Dr. Oz featured a segment on "chronic fatigue" again today.
--> The good: The show differentiated between "chronic fatigue" & "chronic fatigue syndrome". At about the 13 min mark, she mentions a recent Swedish study with 12 female patients who "had CFS, not just chronic fatigue" & had improvement in their fatigue after 2 interventions: B12 injections & folic acid.
--> The bad: The show conflated "chronic fatigue" & "chronic fatigue syndrome" & failed to emphasize the severity & resulting debility. They said 4 million US women had it -- I don't know the source of that figure.
Overall, a casual viewer would probably come away thinking that CF & CFS are the same thing. However, if you listen closely, the doctor does make several statements differentiating the two. I just don't think it was clear enough -- likely a factor of the short segments.
The expert was Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, MD (Integrative & Alternative Medicine Expert).
She initially referred to "chronic fatigue... people who have *A* chronic fatigue syndrome or spectrum."
However, the tips she listed were good advice as helpful things to do -- for anyone, but especially someone with "CFS".
AM rituals
- hot showers in AM are bad because CFS patients already have abnormally low cortisol in the morning & the rapid cooling that takes place after a hot shower drops cortisol levels further. Instead, she suggested a warm bath at night. (She said bath over shower due to "instability"(?) -- assume that's OI.)
- carb heavy breakfasts cause fatigue a few hours later. Instead, she suggested protein heavy breakfast like eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese.
- too much coffee which has a long 1/2 life. Instead, she suggested one is ok, but even better is a "tisane" (herbal tea w/o caffeine like ginger tea with lemon, or peppermint, etc.)
She also emphasized the importance of B Vitamins, esp. B6 & B12 -- B12 shots, 100mg ublingual tablets & sprays. For food sources of Vitamin B, she suggested salmon, tuna, miso, mozzarella cheese, greek yogurt, sunflower seeds & nutritional yeast.
Finally, she mentioned the importance of not getting dehydrated which makes fatigue & headache much worse. She said 11-15 cups of water daily, and suggested making it more palatable by filling a jug of water with pieces of watermelon, cucumber (organic -- or peel if conventional), limes & letting it sit overnight.
Did anyone else see it? What did you think?
--> The good: The show differentiated between "chronic fatigue" & "chronic fatigue syndrome". At about the 13 min mark, she mentions a recent Swedish study with 12 female patients who "had CFS, not just chronic fatigue" & had improvement in their fatigue after 2 interventions: B12 injections & folic acid.
--> The bad: The show conflated "chronic fatigue" & "chronic fatigue syndrome" & failed to emphasize the severity & resulting debility. They said 4 million US women had it -- I don't know the source of that figure.
Overall, a casual viewer would probably come away thinking that CF & CFS are the same thing. However, if you listen closely, the doctor does make several statements differentiating the two. I just don't think it was clear enough -- likely a factor of the short segments.
The expert was Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, MD (Integrative & Alternative Medicine Expert).
She initially referred to "chronic fatigue... people who have *A* chronic fatigue syndrome or spectrum."
However, the tips she listed were good advice as helpful things to do -- for anyone, but especially someone with "CFS".
AM rituals
- hot showers in AM are bad because CFS patients already have abnormally low cortisol in the morning & the rapid cooling that takes place after a hot shower drops cortisol levels further. Instead, she suggested a warm bath at night. (She said bath over shower due to "instability"(?) -- assume that's OI.)
- carb heavy breakfasts cause fatigue a few hours later. Instead, she suggested protein heavy breakfast like eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese.
- too much coffee which has a long 1/2 life. Instead, she suggested one is ok, but even better is a "tisane" (herbal tea w/o caffeine like ginger tea with lemon, or peppermint, etc.)
She also emphasized the importance of B Vitamins, esp. B6 & B12 -- B12 shots, 100mg ublingual tablets & sprays. For food sources of Vitamin B, she suggested salmon, tuna, miso, mozzarella cheese, greek yogurt, sunflower seeds & nutritional yeast.
Finally, she mentioned the importance of not getting dehydrated which makes fatigue & headache much worse. She said 11-15 cups of water daily, and suggested making it more palatable by filling a jug of water with pieces of watermelon, cucumber (organic -- or peel if conventional), limes & letting it sit overnight.
Did anyone else see it? What did you think?