What Doctors Don't Tell YouOur story last time about chronic fatigue syndrome and the disregard many doctors show its victims sparked several interesting responses.
One came from a gentleman who has run a patient support group for 10 years, and he’s learned to tell the difference between chronic fatigue and depression. He uses three pointers for assessing the two conditions. 1) If you ignore the fatigue and press on regardless, it tends to get better if you have depression and worse if you have chronic fatigue (or ME). 2) If you have poor tolerance of alcohol, you’re more likely to have ME. 3) If you can’t tolerate a normal starting dose of antidepressants, you’re more likely to have ME.
Another reader, a teacher who suffers from chronic fatigue, has to stay in bed all weekend just to have enough energy to be ready for work on Monday. Her work colleagues don’t sympathise, but nor does her doctor.
Dr Jacob Teitelbaum MD
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
