You can find all the criteria here:
www.ehlers-danlos.com
Hello Gaby and dear forum. I was surprised by this coincidence because I've spent all of 2024 paying attention to the source of my chronic fatigue, with signs of low mood, muscle fatigue, and difficulty moving, especially in the morning.
Many of my symptoms were diagnosed 10 years ago as Dysautonomia with Joint Hypermobility.
The truth is, I'm more hypermobile than average, but I don't meet any of the criteria Gaby shared for diagnosing Danlos-Ehlers syndrome. So, I want to suggest that if you took the test and didn't meet the criteria, you may still be a candidate for hypermobility, dysautonomia, or Danlos-Ehlers syndrome.
I've gone through several hypotheses for chronic fatigue, ranging from a lack of testosterone, poor cortisol hormone function, and insufficient aerobic or muscle-strengthening exercise. I also considered the effects of early emotional trauma at birth that had created a pattern of dorsal parasympathetic nervous system activation in stressful situations or emotional triggers.
I also considered that a transgenerational trauma was somatized in me to avoid responding violently to a threat or to avoid becoming a perpetrator, unlike the victim-savior role in Stephen Karpman's drama circle.
Finally, I gave up and concluded that it was a mixture of all of that and my childhood traumas.
But that wasn't the end of the story, as I met Dr. David Duarte, who promotes UNANI medicine, which made a lot of sense to me in terms of explaining chronic fatigue, or at least in terms of the solutions he proposes.
David has a podcast that briefly addresses the causes and solutions of chronic fatigue. You can watch it here, in Spanish (with subtitles): https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v=RpXf8tx5YQg&list=LL&index=6
I asked an AI to summarize David Duarte and his Unani system, and I got this:
David Duarte, a therapist and passionate scholar of integrative medicines and ancient traditions, leads a revolutionary approach to health known as the Unani system. Inspired by classical Unani medicine, a system of Greco-Arabic origin adapted over centuries, Duarte has modernized and reimagined this knowledge by fusing it with modern medicine and other holistic disciplines to address chronic health problems from a holistic perspective. In her approach, Duarte offers an adapted methodology that focuses on balancing the body's systems through nutritional principles, biorhythms and personalized practices that seek to maximize the body's energy efficiency. In his podcast, he explores the roots of common symptoms such as chronic fatigue, debunking myths about nutrition and lifestyle that, although well-intentioned, end up damaging our health.
I also asked the AI to summarize the podcast for you, and this is the result:
Causes of Chronic Fatigue
Chronic fatigue is a multifactorial symptom related to internal imbalances and prolonged habits that affect the body from an early age. These are the main causes identified:
- Improper hydration:
- Excess water: Consuming too much water without compensating with electrolytes overloads the body and decreases the electrical conductivity essential for basic functions.
- Lack of salt: The extreme reduction of salt in the diet generates imbalances that affect key electrical organs such as the brain and heart.
- Nutritional imbalances:
- Excess carbohydrates: They become toxic fat that clogs arteries and causes inflammation.
- Lack of essential fats: It affects the central nervous system and hormones.
- Consumption of foods with antigens: Products such as dairy products and young flours provoke immune responses that inflame the body and deplete the immune system's resources.
- Metabolic overload:
- The body faces an excessive effort to produce enzymes and bile, since it can often only digest a fraction of the food consumed.
- Large eating windows and late dinners:
- Eating for many hours a day, especially close to the evening, prevents the liver from carrying out its essential nocturnal regeneration, affecting both the liver and the brain.
- Unbalanced intestinal microbiota:
- Harmful intestinal flora, promoted by foods such as bread and dairy, forces the body to expend resources fighting to restore balance.
- Constant physiological stress:
- This biological stress includes the accumulation of tasks that the body cannot complete due to prolonged imbalances, significantly reducing its thermodynamic capacity.
- Menopause and early hormonal imbalances:
- These conditions may be a reflection of total exhaustion of the body, derived from years of fighting unaddressed causes.
- Normalization of discomfort:
- Physical and emotional problems are seen as inevitable or “genetic,” which perpetuates a lack of attention to the true causes.
Solutions Proposed by the Unani System
The Unani system's approach is based on gradually identifying and correcting the imbalances that cause chronic fatigue, while prioritizing the recovery of the body as a whole. Here are the main strategies:
- Water rebalance:
- Drink water only when thirsty and reintroduce an adequate amount of salt into the diet to improve the body's electrical conductivity.
- Diet Optimization:
- Reduce carbohydrates and increase the consumption of good quality essential fats, essential for the nervous system and hormones.
- Limit or eliminate foods high in antigens, such as young dairy products and flour-based products.
- Do not make extreme changes in the diet (such as eliminating carbohydrates suddenly) to avoid adverse effects such as hypoglycemia.
- Respect biorhythms:
- Avoid late dinners, allowing the liver to complete its nocturnal regeneration and detoxification process.
- Reduction of digestive overload:
- Eat smaller amounts and shorten daily eating windows to give the body enough time to rest and regenerate.
- Strengthen the body before addressing emotions:
- Prioritize the physical recovery of the body, bringing it to a level of thermodynamic efficiency greater than 90%, before working on complex psychological or emotional aspects.
I haven't done David Duarte's paid program; I've only followed his advice, but I've felt great. My chronic fatigue has significantly reduced.
I hope this information is useful to you, and I'll be listening to your comments.
