Chronic Fatigue and Traditional Chinese Medicine
by Dr. Dennis Kinnane, OMD LAc,RPh 

Early in my career in Chinese medicine I was presented with a patient who had been variously diagnosed with “chronic fatigue”, EBV, and “fibromyalgia”. She was a dock worker in Los Angeles, but since the onset of her disease she was unable to work more than 2 or 3 days a week, spending 3 days a week in bed and 1 day per week doing necessary errands. When she first walked into my office she was wringing wet with the exertion of getting there and collapsed into the chair next to my desk. 

I proceeded to take her health history and interviewed her regarding her diet, and other pertinent lifestyle issues. She was not particularly confident that I could accomplish any more than the previous multitude of doctors she had already seen, but was willing to give it a try. I explained to her that it would take some time and require her cooperation with certain dietary and other changes in her life, and that to get anywhere she would have to come back at least twice a week for an hour each visit to give me time to work on her. She agreed and we began working. 

Within a month she was able to see some improvement in energy, felt overall much better and became much more enthusiastic about continuing. A year later, she was working 5 or 6 days per week, had traveled extensively and purchased property and basically had her life back. She became one of my biggest boosters. 

How was it done? Just by following the most rudimentary of Chinese diagnostics and applying them to her treatment with herbs and acupuncture. Since that time I have treated dozens of individuals who have been similarly diagnosed, with many and varying permutations of illnesses thrown in, and in each case I am very pleased to say that if the patient cooperated in their healing, reported for treatment and took their herbal formulas, they experienced a return to health and wellness. 

In Chinese medicine the “qi” or chee is the life force or energy which drives the body and is created from the air we breath, the food we eat, the water we drink and other factors by the action of our digestive organs. These organs have consciousness or “qi” again and this allows them to create this miraculous transformation. If through exhaustion, poor diet, lack of rest, and long term illness, especially of the digestive system, these organs are unable to do their miraculous work, the individual can become more and more depleted over time until there occurs what is called “qi collapse” wherein the patient literally cannot move. 

By “tonifying” the appropriate organs and facilitating their function using the principles of Chinese medicine it is very possible to bring even the most exhausted “chronic fatigue” sufferer back to a satisfying, productive life.