominance, which he says also causes aggression/depression (as does low serotonin), so people who think they are depressed [adrenal fatigue/thyroid are often misdiagnosed as depression] should not necessarily run out and get on St. John's Wort without getting a neurotransmitter profile from a qualified doctor--hopefully one who will offers natural treatments as an alternative to conventional, and who understands balanced serotonin levels--Dr. Joseph Mercola sites studies that antidepressant medication is no more effective than a placebo. Ray Peat cites an research indicating that Prozac is responsible for 50,000 suicides. (Check out www.Mercola.com and google Ray Peat's articles for more information.)
