Can hypothyroidism/adrenal fatigue mimic CFS?

[Gingergrrl]

There is definitely a clear viral connection in my case but cannot say this is so for everyone. I have no info re: swine flu but have heard anecdotal info of people getting CFS after having vaccines.

 

[SOC]

I know that CFS can trigger hypothyroidism, and so can adrenal issues. I'm trying to figure out if post exertorial malaise, and non-restorative sleep can manifest itself for hypothyroidism like it does for CFS.

Let's use a hypothetical scale of 1-10. 1 is slow walking. 10 is intense weight lifting.

Monday: 6-7 (moderate cardio) Fatigue factor: 1-2
Tuesday: 9 (weight lifting heavy) Fatigue factor: 0-1
Wednesday: 7: (weight lifting light) Fatigue factor: 5-6 Something's starting to happen, pushed through it.
Thursday: 2 (nothing) Fatigue Factor: 7-8 (random bouts during the day) backed off, however the fatigue begins
Friday: 2 (nothing) Fatigue Factor: 7-8 (random bouts during the day)
Saturday 2 (nothing) Fatigue 7-8 (random bouts during the day)

The other part of hypothyroidism or adrenal fatigue that I have is the non-restorative sleep. I can get 9-10 hours, but it never feels like real sleep, it dosen't feel deep and restorative when I wake up. Sometimes a quick nap in the afternoon or evening can feel more restorative than 10 hours of sleep.

Since I was sub-clinical hypothyroid (TSH 4.5) for a period of time (before the crash), and still had restorative sleep, I'm trying to determine if more severe hypothyroid symptoms / adrenal fatigue can cause these two issues, as they do in CFS.

PEM (aka PENE) is not just fatigue, or even delayed fatigue. It includes "prominent" neuroimmune symptoms and exacerbation of flu-like symptoms.
From the ICC

A. Postexertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE pen’-e): Compulsory
This cardinal feature is a pathological inability to produce sufficient energy on demand with prominent symptoms primarily in the neuroimmune regions. Characteristics are as follows:
1. Marked, rapid physical and/or cognitive fatigability in response to exertion, which may be minimal such as activities of daily living or simple mental tasks, can be debilitating and cause a relapse.
2. Postexertional symptom exacerbation:e.g.acute flu-like symptoms, pain and worsening of other symptoms.
3. Postexertional exhaustion may occur immediately after activity or be delayed by hours or days.
4. Recovery period is prolonged, usually taking 24 h or longer. A relapse can last days, weeks or longer.
5. Low threshold of physical and mental fatigability (lack of stamina) results in a substantial reduction in pre-illness activity level.

Exercise intolerance is a different symptom:

Exercise intolerance is a condition where the patient is unable to do physical exercise at the level or for the duration that would be expected of someone in his or her general physical condition, or experiences unusually severe post-exercise pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting or other negative effects. Exercise intolerance is not adisease or syndrome in and of itself, but a symptom.

Since there are many possible specific reasons why exercise could be inhibited, this is a rather slippery term. For instance, the patient may experience unusual breathlessness (dyspnea), muscle pain (myalgia), or increasing muscle weakness while exercising, or may, after exercise, experience severe headache, nausea,dizziness or extreme fatigue. In most cases, the specific reason that exercise is not tolerated is of considerable significance when trying to isolate the cause down to a specific disease.

PWME can have both exercise intolerance and PEM. However, few, if any, ME/CFS patients can tolerate any cardio exercise because of problems with our aerobic metabolism.

Exercise intolerance can result from many different conditions including thyroid and adrenal problems. If you think you have exercise intolerance rather than PEM, I suggest you ask your doctor to investigate causes of exercise intolerance. There are known treatments for many causes of exercise intolerance, while there are no established treatments for PEM, so it's worth looking into exercise intolerance if you don't get prominent neuroimmune and flu-like symptoms after exercise.

 

[drob31]

Thank you for the thorough explanation. Exercise intolerance does seem to describe it more accurately, except for the delayed fatigue factor.