Thank You Jane Brody for Giving Recognition to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
[blog updated April 2019]
Jane Brody, the well-known New York Times science writer, has done more to advance public health information than anyone in the past twenty-five years. I should know, I’ve been reading her column religiously since I started medical residency over 25 years ago. She is fair and careful to present the facts and then weigh in with her own opinion.
On November 27, 2017, in the Science section of the New York Times in her column Personal Health titled: New Recognition for Chronic Fatigue, she sets out to validate what so many patients have sought for decades who have suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – they are not crazy!
Debunking Misconceptions about Chronic Fatigue
Ms. Brody thankfully debunks the common misconceptions about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by doctors: “It’s all in your head,” “Your depressed,” and “You can exercise your way out of this.” But nothing could be further from the truth.
In her article, Mrs. Brody states:
After years of treating the syndrome as a psychological disorder, leading health organizations now recognize that it is a serious, long-term illness possibly caused by a disruption in how the immune system responds to infection or stress.
Accordingly, doctors now typically refer to it as myalgic encephalomyelitis, meaning brain and spinal cord inflammation with muscle pain, and in scientific papers, it is often written as ME/CFS. At the same time, a major shift is underway as far as how the medical profession is being advised to approach treatment.
For patients struggling to get the recognition that they are suffering from a serious physiological illness with real symptoms, the goal remains to have doctors take the problem seriously and prescribe an evidence-based approach to treatment that offers hope for relief.
The new thinking about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is that multiple systems in the body may be under-functioning and a truly comprehensive plan needs to be outlined to help each patient.
My two mentors in this field of diagnosing and treating CFIDS (chronic fatigue immune dysfunction) are Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum ( author of From Fatigued to Fantastic) and Dr. Sarah Myhill, the British physician.
At Mitchell Medical Group, we have worked closely with Dr. Teitelbaum (who now practices in Hawaii – lucky man) following many of his protocols: special sleep supplements, oral energy supplements, as well as specific IV vitamin treatments to boost a patient’s immune system and mitochondria (mitochondria are inside every cell of our body and are referred to as the “battery” of our cells and the key to energy).
Dr. Myhill, I know only from her books but they are terrific. She takes the approach that CFIDS is a combination of different parts of the body that have malfunctioned and need to be diagnosed and treated. She likes to make the analogy that the body is like a car and when different gears are broken they need to be fixed. She is a big proponent of following a yeast free or Stone Age diet which is low in sugar and non-processed foods. Dr. Myhill also feels that many chronic fatigue patients have underlying candida overgrowth.
If you suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome read Dr. Teitelbaum’s book and free articles on the web. He claims he had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and recovered following his plan. And go to Dr. Myhill’s website on Chronic Fatigue and you will learn so much.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome takes all the resources you can muster to get better. If you want to find out in more detail what we do at our practice please scroll the pages on our website.
Good luck!
– Dr. Dean Mitchell, M.D.
Mitchell Medical Group, NYC
About the Author – Dr. Dean Mitchell, M.D.
Dr. Dean Mitchell, M.D. is a Board Certified Allergist and Immunologist based out of NYC. He graduated from the Sackler School of Medicine and completed training at the Robert Cooke Allergy Institute in New York City. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, and the author of Dr. Dean Mitchell’s Allergy and Asthma Solution: The Ultimate Program for Reversing Your Symptoms One Drop at a Time. Dr. Dean Mitchell, M.D. has also been featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Fitness Magazine, Dr. Oz and News NY 1. Dr. Mitchell also hosts the podcast The Smartest Doctor in the Room – a combination of a lively, personal and in-depth interview with top healthcare specialists.
Reference
Brody. Jane E. “New Recognition for Chronic Fatigue.” The New York Times, November 27, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/well/new-recognition-for-chronic-fatigue.html
Teitelbaum, M.D., Jacob. From Fatigued to Fantastic. New York, Penguin Group, 2007.
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