Campfires and Chronic Fatigue

If you’ve never had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome you can be forgiven for thinking it’s a relatively trivial condition. The name implies that sufferers will undoubtedly feel tired and bit-run down, but surely that’s nothing new, we all feel tired from time to time!

Concerned, welcomed but ultimately useless advice can often take the form of “get some sleep, have a red bull for breakfast and pull your socks up. You’ll feel fine after a hot bath and an early night”. Too tired to argue or explain that even physically pulling your socks up is an effort of titanic proportions, sufferers wearily nod their heads and extend their thanks and gratitude for the helpful advice. I wish I’d thought of that sooner.

I firmly believe the name needs some re-branding. Maybe all the sufferers could club today and pay an advertising agency an unhealthy amount of money for a new name and logo. The image of a Himalayan climber, painfully making his last steps to the top of Everest with the slightly ironic acronym ICE (imminent collapse from exhaustion) tattooed across his forehead may be more apt. And it’s this level of fatigue that many sufferers describe; even the simple act of brushing their pearly whites leaves them feeling utterly bereft of energy. This is surely not just routine tiredness and something that can’t be rectified with a quick nap and a “can do” attitude.

With an estimated 250,000 sufferers in the UK something feels amiss. The human body is a remarkable design and evolutionary speaking perfectly designed for the world we live in. If it wasn’t, none of us would’ve escaped the raptures of a Tiger, we would have died from disease or lacked the mental prowess to build shelters and Imax cinemas. So what’s gone wrong? Why are so many of us constantly exhausted?

There are many hypotheses’ as to what causes CFS, ranging from viral infection to hormonal imbalances, but one intriguing area to consider is the role stress plays in the onset and recovery from CFS.

Stress is perfectly normal and a human condition that’s essential for survival. Faced with imminent danger our body produces the stress hormone cortisol (produced by our adrenal glands) and all our energy, blood and resources are sent to the areas that need it most, our muscles. In the Paleolithic period this was perfectly suited, with our pumped up muscles we could run away from an exploding volcano before relaxing round our campfire, safe and relaxed to recover from the days exertions. Today, in the modern world, the proverbial campfire is a little more difficult to find. Evolution hasn’t had time to catch up with the multitude of stresses and strains of the modern world.

40,000 years ago the average height of a European male was 6ft, today it’s 5ft 9. We now have slightly smaller jaws (hence why so many of us don’t have room in our mouths for wisdom teeth) and our brains are a little smaller than they used to be. Essentially though, we’re very similar to our primary design. Evolution on a biological scale takes a long time. And it’s the disparity between our physiological development and the rapid advancement of the modern world where problems can occur. The number of triggers that activate our stress responses are much more commonplace today, taxing our nervous system on a regular basis.

In the last few hundred years, for better or worse, we now have to contend with a whole raft of pressures and stresses that’s unique to mankind. Mortgages, traffic jams, work pressure, financial concerns, marriages and pensions are all taking their toll on our body and immune system.

The human body doesn’t know the difference between being charged by a Mammoth or having to fill out a tax return. They both have the same effect on our bodies. Where we used to have time for our hormones to revert back to a semblance of balance and homeostasis, now the consistent barrage of pressures puts our body on constant state of high alert. Over time we can essentially wear out our adrenal glands and they start producing less cortisol.

Without enough cortisol minor stressors can now become major events. A missed meal can turn into a hypoglycemic episode, an allergy can turns into asthma and even minor physical activity can leave you feeling exhausted. Not everyone is going to react the same way to having low cortisol, but what can be said is that through no fault of their own, some will have less ability to resist stress.

One intriguing area of research that’s gaining ground over recent years is the role meditation can have in dealing with fatigue. A study published in the Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare has shown that meditation and stress reduction techniques can significantly improve the symptoms of CFS.

During meditation our bodies enter a state of complete relaxation that’s been shown to be much more profound than even the deepest sleep. Our heart rate decreases, our breathing slows down and our adrenal glands are given a break from stressful thoughts and stimulation. For a brief period every day we can find our metaphorical campfire and reset our bodies to what they were designed for.

While not a cure, meditation could certainly play an important role during both recovery and management of the condition. It doesn’t require extraneous effort, just a comfy chair and the ability to close your eyes. The calmness, confidence and peace that long time meditators experience are available to all of us. At a time when physical limitations may arise, it could be an ideal opportunity to try something new, rewarding and ultimately beneficial for the rest of our lives.

About the author: Nick Huxsted works for Will Williams Meditation in London and regularly writes and blogs about meditation.

fatigued man supports boulder from shutterstock.
*Advertorial